Study 2 Question 3:
Why might people perceive language as neutral?
Many of the interviewees mentioned friends, family members, or themselves
when judging a statement to be feminine, masculine, or neutral. This suggests
that these participants based their perceptions of gender on the actions
and statements of the sex of the people they knew. However, there were
three who did not mention friends, family members, or themselves. Sam
and Rick, both in the male varied category, and Luglar, female neutral,
did not mention friends, family or self. The only male in the neutral
category, Zach, often thought of friends, family members, and himself
when choosing a gender for the statements. It would be interesting to
study more neutral males to see if they also consider people they know
and that is why they choose neutral, or if they looked at things more
generally like Rick and Sam. Perhaps the more general perspective of Rick
and Sam allowed them to bring in stereotypes
and cultural expectations to judge what is feminine, masculine, or
neutral. Perhaps Zach did not consider the stereotypes because he dealt
with real examples and he found that many people he knew, feminine, female,
masculine, or male, would say these things. He did say he "wants
to believe in equality." Perhaps part of his believing is rejecting
stereotypes and basing opinions on people. This suggests the possibility
of stereotypes and real-life examples influencing people's perceptions
of gender, however this is inconclusive and should be further
studied.
The results from the females were also inconclusive. The remaining four
of the five females also frequently mentioned other people when choosing
a gender. Both those in the neutral and those in the varied categories
mentioned similar reasons for choosing answers. Their answers seemed to
depend on what they could "see" when hearing the speaker, and
if they knew anyone who would say it.
Participants | Procedure | Analysis and Results: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, Question 4 | Discussion