Language and Gender

After reading Butler's piece, "On Linguistic Vulnerability,"  some things were stuck in my mind. I found it interesting the ways in which she placed blame on speech, and the particular person who spoke. It is clear that we control our speech, but it is a little less clear the importance of our speech. There are many words and phrases that we do not understand the meaning of, or the negative connotations that go with them. I enjoyed the discussion of name calling. While it is clear that there are many instances of name calling that do hurt people's feelings, etc, it is less clear that "if language can sustain the body, it can also threaten its existence." (Page 5). Many meanings can change over time, and name calling can certainly take a word that once meant nothing negative, and turn it into something that changes what a person thinks of their self. It can give the person speaking a sense of power, as they are placing subordination on the person whom they are directing their speech. 

While much of the speech was interesting to me, it seemed as though it could have been information that was implied from others as well. The most interesting discussion was that of gender. We talked in class about the words "boy" and "girl." In my women's studies class, we discussed gender stereotypes and differences. Within the discussion of Butler's piece, we mentioned that when shopping for baby gifts, the words "boy" and "girl" are of large importance in determining what the gift may be, in terms of gender stereotype. While I had thought about the fact that these stereotypes existed, I never thought about the fact that it was in the meaning of the word, rather than the social meaning. Butler's article allowed me to give more thought to this, and the ways in which other words can change meaning based on the person using it, and the connotation given to it.