In this vitally important and engaging text, leading feminist linguist, Deborah Cameron, explores the role of language and discourse in perpetuating sexism and misogyny in the twenty-first century. Covering how the linguistic expression of prejudice against women has evolved during the last fifty years, the author of the blog, Language: A feminist guide, pays attention both to the persistence of familiar problems, such as the dominance of men in many interactional settings and to the emergence of new challenges, such as the global rise of misogynist extremism online. The book provides students and general readers with an up-to-date survey of ideas, debates and research on a wide range of key topics, including sexist attitudes to women’s speech, verbal sexual harassment in public spaces offline and online, biases in vocabulary and grammar, the discourse of the online "manosphere" and the way violence against women is reported by the news media. Moreover, Cameron/the author outlines the efforts activists have made to change sexist and misogynist language, asking what has been achieved so far, and how a new generation is addressing current concerns. Accessible, non-technical and informed by scholarship from a wide range of disciplines from linguistics and anthropology to history, media studies and sociology, this text is essential reading for courses on language and gender in English Language, linguistics, women’s and gender studies, media and communication studies.

Using language - speaking and understanding it - is a defining ability of human beings, woven into all human activity. It is therefore inevitable that it should be deeply implicated in the design, production and use of buildings. Building legislation, design guides, competition and other briefs, architectural criticism, teaching and scholarly material, and the media all produce their characteristic texts.
The authors use texts about such projects as Berlin's new Reichstag, Scotland's new Parliament, and the Auschwitz concentration camp museum to clarify the interaction between texts, design, critical debate and response.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203360362

In this vitally important and engaging text, leading feminist linguist, Deborah Cameron, explores the role of language and discourse in perpetuating sexism and misogyny in the twenty-first century. Covering how the linguistic expression of prejudice against women has evolved during the last fifty years, the author of the blog, Language: A feminist guide, pays attention both to the persistence of familiar problems, such as the dominance of men in many interactional settings and to the emergence of new challenges, such as the global rise of misogynist extremism online. The book provides students and general readers with an up-to-date survey of ideas, debates and research on a wide range of key topics, including sexist attitudes to women’s speech, verbal sexual harassment in public spaces offline and online, biases in vocabulary and grammar, the discourse of the online "manosphere" and the way violence against women is reported by the news media. Moreover, Cameron/the author outlines the efforts activists have made to change sexist and misogynist language, asking what has been achieved so far, and how a new generation is addressing current concerns. Accessible, non-technical and informed by scholarship from a wide range of disciplines from linguistics and anthropology to history, media studies and sociology, this text is essential reading for courses on language and gender in English Language, linguistics, women’s and gender studies, media and communication studies.

'Feminism' wrote Marie Shear in 1986, 'is the radical notion that women are people'. But, simple and powerful though this definition is, feminism is not a single, clear narrative. It doesn't begin with a specific event at a particular moment in time, it can't be identified with any one political organization or movement, and it isn't defined by the contributions of a handful of great thinkers.

Here, Professor Deborah Cameron unpicks the various strands that constitute one of history's most important intellectual and political movements. In her clear and incisive account, she discusses oppression, sexuality, violence, academic theory and practical activism, shows how feminism can be a way of viewing the world and provides an overview of its history.

In an era of #metoo, pay gap scandals and online harrassment, it's impossible to deny that gender inequality is a fact of life. And as long as that continues to be true, we will need to understand and engage with the ideas and history of the feminist movement.

Gender, Power and Political Speech explores the influence of gender on political speech by analyzing the performances of three female party leaders who took part in televised debates during the 2015 UK General Election campaign. The analysis considers similarities and differences between the women and their male colleagues, as well as between the women themselves; it also discusses the way gender - and its relationship to language - was taken up as an issue in media coverage of the campaign.

Originally published in 1992. This book discusses the possibilities of developing the research process in social science so that it benefits the subjects as well as the researcher. The authors distinguish between 'ethical', 'advocate' and 'empowering' approaches to the relationship between researcher and researched, linking these to different ideas about the nature of knowledge, action, language, and social relations. They then use a series of empirical case studies to explore the possibilities for 'empowering research'. The book is the product of dialogue between researchers from a range of disciplines (anthropology, cultural studies, sociology and linguistics) and is for those working across the social sciences. Through combination of philosophical discussion, methodological recommendation and case-study illustration, it provides guidance that is practical without being simplistic.

This book is about moral talk in contemporary British political discourse, drawing on speeches, debates and radio phone-ins. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, Spencer-Bennett explores the language people use to communicate moral judgement and highlights the relations between the things that people say, the contexts in which they are said and the circulating ideologies about meaning and morality. This is key reading for students and scholars studying language, politics and critical discourse analysis, within linguistics and anthropology.

Working with Spoken Discourse provides a comprehensive account of the expanding multidisciplinary field of discourse analysis. Combining theory and practice it covers a wide range of material in a lively and accessible style. It discusses current approaches, concepts and debates in the field of spoken discourse and provides a grounding in the practical techniques of discourse analysis and how to apply them to real data. Working with Spoken Discourse is divided into three sections. The first section covers general issues - the definition of "discourse" and uses of discourse analysis, the second section covers a series of approaches to discourse analysis and the final section focuses on the applications of discourse analysis in social research and designing and writing up projects.

In Verbal Hygiene, Deborah Cameron takes a serious look at popular attitudes towards language and examines the practices by which people attempt to regulate its use. Instead of dismissing the practice of 'verbal hygiene', as a misguided and pernicious exercise, she argues that popular discourse about language values - good and bad, right and wrong - serves an important function for those engaged in it. A series of case studies deal with specific examples of verbal hygiene: the regulation of 'style' by editors, the teaching of English grammar in schools, the movements for and against so-called 'politically correct' language and the advice given to women on how they can speak more effectively. This Routledge Linguistics Classic includes a new foreword which looks at how the issues covered in the case studies have developed over time and a new afterword which discusses new concerns which have emerged in the last 15 years, from the regimentation of language in the workplace to panics about immigration and terrorism, which are expressed in linguistic terms. Addressed to linguists, to professional language-users of all kinds, and to anyone interested in language and culture, Verbal Hygiene calls for legitimate concerns about language and value to be discussed, by experts and lay-speakers alike, in a rational and critical spirit.

This book is about moral talk in contemporary British political discourse, drawing on speeches, debates and radio phone-ins. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, Spencer-Bennett explores the language people use to communicate moral judgement and highlights the relations between the things that people say, the contexts in which they are said and the circulating ideologies about meaning and morality. This is key reading for students and scholars studying language, politics and critical discourse analysis, within linguistics and anthropology.

This highly accessible collection of articles presents a selection of Deborah Cameron's work on language, gender and sex in one single volume. Arranged thematically, this book covers major developments in Anglo-American feminist linguistics, and Cameron's responses to these, spanning the last twenty years.
The collection's overarching theme is the political relationship between language and gender: four distinctly themed sections demonstrate that a variety of forces affect gender relations, and gender representations, in different times and places. Cameron examines the connections between language and the (mis)representation of reality, and the role language plays in reproducing gender inequalities. More recent articles focus on representations of men and women as communicators, as well as the impact of sexuality on gender and gender relations, an increasingly prominent area of the author's research.
This timely work brings much of Cameron's work together for the first time, and highlights characteristics of that work with which many readers will be familiar: a combination of linguistic and feminist political orientation; and a distinct focus on conflict in gender relations. Including a new introductory essay and eleven articles, three of which are previously unpublished, with short introductions to contextualize each piece, the collection will be extremely useful to students and teachers on a variety of courses including English Language and Linguistics, women's studies, gender studies and communication studies.

Using language - speaking and understanding it - is a defining ability of human beings, woven into all human activity. It is therefore inevitable that it should be deeply implicated in the design, production and use of buildings. Building legislation, design guides, competition and other briefs, architectural criticism, teaching and scholarly material, and the media all produce their characteristic texts.
The authors use texts about such projects as Berlin's new Reichstag, Scotland's new Parliament, and the Auschwitz concentration camp museum to clarify the interaction between texts, design, critical debate and response.

This book considers the issues globalization raises for second language learning and teaching. Block and Cameron's collection shows how, in an economy based on services and information, the linguistic skills of workers becomes increasingly important. New technologies make possible new kinds of language teaching, and language becomes an economic commodity with a value in the global marketplace. This has implications for how and why people learn languages, and for which languages they learn.
Drawing together the various strands of the globalization debate, this rich and varied collection of contributions explores issues such as:
* The commodification of language(s) and language skills
* The use of new media and new technologies in language learning and teaching
* The effects of globalization on the language teaching industry
* New forms of power and resistance.

This book considers the issues globalization raises for second language learning and teaching. Block and Cameron's collection shows how, in an economy based on services and information, the linguistic skills of workers becomes increasingly important. New technologies make possible new kinds of language teaching, and language becomes an economic commodity with a value in the global marketplace. This has implications for how and why people learn languages, and for which languages they learn.
Drawing together the various strands of the globalization debate, this rich and varied collection of contributions explores issues such as:
*The commodification of language(s) and language skills
*The use of new media and new technologies in language learning and teaching
*The effects of globalization on the language teaching industry
*New forms of power and resistance.

Full Contributors:
Maria Black and Rosalind Coward, Ann Bodine, Deborah Cameron, Kate Clark, Jennifer Coates, Margaret Doyle, Susan Ehrlich and Ruth King, Pamela Fishman, Kira Hall, Douglas Hofstadter, Lucie Irigaray, Otto Jespersen, Cora Kaplan, Robin Lakoff, Sally McConnell-Ginet, Sara Mills, Trin T. Minh-ha, Felly Nkweto Simmonds, Dale Spender, Deborah Tannen, Aki Uchida, Virginia Woolf

The Feminist Critique of Language is both an established guide to the major debates and directions in current feminist thinking about language and a digest of the history of twentieth century feminist ideas about language.
This new edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded to take account of new developments in feminist debates about language and includes new material on:
* sexist language and political correctness
* and new extracts from: Felly Nkweto Simmonds, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Luce Irigaray, Sara Mills, Margaret Doyle, Debbie Cameron, Susan Ehrlich and Ruth King, Kate Clark, Sally McConnell-Ginet, Deborah Tannen, Aki Uchida, Jennifer Coates and Kira Hall.
Each section has been subdivided to clarify the key areas of debate and new editorial material and further reading sections have been added.

This collection of essays presents a picture of research on women and language in Britain. The contributors cover a range of British speech communities, linguistic events and settings using approaches from sociolinguistics and discourse analysis.

Originally published in 1992. This book discusses the possibilities of developing the research process in social science so that it benefits the subjects as well as the researcher. The authors distinguish between 'ethical', 'advocate' and 'empowering' approaches to the relationship between researcher and researched, linking these to different ideas about the nature of knowledge, action, language, and social relations. They then use a series of empirical case studies to explore the possibilities for 'empowering research'. The book is the product of dialogue between researchers from a range of disciplines (anthropology, cultural studies, sociology and linguistics) and is for those working across the social sciences. Through combination of philosophical discussion, methodological recommendation and case-study illustration, it provides guidance that is practical without being simplistic.

A collection of essays, most published for the first time, which present a picture of research on women and language in Britain. The contributors cover a range of British speech communities, linguistic events and settings using approaches from sociolinguistics and discourse analysis.

The Language and Sexuality Reader is the first collection to bring together historical and contemporary writings from a range of academic disciplines to explore the connections between sex as a domain of human experience and the language we use to speak and write about it. The topics addressed by contributors include gay slang and gay speech styles; the language of drag performances, personal ads, Nepali love letters and Japanese schoolgirl fiction; what counts as 'having sex' and whether 'marriage' has to be heterosexual by definition; the communication of sexual desire, consent and refusal; and how heterosexuals reveal themselves in ordinary conversation.
Bringing together material from fields including anthropology, communication studies, linguistics, medicine and psychology, the text begins by guiding students through early work in the field, which focused on homosexual language-use and its difference from the heterosexual mainstream. The second part of the reader widens the focus: moving away from the generic labels 'homosexual' and 'heterosexual', it explores the diversity of linguistic and sexual practices as documented and debated among scholars from the mid-1990s to the present.
Organised in thematic sections, the Reader addresses
- The origins and development of language and sexuality research from the 1940s to the 1980s
- The use people make of language to perform sexuality and sexual identity
- How language reflects, reinforces or challenges norms defining what is 'natural' and desirable in the sphere of sex
- The verbal communication of sexual desire

This highly accessible collection of articles presents a selection of Deborah Cameron's work on language, gender and sex in one single volume. Arranged thematically, this book covers major developments in Anglo-American feminist linguistics, and Cameron's responses to these, spanning the last twenty years.
The collection's overarching theme is the political relationship between language and gender: four distinctly themed sections demonstrate that a variety of forces affect gender relations, and gender representations, in different times and places. Cameron examines the connections between language and the (mis)representation of reality, and the role language plays in reproducing gender inequalities. More recent articles focus on representations of men and women as communicators, as well as the impact of sexuality on gender and gender relations, an increasingly prominent area of the author's research.
This timely work brings much of Cameron's work together for the first time, and highlights characteristics of that work with which many readers will be familiar: a combination of linguistic and feminist political orientation; and a distinct focus on conflict in gender relations. Including a new introductory essay and eleven articles, three of which are previously unpublished, with short introductions to contextualize each piece, the collection will be extremely useful to students and teachers on a variety of courses including English Language and Linguistics, women's studies, gender studies and communication studies.

The Language and Sexuality Reader is the first collection to bring together historical and contemporary writings from a range of academic disciplines to explore the connections between sex as a domain of human experience and the language we use to speak and write about it. The topics addressed by contributors include gay slang and gay speech styles; the language of drag performances, personal ads, Nepali love letters and Japanese schoolgirl fiction; what counts as 'having sex' and whether 'marriage' has to be heterosexual by definition; the communication of sexual desire, consent and refusal; and how heterosexuals reveal themselves in ordinary conversation.
Bringing together material from fields including anthropology, communication studies, linguistics, medicine and psychology, the text begins by guiding students through early work in the field, which focused on homosexual language-use and its difference from the heterosexual mainstream. The second part of the reader widens the focus: moving away from the generic labels 'homosexual' and 'heterosexual', it explores the diversity of linguistic and sexual practices as documented and debated among scholars from the mid-1990s to the present.
Organised in thematic sections, the Reader addresses
- The origins and development of language and sexuality research from the 1940s to the 1980s
- The use people make of language to perform sexuality and sexual identity
- How language reflects, reinforces or challenges norms defining what is 'natural' and desirable in the sphere of sex
- The verbal communication of sexual desire

In Verbal Hygiene, Deborah Cameron takes a serious look at popular attitudes towards language and examines the practices by which people attempt to regulate its use. Instead of dismissing the practice of 'verbal hygiene', as a misguided and pernicious exercise, she argues that popular discourse about language values - good and bad, right and wrong - serves an important function for those engaged in it. A series of case studies deal with specific examples of verbal hygiene: the regulation of 'style' by editors, the teaching of English grammar in schools, the movements for and against so-called 'politically correct' language and the advice given to women on how they can speak more effectively. This Routledge Linguistics Classic includes a new foreword which looks at how the issues covered in the case studies have developed over time and a new afterword which discusses new concerns which have emerged in the last 15 years, from the regimentation of language in the workplace to panics about immigration and terrorism, which are expressed in linguistic terms. Addressed to linguists, to professional language-users of all kinds, and to anyone interested in language and culture, Verbal Hygiene calls for legitimate concerns about language and value to be discussed, by experts and lay-speakers alike, in a rational and critical spirit.

Popular assumptions about gender and communication - famously summed up in the title of the massively influential 1992 bestseller Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus - can have unforeseen but far-reaching consequences in many spheres of life, from attitudes to the phenomenon of 'date-rape' to expectations of achievement at school, and potential discrimination in the work-place. In this wide-ranging and thoroughly readable book, Deborah Cameron, Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at Oxford University and author of a number of leading texts in the field of language and gender studies, draws on over 30 years of scientific research to explain what we really know and to demonstrate how this is often very different from the accounts we are familiar with from recent popular writing. Ambitious in scope and exceptionally accessible, The Myth of Mars and Venus tells it like it is: widely accepted attitudes from the past and from other cultures are at heart related to assumptions about language and the place of men and women in society; and there is as much similarity and variation within each gender as between men and women, often associated with social roles and relationships. The author goes on to consider the influence of Darwinian theories of natural selection and the notion that girls and boys are socialized during childhood into different ways of using language, before addressing problems of 'miscommunication' surrounding, for example, sex and consent to sex, and women's relative lack of success in work and politics. Arguing that what linguistic differences there are between men and women are driven by the need to construct and project personal meaning and identity, Cameron concludes that we have an urgent need to think about gender in more complex ways than the prevailing myths and stereotypes allow. A compelling and insightful read for anyone with an interest in communication, language, and the sexes.