Week 9
The homework this week was somewhat difficult for me.
Although Communication Law is interesting, it is a
lot of information to take in. Defamation laws are confusing to me so this week has been hard and helpful.
This week we also learned about the power of words. Chapter
11 discusses the importance of being cognizant of language that belittles,
objectifies or discriminates against individuals. After reading this chapter, I
looked for examples of belittling or demeaning language in both written and
spoken word.
Chapter 11 talks about Sexism and “the Myth of the Generic
He.”
“When you use he you communicate maleness whether or not it’s your
intention. “
I saw an example of this when I was visiting my grandparents this week. I was helping my grandparents set up their CPAP and as I read through the instruction manual I was amazed by the
sexist language.
The manual reads:
“He snoozes, He loses?”
“Take pity on the snorer, he may wreak bedtime havoc on his
bunkmate, but his snoring may also signal that something serious is going on
under the hood.”
With election season upon us there have been several demeaning
comments. Back in June, Donald Trump commented on the ethnicity of Judge
Gonzalo Curiel who was overseeing the fraud case against Trump University.
Trump used demeaning language by saying Curiel was a “hater” who was unfair to
him because he is “Hispanic” and “Mexican” and because Trump is building a
wall. This is an example of racist language.
The last example I found relates to Ageism which is
discussed in Chapter 11. Listed below is the trailer for the movie the Intern- this movie has
some great examples of Ageism. As you can see from this clip, the interviewers assume that Ben is slow and forgetful because of his age. In our Society Seniors are often discriminated
against and have an especially difficult time finding jobs. In the Intern
several of the characters do not believe that Ben or the other Seniors are up
for the tasks at hand.
I found this grammar error on the internet this week. This
should read “Employees must was their hands before returning to work!”
I love this movie! It actually came to my mind when I was reading about Ageism. Good clip :)
ReplyDelete