Construction of Gender

o Beauty and the beast

o Folk story/ Fairy Tale
o Teach moral values. The lessons are often explicit in order to
educate children on ideas such as honesty, true love, and the
nature of beauty.
Woman: polite, beautiful, graceful, honest, caring
Men: handsome, honourable
Language
o Language is encoded. It reflects the way that we, as speakers,
see the world around us. We acquire language through
socialisation and this gives us information about gender
identity.
o Words have a denotation: a dictionary definition, but they are
have connotation: a fluid aspect of meaning which depends on
the speaker and the objects being spoken about. Some can be
quite salient (noticeable/important) while other can be
insignificant.
Same denotation different connotation
Lover
Childless
Partner
Childfree
Girlfriend/Boyfriend
Friend
Anthropomorphism
o
o
o
o

Bachelor
Spinster

Giving something human shape

Mother-Nature-Mother-tongue-Mother-country
Father-time
Animals and projections

Construction Categories

Categories can only exist if there is difference. If there was only

one gender, there would be no sex categories. If there was only
one race, there would be no racial categories,
Categories are social-they reflect the ideology of society; a
collective belief.
Reflection of culture rather than physical reality
o Remember the Jaguar (car) from last week. It is still
referred to as a female despite changes in society that
make woman equal.
Categories disappear once no longer socially important.

o This about handedness. What was the ideal hand to write

with? What used to happen to children who were left
handed?
Gender is global, but attitudes are cultural.
The way that we think is socially constructed. It is based on
social experience and power relationships rather than a literal
interpretation of out world and its reality.
Typicality
Categories are no clear cut and exclusive. They often share
members. There are hyponyms which are more central than
other members; ones that are the norm.
Cognitive models which represent these typical or central
members are called prototypes and its these prototypical
models which come to mind when a category is called up.
What is Normal?
This reliance on typicality means that we have a strong
sense of what is normal and what is deviant.
Language is marked in both overt and convert ways. English
is full of these antonyms (opposite) where one is marked and
the other is unmarked.
o Unmarked: How old are you?
o Marked: How young are you?
The term young is in the same structure but the implied
meaning is different. The youth of the interlocutor has
already been established.
How tall are you? How short are you?
How heavy is the box? How light is that box?
How fast is this car? How slow is this car?
How big is your pay rise? How small is your pay
rise?