LANGUAGE AND GENDER: A FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF THE USE OF PROVERBS IN SELECT NIGERIAN DRAMATIC TEXTS

Abstract

I In recent times, the issue of gender language, along with its implications in the feminist discourse, has gained currency. More than ever before, the feminists are now assessing the ideology, gender identification and sexual differentiation at the theoretical level, while, on the political front, they are beginning to object to linguistic expressions that seem to relegate the status of women in all spheres. Spender Dale (1980) argues that men have intentionally

formulated a semantic rule which posits them central and positive as the norm, and they have classified the world from that standpoint. constructing a symbolic system, which represents patriarchal order (58).

This means that, through their semantic construction, women are positioned as objects and are denied all sense of subjectivity. Black and Coward (see Dale, 1980:101) similarly argue that as an instrument of expression, language is seen to reflect the perceived interest of a given social group, whether men or women. Society is seen as being structured around two dominant classes with conflicting interests, and different relations to language. While women are denied of power, men define the language, and women are incapable of influencing the linguistic process used by men to perpetuate their authority and interests. Expatiating on this, Dale (1980:101) explains that the dominance of the male 'semantic rule' is the effect of the male definition of concepts, and that men, like the ruling class in Marxist arguments, have the power to define reality. just as the rule of language reflects the meanings imposed by men.