What would happen do women who spoke to much or if their speech was deemed troublesome in the Middle Ages?
They would be punished with a torture device called a ‘scold’s bridle’.
What was the scold’s bridle?
The scold’s bridle was a heavy iron frame or muzzle was placed over the offender’s head. The frame contained a spike, which was designed to press down on the tongue to prevent her from speaking.
What would the husband do when the scold’s bridle was on his wife’s head?
The husband would then parade her around town on a leash for everyone to insult.
What were women accused of being in early modern England and how was this punished?
In early modern England, women accused of being “common scolds” were immersed in rivers and lakes while strapped to contraptions known as ducking stools.
What happened in mid-16th and early 19th centuries?
An untold number of women in England underwent ducking as a punishment for speaking out of turn.
What do practices such as ducking speak for?
Largely forgotten today, the practice speaks to the lengthy history of policing women’s voices.
Who was Charles de Rochefort?
A French minister and missionary, was born in 1605. He spent at least a decade in the Caribbean, from 1636 to the mid- 1640s, on Tobago and what we now call St. Kitts.
What ideas were quoted in Otto Jespersen’s ‘Language: Its Nature, Development & Origin’? (Charles de Rochefort)
Some features of language were used exclusively by males.
Some features of language were used exclusively by females (and never by males) - there are clear links here to masculinity.
Language use was clearly linked to maintaining a certain identity - in this case a gender identity.
What are the four primary approaches that mark the twentieth century language and gender debate?
Deficit
Dominance
Difference
Diversity
What do the deficit, dominance and difference approach have in common?
They define and judge women’s language against that used by men.
What do more recent studies, like the diversity approach focus on?
The focus has shifted to how society influences the language we use and whether we actually ‘perform’ our gender by demonstrating features and ways of speaking associated with being a woman or man.
How is language seen in the deficit approach?
In this approach, male language is seen as the ‘norm’ and women’s language is viewed as ‘deficient’ to men’s.
What was the name of one of the chapters in ‘Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin’ by Otto Jespersen (1922) ?
The Woman
In his book, what does Jespersen say women do much more often than men?
‘Women much more often than men break off without finishing their sentences, because they start talking without having thought out what they are going to say.’
What does Jespersen say women’s language could simply be typified as and why?
‘Lively chatter’ since their roles consisted of:
‘The care of the children, cooking, brewing, baking, sewing, washing etc. things that for the most part demand no deep thought’.
What occurred in 1919?
The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act abolished the previous bar on women serving as lawyers, judges or magistrates. It opened up much of the civil service to women and also made them liable to serve as jurors.
What happened in 1921?
Women were banned from playing on football league grounds citing “… the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”. The FA didn;t lift this ban until 1971.
What happened in 1928?
Right to vote For women over the age of 21. The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave women electoral equality with men by giving the vote to all women over 21 years old, regardless of property ownership.
What was one of the main criticisms of Jespersen’s work?
It was observational, and not based on any detailed evidence.
What was Jespersen’s work based on?
His work was therefore based on ethnographic research, which is the ‘systematic study of groups of people and cultures carried out by close observation’.
What is meant by Jespersen’s work is ‘folk linguistics?’
Jespersen’s work is what would be called folk linguistics today, meaning that many of his points represent basic and flawed ideas about women’s language that seem more anecdotal than based on valid and reliable research methods.
What is ‘folk linguistics?’
The opinions and beliefs that non-linguists hold about language use.
What was Lakoff’s book called?
‘Language and Woman’s Place’.
What group did Lakoff look at?
Made it clear that she was looking at a very specific group of women - American, white, middle class and educated - but her findings were misinterpreted as relating to all women.
