Are we born equal? de we have the same rights as male and females ? are we offered the same tools to reach success ? is our language treating us male and females differently and unequally?
Identity terms and their existence in our daily life. As soon as I open my eyes in the morning and look at my phone to turn off the alarm I see CNN breaking news and their attractive titles: An African American men was arrested in a robbery, UN intervention in the third world countries to save the life on the children or be a mediator in politicals decision.
”Third world, First world, Developing country, and Developed country have been problematized for their hierarchical meanings, where areas with more resources and political power are valued over those with fewer resources and less power (Silver 2015)”.
I wasn’t aware of these terms until I came to the United States of America. I started hearing African Americans, people of color, Latino or Latina, and other identity terms that characterized a specific demographic population. Since I come from Morocco that is considered a developing country because of lack of resources . I see myself surrounded by this term a lot and even questioned a lot . How it is living in Morocco, do you have clean water ? do you have hungry kids in the street? my answer is always the same. do we have clean running water in all America? no. do we have hungry kids? yes.
They are also other identity terms that I use a lot like the term Caucasian while filling forms and other paperwork. the term Immigrant for a person who was born outside of the united states , and finally the term Women because my Biological body states that I’m a female.
Feminist philosophers have analyzed and critic the language and its feminist philosophy and how it can contribute to representing the gender wrongfully and unequally. If we men and women can do the same job equality than language has to reflect that as well.
The invisibility of Women is one of the theories that stood out the most to me. Maybe because I’m a woman and I feel that the use of the language does not give me justice. It seems that women are always inferior to men.
for example the word of a master for men and mistress for a woman. we can’t say a master for a woman because it describing a powerful man, and the word mistress describing a weak woman with no courage or strength.
Another word that I can recall from the show called ”mankind, the story of us ”. It’s a great show that supposedly is about humankind and their evolution throughout these eras. This show is the greatest adventure of all time describing the history of the human race including women as well, but the title is reserve to men only because they hold the key to power.
I feel like words like these give a negative image of women and characterize them as followers ,weak, and never in a position of power while giving the men a positive and a strong image.
