Why all the Fuss about Language?

I want to share some very personal feelings. I became part of the women’s movement because I am concerned about how difficult it is for women to get credit, about the widening pay gap between the sexes, about the dashed hopes of women who sought professional careers, and about the small number of visible women in our political, economic, and religious life. But the one thing I did not understand was the concern about language -- words such as “chairman,” “God the father,” “mankind.” Why all the fuss? It was just picky when there were bigger, more pressing issues at hand. I’m sure many of you feel that way as you hear speakers struggle awkwardly to demasculinize their language.

Today, I’m in a different place. Let me share my journey with you. Tucked away in an issue of Redbook magazine, I found a short story of a 3 1/2-year-old girl who was watching “Sesame Street.” Instructions for some activity were being given by the instructor to the children, and masculine pronouns were used: “First he does this; then he does that.” The little girl turned off the television set in tears because she was not included and she wanted to participate. I was struck by how easily we adults intellectualize the generic nature of masculine words, but not that little girl--she was experiencing being un-included, a non-person.

My next step: I figured if all these masculine words were really generic it would be no big deal to use the feminine and that would also be generic. But that didn’t happen! Use woman to include man--say Mr. Elizabeth Jernigan rather than Mrs. Fred Register--she and leave out he--and it just doesn’t sound right and passions rise. And when passions rise, people are invested; it is important. That said to me that things were not just casually generic. Chairman, postman, milkman--these words meant men because men held those jobs. And physicians’ textbooks read “he” because they mean he, and nurses’ text say “she” because they mean she.

I began to look further and discovered the language game played by biblical translators.* In the New Testament, masculine nouns and pronouns have often been substituted for the nouns and pronouns of common gender in the original Greek. Thus, in John 1:12 and 1 John 3:1 (KJV), we read that Jesus gives us the power to become the sons of God, whereas the Greek clearly states “children” of God. In many instances, “no man” and “any man” are used instead of “no one” or “any one.” For instance in 1 Timothy 3:5, “If a man knows not how to rule his own house,” rather than “If any one know not ....” Similarly in 1 Timothy 3:1, “If a man aspires to the office of bishop rather than “if any one aspires...”

Elohim, one of the many words for God in the Old Testament, is a feminine plural form. It is the plural of Eloh, a feminine God, not of El, a masculine God. However, a masculine word ending (“im”) is used, so in essence God is both male and female, which is in keeping with the androgynous god of that historical period. Note that Elohim is always translated He. The Holy Spirit is one of those feminine persons translated “he” in the New Testament. Yet the Hebrew word for spirit is feminine and the Greek word for spirit is neuter.

One last biblical story--about Phoebe. Paul says she was a “diakonos,” in Romans 16:1, a word that I nearly always translated “minister.” Then he calls her “prostatis” in Romans 16:2, meaning ruler. Yet in the King James Version, minister is changed to “servant” in reference to Phoebe, the only “diakonos” is so translated in the entire New Testament. If you read the Revised Standard Version, she is a “deaconess” even though there were no deaconesses in New Testament times, when both women and men held the office of deacon. In fact, Greek has a separate word for deaconess that isn’t used in the Bible. Therefore, Romans 16:1 reads, ‘“I commend you to our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae, that you may ... help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself as well. In, fact, it should read, “I commend you to our sister, Phoebe, a minister of the church at Cenchreae, that you may help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a ruler of many and of myself as well.” Hardly sounds the same! Please understand that I am not a biblical scholar but I can read what scholars have written, and it has been an enlightening experience.

Then I ran into a study done at UCLA this past year. Over a period of time, letters were sent to people in the counseling profession. They were first asked to describe a healthy male personality and some time later to describe a healthy female personality; later again, a healthy personality. With few exceptions, the healthy male personality and the healthy personality coincided. I found that to be personally devastating.

As a result, I have become concerned about the subtle traps language sets up for us--our dreams and expectations, our stereotypes and visual images. The blacks have taught us that: blacks instead of niggers, women instead of broads; from eating watermelon to women drivers, from lazy and shiftless to silly and dumb.

Language not only expresses ideas and concepts, but I think it may a shape them. Often the process is unconscious, yet I feel the role of language is so powerful in its imprint upon the human mind that even the violated group may begin to accept the very expressions that aid in its stereotyping. Thus to change them seems picky and unimportant. I would like to affirm our struggle with language and all its awkwardness. I have come to appreciate deeply the word and concept “humanity,” and I hope you will too.

Language in a society doesn’t develop apart from the society's historical, economic, and political evolution. Men really have been the most remembered people in history--the economic and political movers. Yet language is the mirror reflecting society’s attitudes and thinking. As a society changes its language patterns must be modified to be an accurate mirror. I hope you can appreciate my journey--and that it has been helpful to your journey.

*Research by Ruth Hoppin of the national NOW Task Force on Religion.

Reprint permission granted by the United Church of Christ Task Force on Women in Church and Society.