|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| ==<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size:30pt;">potential thesis</span>==
| | <span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size:25pt; line-height: 25pt;">How do participatory speech practices about sexist language become a feminist method of unlearning and redefinition?</span> |
| | |
| <div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
| |
| NOTES
| |
| <div class="mw-collapsible-content">
| |
| What do you WANT to write? (what will the text </br>
| |
| be about? What do you want to explore? </br>
| |
| Be clear about HOW you want to tell your story.</br>
| |
| | |
| ''Outline 3 key issues you want to explore:'' </br>
| |
| 1. The power that language holds </br>
| |
| 2. how sexist language is and how it shapes the way we live </br>
| |
| 3. The power of reclaiming words as an activist act </br>
| |
| | |
| :::::: I want to write an analytical essay. I want to dive into the sociolinguistics and uncover how sexist and man-made our vernacular is and how we can take a step into changing that. Language is about representation. Who you speak about and how, directly affects that groups position in society and their experience in this world. I want to write about the phenomenon that female words get devalued over time and why that is. Adding to that i want to write about the active work of reclaiming these words to reclaim power (for ourselves and ultimately how we're seen and treated in society). Words literally create the world around us and has an impact on or experiences in this world.
| |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| ''Chapter outline (what do i expect to find?)''
| |
| | |
| ::::1. The power language holds
| |
| ::::::Here i want to show how the words we use literally create the world around us. Language gives names to our experiences. It reflects and reinforces our believes, the existing power structures and structures of oppression. Language is strategically used to exclude certain groups from the societal discourse (e.g. in form of linguistic alienation).
| |
| ::::::Furthermore i want to write about the phenomenon that words who get connected to females, experience an devaluation over time. What seems like happens by accident is a reflection on the sexist society we find ourselves in. In comparison to that, 'male' words almost always experience an revaluation. Why is that?
| |
| | |
| ::::2. How sexist language shapes our lives
| |
| ::::::I want to uncover fields of everyday life that hold more sexism then we expect or are aware of. From address terms to curse words. Understanding that language itself is not sexist but the way we use it.
| |
| | |
| ::::3. The powerful act of reclaiming language
| |
| :::::: This chapter is gonna contain how the reclaiming of a 'female' word needs active work to experience an revaluation.
| |
| | |
| ''holy shit is is all still way to broad...''
| |
| | |
| ::::::Uh maybe i do all this on the example of one word! (e.g diva/bitch/cunt...) Then the structure would more likely look like that:
| |
| ::::1. The etymology of the word
| |
| ::::::So to say a glimpse in the history of the word. How is has been used throughout the years and how the dictionary defined then and now.
| |
| ::::2. De- and revaluation
| |
| ::::::De- and revaluation of words in general. So how and why does that happen? Then more specifically on the example on the word. How and why did it happen in this case?
| |
| ::::3. The act of reclaiming a word for oneself and the societal consequences
| |
| ::::::Transitioning into: How 'female' words need active reclaiming in order to experience a revaluation. What reclaiming is and how it works (on the example on language).
| |
| | |
| TO–DO
| |
| – specify what i mean with 'female' word (wordslut)
| |
| –
| |
| | |
| FEEDBACK
| |
| ::–More clarity on the submissions!
| |
| ::–What feminist context? What context? Wie einkreisen? More intentional and smaller
| |
| ::–Words that have personal meaning - that are being understood / affect you in your life – Glossary for a specific place (online/offline) ?
| |
| ::–Public moment: collect in low tech form and let people contribute in other forms than website
| |
| ::–What makes mine different? What do I want out of this????
| |
| ::–Fred idea: Make the glossary a plug in? Make it to adapt to other applications
| |
| ::–Whats up with Scotland – Glasgow ? Why so different?
| |
| ::–Claiming/ reclaiming also happens in right wing/extremist circles
| |
| | |
| ::– protocols for contributing a word or to a word
| |
| ::– these is a need to come together/presents! online doesnt really work – how playful ways to come together
| |
| ::– how to interact with language offline and reflect
| |
| ::– Language is connected to situations and experiences – need to connect them to actually use the "new" words lanuage
| |
| ::– oral story telling – easy to remember story to repeat and make it easy to remember
| |
| ::– braiding sweet grass – book
| |
| ::– how to pracice language
| |
| </div>
| |
| </div>
| |
| | |
| <div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
| |
| ===How has the feminist reclamation of the word “cunt” transformed a misogynistic insult into a symbol of empowerment, and what does this transformation reveal about language and power?===
| |
| <div class="mw-collapsible-content">
| |
| ====Intro====
| |
| ::Introducing the upcoming chapters briefly:
| |
| :::First, the relationship between language, power and representation. Why is language a feminist issue? How is it used to uphold and reinforce power structures? Who gets to speak and who is spoken about (in what way)?
| |
| :::Second, the cultural taboo around “cunt”, its history (etymology) and its significance. When did this word emerge? What was the 'original' meaning and how did it change over time? How did the word became a site of misogyny? What is the “problem” reclamation is responding to?
| |
| :::Third, the active fight for reclaiming a word. How does reclaiming work? Who gets to reclaim? How does the reclaiming of cunt teaches us who controls meaning?
| |
| ::State what i wish to transport with this essay: how reclaiming language reclaims power. Showing how reclaiming is a strategic act of resistance that exposes how meaning is socially constructed (embedding chapter one) and can be rewritten / changed.
| |
| | |
| ====Chapter 1====
| |
| ::This chapter explores how language shapes and sustains power relations.
| |
| ::Who gets to speak, who is spoken about, and in what way? Through feminist linguistic theory, it will uncover how everyday speech patterns and word meanings reflect patriarchal values and how this creates linguistic inequality.
| |
| ::Deborah Cameron – how language doesn’t just reflect reality but creates it. How language is a weapon, used by the powerful to oppress their subordinates. How words define social visibility. Being “unnamed” or “misnamed” is a form of erasure / silencing / invisibility.
| |
| | |
| ====Chapter 2====
| |
| ::This chapter explores the etymology of the word “cunt”.
| |
| ::What did the word mean throughout history and how did the once neutral anatomical term (referring to the female genitals) become one of the most reviled words in the English language?
| |
| ::– The connection between linguistic taboos and the societal control over women’s bodies and sexuality. How the changing attitudes toward sexuality, modesty, and female anatomy under patriarchy influenced the change in meaning, resulting in silencing of female sexuality, alienation from the female body, and internalized shame. (How there is a broader linguistic phenomenon where female-coded terms become devalued for example mistress, madam, hussy. But maybe thats too much)
| |
| | |
| ====Chapter 3====
| |
| ::This chapter explores how feminist movements and thinkers have reclaimed “cunt” as a term of empowerment and political resistance, and what this process reveals about who controls meaning.
| |
| ::How does semantic reclamation work? –> How marginalized groups reappropriate derogatory terms.
| |
| ::– Example: Inga Muscio’s ''Cunt: A Declaration of Independence'' (1998) and in todays pop-culture / internet
| |
| ::(The intersectional issues: race, class, sexuality. Who feels empowered and who alienated by reclamation? The critiques of white feminism and inclusivity within linguistic activism)
| |
| ::Making clear / showing that words have constructed meaning, made through societal consensus and not inherent meanings set in stone. Connecting to chapter 1, how meaning and power are connected and how reclaiming language means reclaiming power. Show how reclamation is also a refusal to let patriarchal discourse dictate women’s self-definition.
| |
| | |
| ====Conclusion====
| |
| ::Bringing back the research question and stating a short and concise summary of the main arguments from the text. How feminist linguistic activism does not just change words, but changes the worlds we inhabit through them.
| |
| | |
| ====Glossary====
| |
| ::My thesis needs (of course) a glossary duh! In here will we words like: woman / semantic reclamation / reappropriation / semantic derogation / tbc...
| |
| </div>
| |
| </div>
| |
| | |
| ===How do participatory speech practices about sexist language become a feminist method of unlearning and redefinition?===
| |
| ====Intro==== | | ====Intro==== |
| ::– Introducing my project briefly (consciousness-raising group) | | ::– Introducing my project briefly (consciousness-raising group) |
