🧵 8/8

And right to the end, she retained a sharp, mischievous clarity, memorably skewering AI hype by boasting about keeping her cheese scone recipe “stored in my brain.”

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵 7/8

Beyond academia, Cameron was a committed feminist activist & an influential public intellectual. Generations of students & readers trace their intellectual trajectories back to her work—Caroline Criado Perez among them.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵 6/8

She challenged popular myths & brought discourse analysis into public conversations without diluting its rigour. She was also unapologetically plain-spoken, sceptical of censorship & unafraid to be unpopular when principles were at stake.

#langsky #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵 5/8

What made her work so powerful was its reach. She wrote with equal seriousness about everyday conversation, workplace talk, political speech, misogyny, sexuality & violence.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵 4/8

Long before “woke” became a cultural flashpoint, Cameron was already analysing how the politics of definition silences debate by loading words with contempt.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵 3/

She also gave us concepts that now feel indispensable.

Verbal hygiene named the impulse to police language—often under the banner of politeness or correctness—& exposed how such “tidying up” can mask fear, control & inequality.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵2/8

Feminism & Linguistic Theory became a foundational text not because it offered easy answers but because it dismantled comforting myths, especially the idea that gendered differences in speech are natural or inevitable.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

🧵 1/8

Cameron was a scholar who refused neat boundaries. Her work showed, again & again, that language is never neutral: it is political, contextual & deeply implicated in power.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

Deborah Cameron obituary Linguist, feminist activist and author of influential books on how language can shape gendered experiences

I first remember hearing about Deborah Cameron during my A-Levels. I went on to read her work with growing fascination.

Her death at 67 is a huge loss to linguistics, feminism & public intellectual life.

🔗 tinyurl.com/4jkjkubn

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#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #language #feminism

Our fifth publication by Slemp (2021) looks at how people use and react to #genderinclusivelanguage in #Spanish on #Twitter. She made a survey after building her own #corpus and found generally favorable attitudes! wally.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/de...

#languageandgender #languageattitudes

View of He, (s)he/she, and they

Our second publication by O'Neill (2021) examines gender and language ideologies and examines how they affect gendered language reform. Check it out below!
wally.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/de...

#languageandgender #genderneutrallanguage #genderfairlanguage #languagereform #antisexistlanguage

We've just published our two newest issues! Check them out on our website: wally.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/de...
#linguistics #appliedlinguistics #yorkuniversity #studentjournal #languageandgender #pronunciation #literacy #feminism #satire #reclamation

🧵 7/7

The broader question raised in the article is important: If women leaders cannot name gendered criticism without being accused of overreacting, how can organisations, institutions & public discourse move forward?

#langsky #linguistics #politics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

🧵 6/7

Women in public life are expected to absorb sexist behaviour & face criticism for pointing it out. Legitimate policy challenge can (& should) happen — but research shows it often coexists with patterns of unequal authority.

#langsky #linguistics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

🧵 5/7

Labels like “Rachel from accounts” don’t just mock — they implicitly place women in subordinate, clerical roles rather than positions of strategic authority.

Crucially, there is no male equivalent.

#langsky #linguistics #language #politics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

🧵 4/7

The research evidence is overwhelming:

– Female politicians are more likely to be covered in terms of appearance or personality.

– Women must often exceed male colleagues merely to be judged equally competent.

#langsky #linguistics #politics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

🧵 3/7

Economics & politics are fields historically dominated by men & the “default expert” in the public imagination remains male. Distinguishing legitimate scrutiny from gendered dismissal becomes more complex for women.

#langsky #linguistics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

🧵 2/7

Mansplaining describes a well-documented pattern - explanations delivered with unwarranted confidence, grounded in the assumption that the male explainer holds superior authority — even when speaking to an expert.

#langsky #linguistics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

🧵 1/7

This isn’t about defending any particular policy decision. It’s about the tone, assumptions & gendered framing that shape how women in power are judged.

#langsky #linguistics #language #politics #politicalcommunication #mansplaining #RachelReeves #languageandgender

‘Mansplaining’ is different from other criticism – and Rachel Reeves is right to call it out Women in public life often experience gendered behaviour but are punished for pointing it out.

A new piece for @theconversation.com explores Rachel Reeves’s recent comments about being “mansplained” to & uses it to examine a much wider issue: the authority gap women face in public life.

🔗 tinyurl.com/2ftme8yv

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#langsky #linguistics #politics #politicalcommunication #languageandgender

Nice to meet you.(!) Gendered norms in punctuation usage People face a myriad of daily decisions about how to communicate, especially in today's digital world. We consider the decision to use exclamation poi…

TLDR (4/4):

Read the research behind the article by @theguardian.com here: tinyurl.com/4yhpajpb

#langsky #linguistics #appliedlinguistics #language #languageandgender #languageandpower #punctuation #research

TLDR (3/4):

It’s a perfect example of how linguistic behaviour reflects wider cultural expectations — especially in digital communication, where tone is easy to misread & warmth must be performed.

#langsky #linguistics #appliedlinguistics #language #languageandgender #languageandpower #punctuation

TLDR (2/4):

But there’s a catch: while exclamation-heavy messages are perceived as warmer, they’re also judged as less analytical & less authoritative.

The same mark that builds approachability can quietly undermine credibility.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #languageandpower

TLDR (1/4):

Women, the study found, use exclamation marks three times as often as men. Not because they’re naturally more excitable, but because society has conditioned them to appear friendly, warm, & non-threatening — even in writing.

#langsky #linguistics #languageandgender #languageandpower

Exclamation marks! Why do women use them three times as much as men? It’s the punctuation that can make you seem warmer and more agreeable – but also much more compliant and lacking in analytical thinking

It’s easy to dismiss the humble exclamation mark as harmless enthusiasm — but new research suggests it says a lot about gender, communication, & power.

🔗 tinyurl.com/bdd994dy

TLDR 👇

#langsky #linguistics #appliedlinguistics #language #languageandgender #languageandpower #punctuation

Started reading this classic😃It's always nice to read those older books that established the field of study you are working in. #LanguageAndGender #Sociolinguistics #Feminism #LanguageAndWomansPlace