Gender in Sociolinguistics

Jovanovska, Sashka (2023) Gender in Sociolinguistics. In: Gender Discrimination in India Themes and Perspectives. Manglam Publications, pp. 179-187. ISBN 978-81-963658-5-1

Text Gender Discrimination _Book Chapter Sashka Jovanovska.pdf Download (464kB)

Abstract

Before discussing how language, gender, and sexuality
are dealt with in sociolinguistics, we need to define the terms
gender, sex category, and sexuality to discuss how these
concepts are involved in the study of sociolinguistics. Sex
categories are based on the biological distinction – not always
completely clear – between ‘male’ and ‘female.’ There may
also be additional culturally specific categories that define
people who do not fall easily into these first two categories.
Native American cultures have a tradition of what has been
called ‘two spirit’ people (Jacobs et al. 1997), and in India there
are hijras and kotis, which are different groups of people who
exhibit physical and/or behavioral characteristics of both sex
categories; in Indian society, they have a societal role and the
linguistic means of constructing such a role in society (Hall
1997, 2005). The term transgender is often used in the United
States to talk about people who are transitioning or have
transitioned from one sex category to another, or have
biological attributes of a sex category which does not match
their gender (see below) or of both sexes; the term cisgender is used to talk about people whose sex category matches their
gender. The term transgender may also be used for individuals
with biological attributes of both sexes. Thus, while sex
categories make references to biological characteristics, and
are often perceived as binary and mutually exclusive, they
are not entirely in synch with the reality of human diversity
and some societies have more than two categories and may
accept more fluid membership in sex categories.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	Humanities > Languages and literature Humanities > Philosophy, ethics and religion
Divisions:	Faculty of Philology
Depositing User:	Saska Jovanovska
Date Deposited:	22 Jan 2024 08:40
Last Modified:	22 Jan 2024 08:40
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/33232

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