Sexism in English: A 1990s Update

Allen Pace Nielsen has written several studies about sexist language and about the images of women in literature. She bases her essay in her study about sexism in language. In this study, she arrived to three important points which are the mindset of American society. First woman are sex, men are successful. She explains this idea comparing how topographical features are named in sexual way after women or to honor accomplishment after men. The second point is that women are passive and men are active. To support this idea she is focused in how a bride is something to be handed over from one man to another. Also, she compared how the royalty acts when a male and female holds the royalty title. The final point is that women are connected with negative and men with positive connotations. She compares the differences between boys and girls freedom to experiment with sex roles. Moreover, she gives examples of words that differ in connotations between positive male and negative female, word that differ only in the matter of sex.