Seminar Gender neutral Language Do 14.30

Feminists have put forth several strategies to replace form encoding generic masculinity in order to make women (and further genders) visible in language, one example being the singular they' or the conjunction of pronouns he or she. In German, there are even more linguistic means to circumvent androcentricity: Studenten can be replaced by gender-inclusive forms such as e.g. Studierende or StudentInnen to name just the most common ones. This gender-neutral language, however, has to face harsh criticism from various anti-feminists as the following quote from an interview with German author B. Kelle illustrates. Es muss unserem Land wirklich gut gehen, wenn wir die Zeit und das Geld haben, uns mit solchem Schwachsinn zu beschäftigen. Wir haben Gleichstellungsbeauftragte ohne Ende, die Leitfäden für geschlechtergerechte Sprache entwerfen. Wir haben ungefähr 180 Lehrstühle an Unis, wo Soziologen und alle möglichen Studiengänge mit Gender Mainstreaming unterwandert werden. Da frage ich mich oft: Was machen die eigentlich den ganzen Tag? ( http://www.merkur.de/politik/bestseller-autorin-birgit-kelle-irre-gender-wahn-gender-gaga-4790683.html). So, do non-male genders really benefit from gender-inclusive language or is this all about nitpicking feminists splitting hairs? In this class, we will try to answer to question of how much impact language has on the perception of genders. We will first look at the more general question of whether language influences thinking before we turn to various perception studies on the effects of generic masculinity vs. gender-neutral forms. By approaching the matter from a profound empirical perspective rather than an ideological one, we will be able to gain deeper insights into the relation between language and power. Englisch (MA, PO 2013) Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2016/17 Dr. Günther Christine