What Does the Text Reveal About Issues of Language and Gender? You Should Refer to the Text and to Relevant Ideas from Language Study. in Your Answer You May Wish to Comment on Some of the Following: • the Ways in Which

Text C is part of a guide which is intended to inform the reader about how people in the workplace should act appropriately, particularly in terms of how members of the opposite sex should talk to each other. The text also reveals some issues concerning both language and gender; these are going to be explored.
The first thing to be considered is the graphology of the text. The police force’s logo being displayed on the right side of the page makes it seem to be of less importance, while increasing the status of the image which is located at the top left of the page. It shows two police offers, one male and one female, both conversing with what appears to be a member of the public; they all seem to be laughing and enjoying themselves, which is the police force’s way of presenting themselves as being friendly and community spirited. The fact that a female police offer is used in this image also suggests that they want to appear to be seen to be fair and to offer equal opportunities for both genders; this raises the issue of equality in employment, primarily in the police force. It is only recently (ie over the last two decades) that women have begun to see equal treatment to their male counterparts in the workplace, and it is still argued that this is not yet the case in many areas. Also linking in with graphology is the sidebar to the right, which lists the different areas of the ‘Appropriate Language Guide’, and ‘Gender’ being listed at the top suggests that it is the most important issue that the police force wants to be seen to be dealing with.
The title of the ‘Gender’ section of the guide is ‘Devaluing expressions’, which suggests that there is an awareness of the issue, and so they are trying to solve it by ‘devaluing’, or lowering the value of the expressions which are used. Towards the beginning of the main body of text, it says that within the workplace, ‘terms such as “boys” and “girls” are commonplace’, with the ‘Lothian and Borders Police’ being no exception. These terms can be argued to be derogatory to both genders, with connotations of immaturity and unsuitability for such a responsible role. The text points out that while people who are the subject of terms such as ‘one of the girls’ or ‘one of the boys’ may not wish to make an issue out of it, this does not mean ‘that they have no adverse effects on the recipients’ as they may not want to be labelled as being ‘over-sensitive’ or ‘unable to take a joke’, which would go along with Robin Lakoff’s idea of women lacking a sense of humour, and their unwillingness to bring it up with the perpetrator(s) follows Tannen’s theory that women want to bring compromise against men who try to create conflict. While applying these to the correct genders is not traditionally intended to be insulting, the connotations of reversing the gender, e.g. a man being called ‘one of the girls’, is usually meant to cause offense and suggests that they are very feminine or homosexual, while a woman being called ‘one of the boys’ could imply that they are masculine and effeminate. Historically, men were considered to be superior to women and of a higher class level, and as such, it is arguable that calling a woman a male-term could be meant as a compliment, and intended to raise their status.
In the second paragraph, the terms which are discussed are related less to gender and more to age; these terms include “dear”, “pet” or “love” and could potentially have negative connotations. An example is ‘pet’, which pragmatically is a term of familiarity and affection, but semantically it lowers the status of the recipient (as a pet is ‘under’ their owner and of a lower class.) These terms are commonly believed to be most used by older staff towards younger employees, as a way of demonstrating their superiority over them. It could be argued that all of these terms are inappropriate for the workplace, as they are informal and could easily be taken to be offensive, insulting or unsuitable. When used by men towards women, particularly when in a higher position with the organisation, these terms could have sexual connotations where the male is seen to be trying to be dominant over the female.
To conclude, there are some issues which are highlighted within Text C concerning language and gender. The text is intended to educate the audience of the appropriate ways in which to speak to colleagues within the workplace, particularly concerning the use of terms which may not be intended to be derogative, but could still potentially cause offense; this is an issue which the text has shown to be most prominent between the opposite genders, and so there is strong evidence to suggest that equal opportunity for women is still an issue today, albeit a less serious one than it was during the height of the women’s movement.