Evaluate the notion that male language is superior and more authoritative when compared to female language.
Overtime, there has been a heavy and heated argument over male and female language and whose is more superior in this case. It has been indepthly studied by several linguists, some arguing on one hand that male language has and always will be more superior due to the twisted gender norms existent in our modern, patriarchal society today, but others still hold rigid views at the opposite end of the spectrum conveying that there is evidence that female language is not as incapacitated as many may think. Nevertheless, in this essay I will prove to you that in a body, despite immense progress in women's language throughout time, that male language is in fact more superior and more authoritative when compared to female language.
A debate to support this statement that male language is more superior and authoritative to female language is to firstly contrast their differences in language through a biological aspect. An article from newspaper 'The Guardian' called 'Male and Female brains: the REAL differences' helps to outline this as the confirmation proving the differences which came from the study has been roundly criticised by neuroscientists. However, they discovered some genuine differences that simply can't be denied. The article uses the lexical term 'confirms' in inverted commas to reinforce the idea that it's easy to 'confirm' even the most surreal of notions with brain imaging techniques, as well as putting emphasis on not only the term but the topic as a whole. However, more towards the point - The Guardian states there have been scientific factors discovered such as genetics, location, size, connections, pain sensation and specialisation which all link to the brain and how different parts of male and female's brains contrast. They suggest that male brains are bigger which could evoke they have more knowledge, as their brains are 'hardwired to be paid more, occupy more powerful roles and positions etc' whereas the female brain is 'hardwired to get more harassment and oppression, develop worrying obsessions with physical appearance'. The adjective 'hardwired' automatically makes the reader assume that men's authority is a natural trait, and society has only had a little influence in shaping their identity. It also makes out men to be seen as more superior to women not only mentally but physically too while trying to communicate.
A theorist who supports the view that women are the weaker sex in terms of language, automatically putting men in a position of authority and superiorness is Robin Lakoff. Lakoff, who created the Deficit Approach (1975) asserted that in a nutshell, women's language is more polite and because they are better well mannered, the features they use demonstrate their weakness. He also conveys the attitude that women are 'socialised to believe that asserting themselves strongly isn't nice or ladylike or even feminine' which could evoke why the amount of time women get to speak is sparse, due to women being held back over speaking up by men. Although a critism of Lakoff's approach is that it is outdated as it is over 40 years old, so the accuracy of his findings could be questioned as they may no longer be relevant. Despite this, the fact that women's femininity is being questioned here shows the extent of how inferior they are compared to the opposite sex which makes the age of Lakoff's findings inapplicable in this case.
Another reason that helps to prove that men's language is more superior is to look at how those labelled as an authority figure view gendered language. Let's take Professor Richard Lynn for example, who is known as one of Britain's 'top dons'. In an article he made for the daily mail, he highlighted in the title 'Sorry, men ARE more brainy than women'. Firstly, the adjective 'Sorry' at the beginning of this syntax demonstrates an unapologetic tone as clearly the writer does not want to apologise for admitting the truth. This is the followed by the conjunction 'ARE' in capital letters which reinforces the idea that this is a straight fact that deserves no argument. The adjective 'brainy' also used in this syntax suggests that again, men's authority and knowledge is being referred back to the power of science. The article then discusses the psychologists perspectives on the lexical term 'ingtellegence' - as it is described to be made up of a range of cognitive abilities including reasoning, problem solving, spatial ability, general knowledge and memory. In all of these, men outperform women which helps to explain why in terms of evolutionary psychology, men have emerged as the more intellegent sex. They have possessed far sharper minds of those of women and their superior foreign language skills also help to explain this. For that reason, this knowledge could imply why men hold such a high status as they use their intellgence over women in their everyday language to be more provocative.
However, not everyone would agree with this viewpoint as some hold the belief that simply not all women's language is inferior and in some cases can even be seen as superior to men's. This is coincidential as a male individual who argues this who again, is known as an authority figure, is the previous president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, who has had high experience in language in various regions and nationalities from all the speeches he's made and political debates he has encountered. In an online opinion article taken from The Guardian, author Julie Bindel, a lifelong feminist, freelance journalist and political activist, proposes that due to the forcefulness of patriarchy, women are evidently more competent than men. She believes that after years of living in an unequal society, women have developed certain skills as a result of this tyranny, and she even enforces that as Barack Obama argues, women make better bosses and leaders because "men seem to be having some problems these days". As well as this, linguist Deborah Cameron shares this different perspective with her modern (2008) Dynamic Approach. Cameron challenges the ideas by Lakoff that language between men and women is different as she expresses "the idea that men and women...use language in very different ways and for very different reasons is one of the great myths of our time." The lexical term 'myth' metaphorically used here is implying that she doesn't believe in the idea of supposed miscommunication. Almost as if it's a fairytale. Her work is also representative of recent language and gender studies that have moved away from categorising male and female speech styles as polarised, as well as analysing gender identities, how speakers perform and construct them and how language is influenced by stereotypes. Similarily, theorist and psychologist Janet Hyde, also contributed to the Dynamic Approach in 2005 but with her gender similarities hypothesis. She practically refuses that men are indeed more superior as she states there are more similarities than differences in male and female language and that gender does not really make much of an impact. She says where there are differences, they may be due to other variables such as age, class, ethnicity etc.
To conclude, it is obvious that men's language is more superior and authoritative than women's. Despite gendered language reflecting the enduring issues society faces on a day to day basis, and therefore helping to imply sexist ideas, there still remains an abundance of evidence to support this statement and further research has too. It is highly likely that this notion will stay relevant for years to come regardless of gradual change or progress in language.
