Abstract
Feminist linguistic activism has gained prominence among Western feminists as a way to eliminate sexism in language and everyday life. In Russian, gender specification (known as feminitivy) represents the mainstream approach practiced by grassroots feminist reformers. However, alternative approaches aimed at gender neutralization proliferate. The paper examines the prospects and challenges of gender neutralization both in writing and oral speech. Results of a survey documenting attitudes of Russian-speaking feminist and LGBTQI communities to language reform attempts are presented, with a special focus on comparison between gender specification and gender neutralization.
Highlights
Feminist linguistic activismFeminist linguistic activism is a practice that aims to expose and eliminate linguistic sexism across languages
The questionnaire form was open for answers from 28 July 2016 to 18 October 2016 when the number of participants reached 1400 and initial overview of the results showed saturation
Many respondents revealed that in oral speech they rely on the same ways of gender neutralization that they use in writing
Summary
Feminist linguistic activismFeminist linguistic activism is a practice that aims to expose and eliminate linguistic sexism across languages. By “linguistic sexism” most authors generally mean “asymmetrical treatment [in language] of women and men, of male/masculine and female/feminine concepts and principles” Not satisfied with merely exposing linguistic sexism, some feminists seek to establish a “gender-fair” alternative through comprehensive language reforms. The theoretical framework most often cited by early feminist reformers is the controversial Sapir–Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity (Schneider & Foss, 1977). This theory argues that, at least to some degree, the language we speak influences our basic categories of thought (Lucy, 2001).
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