Over the years, the good, the bad and the beautiful have been associated with women. A beautiful car is likely to be given a woman’s name. Hurricanes that destroy things are often named after women. People in their good times tend to name things after women too.
Over the years, we have also seen weakness being associated with women. We have seen people insult others using a woman in their insult, this is wrong. You will hear someone say, “you punch like a girl”, to mean your punch is weak. Some will also say, “Come and face me like a man” to mean with boldness. It insinuates men have a “better/bolder” way of dealing with issues. All the above insinuate that women are weaker than men. One would be right to say such language has been detrimental to the feminism agenda of fighting for equality. Such language only appeals to patriarchy.
In my country-Kenya- we have seen this language being used over and over by public figures. They use women to “spice up” their insults. You will hear one say,”Hii pesa sio ya mama yako.” (This money is not your mother’s). “Enda uulize mama yako.” (Go ask your mother.) Whilst the crowd may laugh at this and probably adopt such phrases to use as well, in the long run, it paints a bad picture against women.
It may seem all harmless and I may seem to be overreacting but if you think about it, it unconsciously cements some notions against women and further makes it seem ok to insult a woman. It is food to these theories and if we must fight for equality, such language needs to change. Language that feeds the male dominance theory is detrimental and archaic. Let us be kinder to each other. Let our leaders respect women and stop with the insults. I bet it is why when a woman in authority is to be attacked, more often than not the attackers target her femininity rather than her abilities as such language has over the years shown it as a weakness. The aim may be to throw her out of office but to do so, people attack her family, marriage, her sexuality, something that is unlikely were it to be a man’s case.
Let us mind our language.
Over the years, we have also seen weakness being associated with women. We have seen people insult others using a woman in their insult, this is wrong. You will hear someone say, “you punch like a girl”, to mean your punch is weak. Some will also say, “Come and face me like a man” to mean with boldness. It insinuates men have a “better/bolder” way of dealing with issues. All the above insinuate that women are weaker than men. One would be right to say such language has been detrimental to the feminism agenda of fighting for equality. Such language only appeals to patriarchy.
In my country-Kenya- we have seen this language being used over and over by public figures. They use women to “spice up” their insults. You will hear one say,”Hii pesa sio ya mama yako.” (This money is not your mother’s). “Enda uulize mama yako.” (Go ask your mother.) Whilst the crowd may laugh at this and probably adopt such phrases to use as well, in the long run, it paints a bad picture against women.
It may seem all harmless and I may seem to be overreacting but if you think about it, it unconsciously cements some notions against women and further makes it seem ok to insult a woman. It is food to these theories and if we must fight for equality, such language needs to change. Language that feeds the male dominance theory is detrimental and archaic. Let us be kinder to each other. Let our leaders respect women and stop with the insults. I bet it is why when a woman in authority is to be attacked, more often than not the attackers target her femininity rather than her abilities as such language has over the years shown it as a weakness. The aim may be to throw her out of office but to do so, people attack her family, marriage, her sexuality, something that is unlikely were it to be a man’s case.
Let us mind our language.
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