Language is Power, it has the ability to end wars, throw a dictator from power, and comfort those in times of need. Without communication we are powerless. The beauty of the English lexicon is that, it changes with the needs of society. The structure of language is always changing to suit those who seek to use its power for communicating thoughts, ideas and social injustices. According To Robin Lakoff in The Language War, “Language is, and always has been, the means by which we construct and analyze what we call ‘reality’.” Now knowing that language must adapt to social changes in order to covey the reality, of today’s society, lets look carefully at Mr. Froehlich’s Editorial Comments in Wednesday’s Chronicle.
Now, he claims that over the course of symantec evolution that gender and sex have become synonymous. I beg to Differ, as most Gender Studies majors would also agree. Gender does not always refer to what physical parts you may exhibit. It can mean what gender role you play in society. The human psyche is just as ever-changing as the gramatics of the English language and there are those out there who feel that while the physical parts denote a male or female gender, their psychological personality may identify most closely as that of their opposite sex. Therefore a need is formed to “Blur the strict biological distinction between man and woman,” as Mr. Froehlich so put it.
As for the issue of, “Transgender replacing, transsexual,” some clarification is needed. Perhaps a visit to the Universities LGBT Resource Center would help. There a brochure can be found outlining the differences between Transsexual, changing the physical characteristics of the body, and a Transgenderist, who merely changes their gender identity, not necessarily their physical characteristics.
As the editorial claims that free thinking liberals are allowing “prudish stalwarts of the Right” to drain the sex from humanity, I would like to point out that the grammatical changes we are seeing now reflect, how diverse our society has become. The semantics of our language reflect the reality of today: Gender is not clearly defined, by male or female; just as sexual identity is not as obvious as whether you have a penis or vagina. The power of language resides in your ownership of your own sexual and gender identities.
Creig NielsonCLT, Center for Disability Services