Pink and Blue in Language

In this class, we learned the impact of language and how it carries us throughout our lives in different ways specifically in how we choose to use language. Gender is a learned behavior and it shapes and defines culture and can be seen in people as early as 3 years old and stay with you throughout your whole life. Examples of this are genderlects: "gendered dialects" which are ways in which males and females speak differently and choose their words such as how young boys use "potty talk", "swear", participate in violence and use boastful language. This conditioned behavior then denies girls the ability to assert what they're saying and speak with a strong tone making them sometimes feel as though what they are saying should be "light" instead of "powerful" and they learn that they must contain their wills and lessen their point. Examples of this are girls apologizing constantly, and this opened up my eyes since I notice I constantly do this but never saw it as something related to gender. The divide of pink and blue in the language is prominent and one that can be easily seen as early as second-grade writing with the difference between a story about community and feelings for others vs competition and winning. These ideas carry through to the professional world where women's evaluation contains twice as many nurturing words such as "helpful" while males are scolded for being "too soft" by their managers. This all demonstrates that what you learn about "your color" (gender) before the age of ten paints you for decades to come and in every stage of your life.