Men Masculinities And Language Essay

Upon a recent review of my submission for Assignment One of the Introduction to Language and Linguistics course, I realize that I have gained a different and enriched perspective of my own personal linguistic history. The hyper masculine influence that my father tried to instil in me during my childhood reflects little on how I use language today. A review of the article, “Men, Masculinities, and Language” provides me with further insight into the possible reasons my father was so forcefully insistent that my lexical choices properly reflected the hypermasculinity I was expected to exude during my childhood. On the other hand, my mother’s influence indirectly brought me an awareness of social class structures and how my lexical choices properly portrayed my socioeconomic status. She was relentlessly concerned with correcting the dialect I used, insisting I speak to more appropriately reflect the degree of prestige that she felt reflected our family’s socioeconomic status. Ultimately, the knowledge that I have gained from this course has helped me to have a more robust understanding of why my

Thirty years ago, father had very strong beliefs in how men should act and speak; as such, he wanted to bestow this behaviour upon me. My father’s child-rearing practices, however questionable they may be, further demonstrate Kiesling’s notion that there is a gender-based linguistic dichotomy: how men think and speak conforms to and “mutually reinforces” ideas of masculinity (Kiesling, 2007). Because I was not following my father’s hyper masculine example, he went to great lengths to teach me how to ‘be a man’. As it turns out, his efforts were for naught; I am hardly a prime example of stereotypical masculinity. Incidentally, I am proud to say that my father’s hypermasculinity has quelled somewhat over the