Language and Thought

          

           When reading the article English is andocentric (built in bias towards men), I felt like its all about sexist and language. When it said language was created by men, I was like “WTF?’ Then I started to realize men created it. Even though there are fewer words relating to women than men, reality is that there are 220 English terms for a promiscuous FEMALE and only 20 for a MALE. In the past, I know that women were like the person behind the curtains waiting for their moment to shine. They finally start to shine when they had Acts and Laws passed for their rights. Men built English because men controlled society, and The People with the Power were men in society who can build their point of view into the language. The typical male that society view as were men that were white, straight, middle-aged, and able-bodied (average weight.) So basically insulting the ethnic community and the LBGT community. So the people who are not the typical male were ugly, fat, too skinny, short, tall, dumb, weird-looking teeth, glasses, have disabilities, illnesses and a different economic status.

            People don’t notice language is biased unless it affects them. According to page 128, it states that it’s not the word itself that is racist, sexist or whatever. It is the meaning that we give them. In the debate between thought and language, it is thought that language was controlled by thought but some say it is thought that is controlled by language. Language can affect our thinking by helping our thought process. Like the act of explaining something to someone else often helps you understand it better yourself. One example would be a deaf person signing to another explaining what a word means. The more that person explains the more that person would understand him/herself. Even though thought and language are interdependent, language often assists thought and we have to think to understand and use the English Language. What does euphemism means? It means words that present their subject in a favorable light. Imagine you are watching television and an ad comes on. You see a product that looks odd looking. The person telling you about it is saying that the product is exquisite and is easy to use. You immediately think, “that thing??” even though it doesn’t look the best the person will try to advertise it to sell the product.