Lakoff 2

Wow. This chapter took me three days to get through. 43 pages. I honestly think this was much worse than any of Ramage's. While reading, I became distracted by glancing up at the page number, 32 more, 25 more, then I would try to do the math on how many I had read, how many more pages this chapter had than the next, and the next; it was horrible.

One part I enjoyed was in the section of "The Feminine (and the Female)." The line, "The masculine is also the word we use to speak about the species in general: t is understood as including the feminine, not vice versa: 'The tiger (not the tigress) is endangered.'" I came to a conclusion as to why this might be. It is said that the tiger is endangered because there is a greater chance that the tiger will become endangered quicker than the tigress. The tiger is the hunter, is the one who is more aggressive, fights more. When something is more aggressive, the chances of becoming killed are much greater because it is putting itself in danger more consistently. Therefore, the male has a greater chance of becoming extinct due to the fact that it places itself in dangerous, brawling situations on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, much more than the female (tigress) does, enabling her to live longer.

Another topic Lakoff states is "Thus German has one word, Mann, for 'male,' and another, Mensch, for 'human being.' Yet no one is suggesting that German speakers are less sexist than speakers of English." I am studying French and this is another language that is extremely "sexist," yet who discredits the French for being so? Amie is the word used for a friend who is female. Ami is the word used for a friend who is male. If one is talking about friends in the plural sense, it is always amis, unless the group is completely comprised of females.

Interesting.