Language and gender The idea that language can be used as a tool of oppression is supported by many critics of different orientations, who underline the fact that language is both a tool of social constraint be a means of resistance. that constraint. It's an issue deeply rooted in literary theory of gender and sexuality, race and nationality, and even social class. The idea of ​​feminist criticism, where language is identified as one of the means through which patriarchal values ​​are maintained and resisted. Feminists are concerned with two main ways in which they say women are oppressed by language, the first of which is the idea of ​​male-dominated language. Problems can be noticed in minor parts of the grammar such as pronouns, but these are quite important in the representation of gender. A perfect example of this is the phrase "he and she" (normally referring to something like bathrobes belonging to a couple). Here the male pronoun his is placed before the female pronoun. Many might say this is sexist but it is simply due to the history of male domination in the English language. There are many ways in which our language seems to devalue women. If, for example, you take the number of offensive terms for women and compare them against the number of offensive terms for men you will notice a drastic difference. Julia Stanley found that there are 220 words for a sexually promiscuous woman, but only 20 for a man. Many degrading terms used to describe women do not have a masculine alternative, words like "bitch" or "slut." Many of the words used for women are associated with animals or have a sexual origin... in the center of the card... they refer to a gender. In the 1970s, the words “like/him,” “humanity,” and “president” were introduced so that the words were not exclusively masculine. In the 80s the main thing to do was to avoid gender words altogether. Like "server" instead of "waiter" or "waitress". There are some words whose meaning has changed making them more negative. For example, "mistress". This was a word that described a housekeeper, whereas now it has acquired an asexual connotation and is very rarely used to describe a housekeeper. Although steps have been taken towards change, it will be a long and long process before women become totally equal and this is reflected in our language. Ultimately it will be up to society to decide what is acceptable and it is the people who have the power to make the necessary changes.