CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study Men and
women are considered different physically and socially.
Physically, they differ in terms
of physical appearance; women have more fat and less muscle than men, men are
stronger than women (Wardhaugh, 1986: 303). Socially, they differ in terms of the
social role in the society; women do not need to get a high education since
they just finally maintain the household (Nur Hayati, 2006: 10), women do not
pose the high position in the work as men do. These differences create a great
gap between men and women. But, that gap is considered harmful for women but
beneficial for men only. Those differences seem to abolish the existence of
women. As Otto Weininger said in Sex and Character(Amiruddin, 2006: 17) that
becoming a woman means becoming a human who can not make a concept and who is
impossible to decide. This statement may appear as the result of socio cultural
construction about the social definition of men and women; about how should be
a good man and a good woman. Unfortunately, thisconstruction, as explained
above, gives no advantages to women. In the opposite, it continues to the
practice of discrimination to women.
Discrimination against people
based on their sex or gender is called sexism. Sexism can refer to three
different beliefs or attitudes (Wikibooks, 2007): that one sex is superior to
the other; that men and women are very different and that this should be
strongly reflected in society, the right to have sex, the law, and in the language; and
thatit also refers to simple hatred of men (misandry) or women (misogyny).
Women are distinguished from men
in every aspect of life. The distinctions are reflected in the work, education,
politics, law, and even in the language. In the work, women cannot get a great
chance to pose a high position as men can. In the education, women cannot
easily access the high education since some people in almost all of the
cultures in the world still hold the assumption that women just finally
maintain the household (Nur Hayati, 2006: 10) so that they do not have to get
the high education. Those factual examples are only apart of discrimination
forms which tend to abolish the existence of women. And this, of course, is
harmful for women.
Islam, in this case, also gives
its views in relation to the difference between men and women through the
verses in the Koran or hadith. In An Nisa: 34 God said: "Men are the
maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and
because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore
obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose
part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they
obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great" At
a glance, this verse can be used asa justification to discriminate women.
But it must always be remembered
that Islam never differentiates even discriminates the God creatures, men and
women. The difference itself is not a matter of discriminating. Rather it isa
matter of balancing between what men and women have and what duties and responsibilities
borne to them. For example, men are stronger than women, and therefore men are
obligated to engage in a holy war. But this obligation does not prevail to
women since they are not as strong as men.
As explained above, Islam, and
possibly other else religions, never discriminates one of God creatures.
InIslam, men and women have the same position as the caliphs of God. And
therefore, it is prohibited to discriminate one of them. However, gender classification
in the society is the problem of the culture. And as a matter of fact, almost
all of the cultures in the world distinguish men and women reflected in every
aspect of life, including in the language. An expression of the languages that
exclude, insult, or trivialize women or men is called sexist language. From
this definition, it can be concluded that the practice of sexist language can
also happen in men.
However, the sexist language
works only to the disadvantage of women, not men (Cameron, 1992: 100). The
existence of the words, such as chairman, salesman, the non parallel term
between Mrand Mrs/Miss, the use of masculine noun and pronoun as the generics
are few examples proving the linguistic different between men and women. And in
fact, those differences give no
advantages to women because those practices of sexist languages make the women
invisible. Women are marginalized through this practice of sexist language.
Moreover, it creates a male-dominated society as well as eternalizes the
patriarchal system of culture in which a man as a side controlling women.
The differences between men and
women which head for discriminations of women invite the feminists to comeup
with their idea of eliminating any inequality practices between men and women,
including the trend of sexist language. In reference to the trend ofthe sexist
language especially in English, feminists confess that there are features of
English lexicon and grammatical system, which exclude, insult, and trivialize
women. Feminists have done many things variously inthe purpose of responding
this discrimination. Some feminists are interested in relating the practice of
the sexist language to social realities whereas others suggest linguistic
reforms that modify the old terms to the moregender-neutral terms and eliminate
the sexist language. Above all, feminists hold the same belief that human
beings are created to be equal. Women cannot bedistinguished or even
discriminated from men in every aspect of life, including in the language.
Therefore, by holding this belief feminists argue that the practice of sexist
language which gives no advantages to women should be eliminated.
Meanwhile, talking about language
cannot be separated from its primary function as a means of communication used
by the people in the society.
Language is used to establish,
keep, and maintain the communication among the people. Moreover, it is a
valuable weapon to describe and to express our
feeling and thought. It means that the language is not only the
arrangement of words but also a means to express something implied; a means to
express what we feel and what we think.
On the other hand, language today
is used not only in the direct communication among two or more people but also
in wider forms of communication, including in transferring the information of
what is going on in the world to the public or the people. The media uses the
language to spread out the news. However, we haveto remember that the media not
only informs the news but also brings the ideology inside. The involvement of
the ideology in the media is as the result ofthe individual desire and other
else matters dealing with power and authority all of which are really wanted by
the people. And the media can easily accommodate that. Along with reporting the
news, the media with its linguistic creativity is able to move the opinion of
the readers from one side to another, discriminates certain people, shows the power
of certain people orgroup, creates an image of certain people either negatively
or positively, as well as constructs a public opinion about certain issue. And
in fact, the media does these practices with the help of the language.
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