Gendered Language in Science: More Than Just Semantics
by Emily Martin
I was assigned this journal article to read by Professor Sujata Moorti of the GSFS Department as part of my Feminst Foundations class. In the article, Martin writes about how supposedly objective biological processes are often described in a way that reinforces or conforms to gendered stereotypes. In this case, she specifically focuses on the way that sperm cells and egg cells are described in scientific literature.
According to her findings, Martin argues that the female reproductive system and its processes are described in radically different ways than is the male reproductive system. The female reproductive system and eggs are often described as "wasteful", passive, and dependent, whereas the male reproductive system and sperm cells are described as "amazing", "remarkable", and active agents. These descriptors, Martin says, are used even when they are scientifically inaccurate.
Though this gendered language may only seem like an issue of semantics, it is founded in and contributes to a well established and harmful system of gender inequality and debasement of women in our society. It is microaggressions like this that form the basis upon which other more direct forms of oppression are reliant in order to continue.