Language Gender Culture Essay

Jacqueline Morales

Period 4

11­19­2014

Language, Gender and Culture
Power relates to language, gender, and culture. Power is shown through the way we

speak to others, the way different genders relate to each other, and the way are raised within our cultures. The use of language, gender, and culture is used in various ways that allows us to communicate with society in representation of who we are and what we stand for. Although it isn’t shown in the same way, power relates to language, gender and culture because it involves direct and indirect way of communication.

The use of language has been proven to demonstrate power in the ways we talk/speakout,

and the ways we perform in public. An example in which language is a source of power is shown in the excerpt by Audre Lorde in which she states, “ For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us” ( Lorde 119). In the passage she states, that we as a society have kept our voices silence due to fear. She encourages us to speak out and be fearless, conveying the fact that we need to be powerful by having a voice. I, myself, have encountered situations that relate to the Lorde’s excerpt such as the fact that there are certain freedoms of speech that are censored and make us powerless or the fact that I am not capable of standing in front of a large crowd and speak about the violence that troubles our world. My sense of powerlessness to speak out is a silence that chokes me and I will need to overcome that fear to feel much more powerful and confident. This is also relatable to public

performance which is a topic expressed through Vershawn Ashanti Young’s excerpt. He states,
“Their self­assurance made me want to mimic them, to give a gender performance that would say equivocally to everybody­ white folks, black folks, everybody­ that I too am a black male with balls” (Young 122), implying that he wants to just as everybody else, but that fact that he is a black male with a bad representation of himself will not allow him to be powerful enough.
Language is power and the way we present ourselves to a public really does determine whether we have obtained that power or not.

Another source of power is gender. This argument is supported by Deborah Tannen’s

excerpt on how women and men differ within their conversations. In the excerpt Tannen states, “
If a linguistic strategy is used by a woman, it is seen as powerless; if it is done by a man, it is seen as powerful” ( Tannen 120). In the passage she claims that gender creates a great difference within the power of a human being. The fact that both genders communicate differently really creates the assertion that maybe both genders are not treated with the same amount of power.
There is obviously one with less power and in the excerpt it is concluded that a woman’s indirectness makes her much less powerful to a man’s directness. Tannen states this argument when she says, “Whether women or men are direct or indirect differs; what remains constant is that women’s style is negatively evaluated­seen as lower in status than men’s” (Tannen 121).
Clearly women have a lower status than men in society, as I have also experienced situations in which I am seen powerless against a mans directness. An experience in which I have seen myself in such situation has been when I have indirectly commanded people to do a certain task and it was not obeyed until a man directly restated when I had said. It was very powerless of me to command using indirectness and it really created a sense of weakness. Genders differ in power

due to their use of direct and indirectness.

Culture has great amounts of influence. It has been proven through the excerpts of Lorde,

Young, Tannen, Naomi Gerstel, and Natalia Sarkisian that culture is the base of how we view ourselves and how we create our own powerfulness. In the excerpt
His Politeness is Her
Powerfulness
by Deborah Tannen it is stated , “ But far more cultures in the world use elaborate systems of indirectness than value directness” (Tannen 121), which infers that powerlessness is much more common culture based. In
The Barbershop by Vershawn Young, he states, “ Literacy habits, like reading novels of a certain kind and speaking what might appear to be standard
English, have always made me seem more queer, more white identified, and more middle class than I am” (Young 124), which clarifies how his culture and who he is make him much more queer and misclassified. He infers that he has gained power by the way he acts and the way he looks which are culture based traits. The article
The Color of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender, and Extended Family Involvement by Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian tells us about how minority families have weaker ties and are more fragmented than white families. The research they made of the differences between cultures lead us to the conclusion that culture have a lot to do with the powerfulness of a person or group of individuals raised upon the same ideals. In the excerpt it is stated that, “ When discussing in family experiences of various racial and ethnic groups, commentators often assume that these differences can be traced to cultural differences or competing, “family values”( Gerstel 3), implying that these differences can be expressed in positive or negative ways creating a wave of power or powerlessness depending on the family values. Culture defines a person and a persons or social groups identity therefore it leads to the obtainment of power.

Language, gender and culture demonstrate various ways in which power is expressed to

society and individuals. Power is very much expressed in the way we communicate with others, the different genders interact with each other, and the way our values are enforced within our cultures. Power contains direct and indirect ways of communication which makes us express our power in distinct ways, some might express it through gender,voice/speech, others might express it by public performance, beliefs and even image. Our ways of communication define who we are. The way we are and who we are defines the power we embrace.