Jayne - I am *very* interested in what you referred to as semantic field theory
. I am wondering if you could suggest some books/articles on the subject that
would be of help to someone such as myself just looking into the topic? Thank-
you. I'm wondering about this notion of language occurring in a context of oth
er *hidden* referents, i.e. such as the idea that you mentioned, that if someon
e utters the word "wife" there is simultaneous refernce to the male words in wh
ich the term is couched/in contrast to... I am curious as to how this idea mig
ht relate to language used then speaking of the environment. I don't have any
examples, this idea just popped into my mind. Anyway, any info. you could send
regarding semantic field theory would be greatly appreciated!
- Jill Blue, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Mar 18 02:16:17 MST 1995
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 1995 04:16:31 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Emerging Women
Jinx writes:
>I can remember as a young teenager feeling
>depressed and angry about the treatment of women . . .
>I'm 20+ years older now, and am curious
>to know how todays emerging women feel about the tags. >Anyone know?
--------------------------------
I asked my 20-year-old daughter this very question not long ago. Her answer
surprised me. She said that since she had not been involved in the early
days of the movement, she felt largely apart from it and unaffected by it.
She does not feel that these issues are relevant to her. She believes that
she _has_ equality and that she need not actively participate in acts to
secure it. (This is a young woman who grew up in a very progressive,
politically active house.) She is a junior at a small liberal arts college
in the midwest, and claims that there is no sexism on her campus, either
among the students or the faculty. I stared, of course, incredulously when I
heard these words, but I have to accept that she believes this is true (at
the risk of sounding naive, maybe it is). She has accused me of overreacting
to issues of gender equality, and of sounding a trumpet that no longer needs
to be heard quite as loudly as I'm blowing. Again, what can I say? Is there
a new gender equity spreading among the younger generation that I know
nothing about? If anyone else has direct experience with this, I'd be
curious. I do work with some younger people, and just the other day, I
interviewed a 22-year-old white male about gender equity in the newsroom. He
said in his experience (he had interned at one national magazine and two
dailies), it was firmly in place. Being an active member of media, this is
in direct contradiction to my own (contemporary) experiences. Am I missing
something? Am I simply perceiving old inequities that have righted
themselves while I was still battling in the trenches? Like the soldiers who
got lost in the forest and still thought the war was raging?
--Katharine English
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Mar 18 05:11:18 MST 1995
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 1995 07:11:31 -0500 (EST)
From: Jayne S Docherty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Emerging Women
In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Well, I am approaching 40 and I am a grad student in a progressively
oriented program (Conflict Analysis and Resolution) on an otherwise quite
conservative campus (George Mason University in Virginia). While I do
not have a great deal of contact with the undergrads, what contact I have
had is very, very frightening. They are extremely conservative --
politically and socially. A colleague who teaches in the communications
department routinely does several class sessions on gender and
communication and if his experiences are typical, I would say that (at
least on this Virginia campus) we are a long way from having reached any
equity. He is, himself, in his mid-20's and usually returns to the
department offices in *shock* at the misogynist attitudes expressed by
his male students *and* by the acceptance of many of those attitudes by
the women.
To set it in perspective, though, GMU may not be typical. The largest
political organization is the Young Republicans who rallied big time for
Ollie North. And, there is an on campus Rush Room!
It would make me feel a bit better to hear that this is atypical of
today's campuses!
Jayne
