语言与性别歧视

Sexism And Language

By Allen Pace Nilsen from The Macmillan Reader

Besides being tools of communication, the vocabulary and structure of a language tell much about the values held by its speakers.

Any one living in the United States who listens with a keen ear or reads with a perceptive eye can come up with startling new insights about the way American English reflects our values.

Animal Terms for People – Mirrors of the Double Standard

If we look at just one semantic area of English, that of animal terms in relation to people, we can uncover some interesting insights into how our culture views males and females. References to identical animals can have negative connotations when related to a female, but positive or neutral connotations when related to a male. For example, a shrew has come to mean “a scolding, nagging,

evil-tempered woman,” while shrewd means “keen-witted,

clever, or sharp in practical affairs; astute? businessman, etc.”

A lucky dog or a gay dog may be a very interesting fellow, but when a woman is a dog, she is unattractive, and when she’s a bitch she’s the personification of whatever is undesirable in the mind of the speaker. When a man is self-confident, he may be described as cocksure or even cocky, but in a woman this same self-confidence is likely to result in her being called a cocky bitch, which is not only a mixed metaphor, but also probably the most insulting animal metaphor we have. Bitch has taken on such negative connotations – children are taught it is a swear word – that in everyday American English, speakers are hesitant to call a female dog a bitch. Most of us feel that we would be insulting the dog. When we want to insult a man by comparing him to a dog, we call him a son of a bitch, which quite literally is an insult to his mother rather than to him.

If the female is called a vixen (a female fox), the dictionary says this means she is “an ill-tempered shrewish, or malicious woman.” The female seems both to attract and to hold on longer to animal metaphors with

negative connotations. A vampire was originally corpse that came alive to suck the blood of living persons. The word acquired the general meaning of an unscrupulous person such as a blackmailer and then, the specialized meaning of “a beautiful but unscrupulous woman who seduces men and leads them to their ruin.” From this latter meaning we get the word vamp. The popularity of this term and of the name vampire bat may contribute to the idea that a female being is referred to in a phrase such as the old bat.

Other animal metaphors do not have definitely derogatory connotations for the female, but they do seem to indicate frivolity or unimportance, as in social butterfly and flapper. Look at the differences between the connotations of participating in a hen party and in bull session. Male metaphors, even when they are negative in connotation, still relate to strength and conquest.

When I was living in Afghanistan, I was surprised at the cruelty and unfairness of a proverb that said, “When you see an old man, sit down and take a lesson; when you see an old woman, throw a stone.” In looking at Afghan folk literature, I found that young girls were pictured as delightful and enticing, middle-aged women were sometimes

interesting but more often just tolerable, while old women were always grotesque and villainous. Probably the reason for the negative connotation of old age in women is that women are valued for their bodies while men are valued for their accomplishments and their wisdom. Bodies deteriorate with age but wisdom and accomplishments grow greater. When we returned home from Afghanistan, I was shocked to discover that we have remnants of this same attitude in America. We see it in our animal metaphors. If both the animal and the woman are young, the connotation is positive, but if the animal and the woman are old, the connotation is negative.

Probably the most striking examples of the contrast between young and the negative connotation of old age in women are animal metaphors relating to cats and chickens. A young girl is encouraged to be kittenish, but not catty. And though most of us wouldn’t mind living next door to a sex kitten, we wouldn’t want to live next door to a cat house. In the chicken metaphors, a young girl is a chick. When she gets old enough she marries and soon begins feeling cooped up. To relieve the boredom she goes to hen parties and cackles with her friends. Eventually she has her brood,

begins to henpeck her husband, and finally turns into an old biddy.

How English Glorifies Maleness

Throughout the ages physical strength has been very important, and because men are physically stronger than women, they have been valued more. Only now in the machine age, when difference in strength between males and females pales into insignificance in comparison to the strength of earth-moving machinery, airplanes, and guns, males no longer have such an inherent advantage. Today a man of intellect is more valued than a physical laborer, and since women can compete intellectually with men, their value is on the rise. But language lags far behind cultural changes, so the language still reflects this emphasis on the importance of being male. For example, when we want to compliment a male, all we need to do is stress the fact that he is male by saying he is a he-man, or he is manly, or he is virile. Both virile and virtuous come from the Latin vir, meaning man.

The command or encouragement that males receive in sentences like “Be a man!” implies that to be a man is

to be honorable, strong, righteous, and whatever else the speaker thinks desirable. But in contrast to this, a girl is never told to be a woman. And when she is told to be a lady, she is simply being encouraged to “act feminine,” which means sitting with her knees together, walking gracefully, and talking softly.

The armed forces, particularly the Marines, use the positive masculine connotation as part of their recruitment psychology. They promote the idea that to join the Marines (or the Army, Navy, or Air Force) guarantees that you will become a man. But this brings up a problem, because much of the work that is necessary to keep a large organization running is what is traditionally thought of as women’s work. Now, how can the Marines ask someone who has signed up for a man-sized job to do women’s work? Since they can’t, they euphemize and give the jobs titles that either are more prestigious or, at least, don’t make people think of females. Waitresses are called orderlies, secretaries are called clerk-typists, nurses are called medics, assistants are called adjutants, and cleaning up an area is called policing the area. The same kind of word glorification is used in civilian life to bolster a man’s

ego when he is doing such tasks as cooking and sewing. For example, a chef has higher prestige than a cook and a tailor has higher prestige than a seamstress.

Many common words have come into the language from people’s names. These lexical items again show the importance of maleness compared to the triviality of the feminine activities being described. Words derived from the names of women include Melba toast, named for the Australian singer Dame Nellie Melba, Sally Lunn cakes, named after an eighteenth-century woman who first made them; pompadour, a hair style named after Madame Pompadour; and the word maudlin, as in maudlin sentiment, from Mary Magdalene, who was often portrayed b artists as displaying exaggerated sorrow.

There are trivial items named after men – teddy bear after Theodore Roosevelt and sideburns after General Burnside – but most words that come from men’s names relate to significant inventions or developments. These include pasteurization after Louis Pasteur, sousaphone after John Philip Sousa, mason jar after John L. Mason, boysenberry after Rudolph Boysen, Pullman car after George M. Pullman, Braille after Louis Braille, franklin stove after Bejamin

Franklin, diesel engine after Rudolf Diesel, 6 after George W. G. Ferris, and the verb to lynch after William Lynch, who was a vigilante captain in Virginia in 1780. Certainly we do not always think positively about males; witness such words as jerk, creep, crumb, slob, fink, and jackass. But much of what determines our positive and negative feelings relates to the roles people play. We have very negative feelings toward someone who is hurting us or threatening us or in some way making our lives miserable. To be able to do this the person has to have power over us and this power usually belongs to males.

On the other hand, when someone helps us or makes our life more pleasant, we have positive feelings toward that person or that role. Mother is one of the positive feelings toward that person or that role. Mother is one of the positive female terms in English, and we see such extensions of it as Mother Nature, Mother Earth, mother lode, mother superior, etc. But even though a word like mother is positive it is still not a word of power. In the minds of English speakers being female and being powerless or passive are so closely related that we uses the terms feminine and lady either to mean female or to describe a

certain kind of quiet and unobtrusive behavior. （接下页）

性别歧视与语言

（美）艾伦﹒佩斯﹒尼尔森

语言的词汇和结构，除了能进行信息交流外，在很大程度上还能反映说话者的价值观念。

任何听觉敏感、阅读敏锐的生活在美利坚国土上的人们，一定会吃惊地发现，美国英语在怎样地反映着我们的价值观念。 从动物名词代人现象看两个截然不同的标准

观察一下英语语义学中的一个领域，即英语中用动物名词代人的现象，我们从中能发现很多有趣的例子，表明我们的文化是怎样评判男人和女人的。同一动物，指女人时含贬义，代男人时却是褒义，或者是中性。比如，“a shrew”指“骂骂咧咧、唠唠叨

叨，脾气暴烈的女人”，而形容词“shrewd”却意为“处事精明果断；常用来形容精明的商人。”

“a lucky dog”或“a gay dog”指有趣的男人，但若称女人为“a dog”，她便是个极其乏味的女人了。如果再说她是“bitch”（母狗），那简直就是世间最恶毒的贬损。自信的男人被形容为很“cocksure”或“cocky”，但如果用“a cocky bitch”来指某个自以为是的女人，便不仅仅是个混合比喻而已，它实在是英语中最侮辱人的比喻。Bitch一词（大人常常告诉孩子这是一个骂人词）满含贬意，以至于生活中人们都不称母狗为“bitch”，觉得那实在是对狗的一种侮辱。我们咒骂男人时，把他与狗作比，说他是“母狗儿子”，从字面上看，这与其说是咒骂他，还不如说是在咒骂他的母亲。

说某个女人是母狐，字典上解释说这是个“脾气暴烈、尖刻恶毒的妇女”。女人好象跟具有贬义意味的动物比喻结下了不解之缘。“vampire”一词原指转世回生，吸取活人鲜血的尸体。现在这个词，广义上指敲诈勒索一类无耻之徒，狭义上却专指“引诱男人堕落、漂亮而妖冶的女人”。从这后一个意思派生出新词“vamp”，词组“the old bat”指堕落的女性，其出处一定与“vamp”和“vampire bat”二词有关。

还有一些动物比喻，虽未贬损女性，但却满含了轻薄或轻视的倾向，比如“social butterfly”（社交场上轻浮的女人）和 “flapper”（未入社交界的妇女）。我们能否体味出 “hen party”（妇女集会）和“bull session”（自由讨论）这两个都带贬义的词组之间，是否有点差别？动物指代男性的比喻，即使有贬义，也跟力量和征服有关。

我在阿富汗时听到这样一个谚语，“见到老头，坐下向他求教；看到老妇，向她扔块石头。”这么无情而偏激的谚语，简直让我震惊。翻看阿富汗文学，我发现，年轻女性总是被描写得可心、迷人，中年妇女还算有趣，尚可忍受，老年妇女简直就可恶、讨厌了。老女人遭贬损的原因，可能是因为女人的价值在其身体本身，而男人的价值在其成就和智慧。身体随着年龄而老去，而智慧和成就却随年龄增长。

从阿富汗回国以后，我发现，我们美国同样残留如此见解。我们从动物的比喻中就能看到这种残余。用幼小的动物指代年轻女人，一定是褒义的；老动物指代老女人，必定是贬义了。

最典型的例子莫过于与“cats”和“chickens”二词有关的动物比喻了。年轻姑娘可以顽皮（ kittenish），但不能恶毒（catty）。我们可以听便隔壁住个性感女人（a sex kitten），但我们决不

容忍隔壁是个恶毒女人之家。（a cat house）。

以鸡作比的比喻中，姑娘年轻时是chick（小鸡，喻意指小孩），成年结婚以后，好象被关进了笼子，为宣泄烦恼，她频频光顾妇女集会（hen parties），与女伴喋喋不休，没完没了地抱怨。以后，生一窝孩子（brood），开始折磨丈夫（henpeck her husband），最后变成了一个让人难以忍受的老妇（biddy，“母鸡”，喻意“老女人”） 英语是怎样美化男性的

多少年来，身体的强健一直倍受推崇。男人比女人强健，无疑更受青睐。直到今天大机器时代，当与大型推土机，与飞机、枪炮相比，男女间的力量的差别已无关紧要时，男性才开始失去这天生的优势。今天，有知识的男性的价值，远远超过纯体力的劳动者。而女性既然在智力上可以和男性竞争，其价值开始逐渐上升。但是，语言更新远远落后于文化变迁，英语语言中偏袒男性的例子俯拾皆是。比如，夸赞男人时，只需夸他很男子汉（a he-man），或者manly或virile。Virile和virtuous均来自拉丁语 vir一词，即男人的意思。

我们命令或鼓励男人“象个男人样子！”这话的意思是，男人意味着高尚、强健和正义以及说话人所能想到的一切褒扬之意。与

此相反，我们从不鼓励姑娘象个“女人”（woman）样子，要求姑娘象个小姐（lady）时，也只是鼓励她“举止娇柔”，意即坐时紧收双膝，走路优雅得体，语言轻言细语。

部队，尤其是海军，常用一些满含阳刚之气的褒义词来吸引应征者。当兵（无论陆军、海军和空军）意味着你能成长为真正的男人。可这样一来，新的问题又产生了：确保一个庞大机构正常运转，很多工作实际上按传统意义该女人来干。可海军部队怎么能叫一个报名参军、期望干大事的男人去做女人活呢？当然不能。于是，他们委婉地改换名称，使这些工作都颇受尊重，或者至少听起来，不让人联想到那是女人的活。女招待被改成勤务兵，秘书改成书记员，护士改成卫生员，助手改成副手，打扫卫生是整理内务。日常生活中，这类美化字眼也很能满足某些男人的自尊，比如厨师（chef）比炊事员（cook），裁缝（tailor）比女缝工（seamtress），就更受人尊重。

语言中许多普通词条，原本起源于人名。女性人名3变成普通词条的，全是些女子琐事，这类词汇足以显示了偏袒男性的轨迹。起源于女人名字的词汇有 Melba烤面包，得名于澳大利亚歌手Dame Nellie Melba；Sally Lunn 蛋糕，得名于十七世纪第一个做这种蛋糕的妇女；pompadour，一种从四面向上卷得松而高的发型，以Pompadour夫人的名字命名；maudlin sentiment（脆

弱的情感）一词中的maudlin，因Mary Magdaene而得名，因为她常常被艺术家描画成过度悲伤的模样。

也有一些微不足道的词条是以男人命名的，比如玩具熊（teddy bear）以西奥多﹒罗斯福（Thoedore Roosevelt）命名，鬓角（sideburns）以伯恩赛德（Burnside）将军命名。但大多数源于男性名字的普通词汇，都与重大发明和发展有关。比如，巴氏灭菌法（pasteurization）一路易﹒巴斯德命名；苏沙低音号（sousaphone）以菲利普﹒苏沙命名；有金属盖的玻璃罐（mason jar）以约翰﹒L ﹒梅森（John L. Mason）命名；杂交草莓（boysenberry）以鲁道夫﹒博依森（Rudolph Boysen）命名；火车卧车（pullman car）以乔治﹒M﹒普尔曼（George M. Pullman）命名；盲人点字法（braille）以路易斯﹒布莱叶（Louis Braille）命名，富式炉（franklin stove）以本杰明﹒富兰克林命名；笛塞尔内燃机（diesel engine）以鲁道夫﹒笛塞尔（Rudolf Diesel）命名，费氏转轮（ferris wheel，在垂直转动的巨轮上挂有座位的游玩器具）以乔治﹒W﹒费里斯（George W. Ferris）命名，动词“私刑处死”（lynch）源自威廉﹒林奇（William Lynch），1780年时弗吉尼亚的保安队长。

当然并不是一提到男性，全都让人联想到肯定字眼，比如jerk（俚语，愚笨的人），creep（俚语，讨厌的人），crumb（俚语，

无足轻重的人）， slob（俚语，笨蛋），fink（俚语，告密者）和 jackass（俚语，笨蛋）这样一些词，就绝非如此。我们对别人肯定或否定的倾向与其行为有关。对于伤害我们、威胁我们，令我们生活悲惨的人，我们无疑否定之。能如此随心所欲的人有强力控制我们，而这强力往往属于男性。

反之，帮助我们，使我们身心愉快的人和事，令我们心向往之。比如，母亲就是我们所崇仰的。“母亲”一词是英语中与女性有关的褒义词，下面这些短语都是该词的扩展，诸如“自然”（Mother Nature）、“大地”（Mother Earth）、“主矿脉”（mother lode）、“女修道院院长”（mother superior）等。但是，即使象“母亲”这样的褒义词，也不包含一点权力意味。在说英语的人的脑子里，女性（being female）意味着软弱或被动。当我们说“女性的”（feminine）和“女士”（lady）这两个词时，不仅意指女性，还展示了一种恬静与谨慎行为。 （新东方专稿）（编辑：赵露）

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