Millie's Language Blog

It's Every Man for Him or Himself   Within the past few years, society has really stepped out of it's comfort zone in terms of making men and women more equal, but will this ever completely change? Deborah Tannen argues that the difference between the two genders, in terms of language, will always be segregated if parents teach their children strict gender roles from an early age. The difference in which men and women communicate is quite astonishing, as males are taught by their peers to use language as a means of asserting dominance over women, while women use communication as a way of confirming and supporting ideas. Deborah Tannen's book 'You Just Don't Understand' supports the idea that there is a huge gap between the genders and their means of communication. She believes that there are six main differences between the ways males and females use language: Status vs. Support, Independence vs. Intimacy, Advice vs. Understanding, Information vs. Fe...

Debora Cameron - The Pronoun is Political This article written by Debora Cameron explains the origins of feminism and the LGBT movement. It begins with an explanation of the 19th century landowner Ann Lister. She was regarded as an influential figure in the 

Shower Gel for Women This text on the side of the bottle of 'Anatomicals' is a passage aimed directly at women. It depicts women to all have similar characteristics; analytical, easily annoyed and clean freaks. By using a repetition of 'blooming' and also rhetorical questions, it demonstrates that the writer of this text believes that women should feel irritated by men leaving a mess and being overall untidy. It creates a division between men and women, as women are presented to be the more organised and tidy gender, while men are demonstrated as a nuisance and hassle, by creating all of this mess, shown in the lines 'he' also squeezed the blooming toothpaste from the top again.' and 'he's blooming well dropped his dirty towels on the floor.' The anonymity of describing the man as 'the blooming man in your life' sets up an idea that the man is insignificant compared to the woman, as the writer is speaking directly to the reader, who ...