e young girl from Island, Texas, who is probably going to be a great leader.” Tina looked at Barry with a confused look on her face. For the first time since she has asked the question who am I, someone had given her an answer that she did not expect and she felt that he would understand her problem and she begin to tell Barry how she was feeling. She asked Barry why is it that women are always identified by there relationship to men? My mom and dad are Mr. and Mrs. Dave Gore, and she and her is part he. Also words like hussy that were gender neutral and positive have became negative and geared toward the female gender. Barry said, “Young lady, you have observed one of the oldest forms of sexism, language. It is hardly noticeable unless it is used in its harshest form, but young lady you have noticed. Now you must figure out hot change it.”Tina asked Barry for some advise.Barry said, “First of all, you must realize that man created language, and he who create the symbols and there meaning has the power. This is why in language males are often recognized as superior. In order to change this you must first change the way we use our present language or change the language.” Tina said, “You mean to stop using gender directed words like chairman and foreman and use words like chairperson.”Barry said, “Not exactly because when we use words like chairperson we assume that the chairperson is a female because if a male holds the position we will call him the chairman.”Tina looked at Barry and said, “Well we should create new words for all gender-designated words.”Barry said, “It would take lots of thought to create new words that will not be easily made gender specific. It will also take a lot of education, which you can’t get sitting here in front of the store or by not participating in class.” Tina took off in a dash toward the school. After about ...
