A Study Of Anti-male Bias In English Language

The English language, to some extent, reflects the social reality. At the same time, it enables us to see the social reality more clearly. Linguistic connotations of degrading and devaluing female can be found everywhere, which have been widely studied. But a linguistic phenomenon that is unfavorable to male is seldom studied. This thesis tries to explore linguistic biases that are against male in English vocabulary, sentence pattern and social stereotype. The purpose is to disclose the features of the English language that suggest cultural and social biases against male. In this thesis, the author also offers some feasible strategies to this linguistic phenomenon. The study also gives us an opposite perspective to better sexism. All in all, the study will help us to have a better understanding of the relationship between language and society.This thesis totally involves six chapters and a conclusion. In the introduction, the main argument point is introduced: language is the mirror of the society, and it not only has something that is unfavorable to female, but also conveys something that has biases against male. Linguistic connotations sometimes deny women and relegate women to a subordinate or inferior position; however, in some cases, they also contain some elements that have adverse effects on men. Naturally speaking, language itself is not sexist. In some degree, men and women are all victims of outmoded conventions of society. The introduction outlines the plan of this thesis and serves as the basis for the discussion in the following chapters.In Chapter Two the author will make literary review, which includes two parts. The first part is to present the background and the significance of the study, and then, make a brief introduction of relevant researches both at home and abroad. At the same time, the author will gain theoretical supports from Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and the theory of presupposition.Chapter Three involves the definition of sexism, the difference between sex and gender and anti-male bias.Chapter Four deals with in detail anti-male bias in the English language. On the morphological level, we can see that there are not only many generic masculine expressions in English, but also many expressions that are generic feminine expressions such as, mother land, mother tongue, alma mater and so on. What'more, many mass media always use expressions, such as,"innocent women and children"to describe victims in a war or regional conflict, which easily enable people to relate that "men are guilty". In addition, there are some words, for instance, rascal, hooligan, rapist, and so on, all of which are without special affixes which can refer to male or female; however, people will easily associate with male. Last but not the least, according to the universal value, boys should always behave bravely and courageously. If not, they will be described as sissy. When they grow up, they should be the bread-winner of the family. If they fail to do this, they will be dubbed as: loser,deadbeat,parasite,leech and so forth. So there are some anti-male biases in the English language.Chapter Five traces the causes of anti-male bias in the English language. As is known to all, any kind of language phenomenon must have its historical, social and cultural causes. So the author presents their relations and then explores the causes from historical, social and cultural perspectives. Historically, from the beginning of labor division, men have been regarded as the takers of heavy work and the bread-winner of the family. So from then on, the men's roles are fixed and taken for granted. Socially, while the society is dominated by men in many fields, women are dissatisfied with their social status and roles and sometimes rent their dissatisfaction in an extreme way. Culturally, the Bible has its unmovable status in the formation of western values. In the Bible, when Satan is mentioned, the pronoun"he"will follow to refer to him. So"He"who is always related to evil image has his cultural origin.Chapter Six is devoted to discussing strategies and society methods of coping with anti-male biases in the English language. With regard to Western radical feminists'experiments of effecting linguistic disruption and creating a woman-centered language or degrading men, the author, on one hand, justifies their contributions to enhancing people's awareness of sexism in English, but on the other hand, reserves his support in that respect, as their endeavors of seeking a perfect visibility of women causes the invisibility of men, which is a new type of sexism(that is anti-male bias). More practical to the author are the theories and strategies that include both linguistic and social levels. Linguistically, the author suggests using CP (Cooperative Principle) and PP (the Politeness Principle) principles and neutral expressions in conversation. Socially, the best policy to alleviate anti-male biases is to enable women to enjoy equality. In that way, the dissatisfactions can be lessened. At last, men had better establish rapport with women.The last part is a brief summary of the whole thesis. At the same time, the author expects further research in this field.