This summer a publisher sent me a free copy of a book which someone evidently thought would be right up my street. Written by the sociologist Sarah Thornton (who according to her bio “was once hailed as Britain’s hippest academic”), its title is Tits Up, and the blurb summarizing its content starts like this: Continue reading Do we need to talk about tits?
One of last week’s media talking points was a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (JESP), which attracted attention mainly because of its claim that women use exclamation marks three times as much as men. (With apologies to the American researchers, I m British so I m going to say marks , not points .) I’ve Continue reading Enough already!!! Punctuation, silly women…
Over the years I have regularly been driven to distraction by the habit, especially among adults talking to young children, of referring to virtually all non-human animals as “he”. It’s the “default male” principle in action: if the sex of a living being is unknown or unspecified we automatically treat it as male. That impulse Continue reading The birds and the bears
This month we learned that the linguist Robin Lakoff had died at the age of 82. If you’ve heard of Lakoff you will probably know her as the author of Language and Woman’s Place (LWP), an early and very influential contribution to the field of language and gender studies. It first appeared as an academic Continue reading Remembering Robin Lakoff
Last week the bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk ended in a spectacular war of words on social media. As the world watched, the US president and his First Buddy traded accusations, threats and insults. But while some people just reached for the popcorn, others apparently saw a golden opportunity to expound their pet Continue reading Gender, communication and Trump v. Musk
Since my last post was about the phrase “women of a certain age”, I was intrigued to see a report in the Mail Online last week which claimed that Bristol University wants to ban it, along with other ageist expressions like “golden years” and “silver surfer”. According to the Mail this is yet another example Continue reading Linguistic engineering
Recently, as everyone reading this in Britain will already know, the Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace became the latest in a long line of Men On TV (the industry term is “talent”, though in this case it’s never been clear what talent TV producers thought he possessed) to “step back” from his presenting duties following allegations Continue reading Women of a certain age
Last week the Taliban in Afghanistan published a 114-page document setting out the latest official version of its laws on “vice and virtue”. Western news coverage focused particularly on Article 13, which according to press reports states that if it is necessary for women to leave their homes, they must cover their faces and voices Continue reading Talking about the Taliban: culture versus…
After a knife attack in Southport left two dead and nine injured—six of them critically (one of whom has since died)—the police announced that a person described only as a 17-year old male had been charged with murder and attempted murder. Beyond that, they warned the public, speculation about what happened and why should be Continue reading A modest proposal
The last few weeks have been All About The Men—and I’m not talking about the football, I’m talking about the election. According to Loughborough University’s Centre for Research on Communication and Culture (CRCC), which produces a weekly report on the media’s election coverage, Mansplaining has dominated the Media Election… While male voices have dominated in Continue reading Election special:…