Tolmach Lakoff's Oppression Of Women

Tolmach Lakoff (1975) in her attention to masculinity and men´s use of language suggested that gendered linguistic norms for men served as ways of portraying an engagement with power. This issue was addressed not only with respect to men of different social classes but also to men whose political or occupational identities distant them from masculine norms. Tolmach Lakoff´s work led the way for those men who may choose to resist the trend of masculinity. There is also a dominant and degrading discussion on women´s desire to “having it all” (usually as one of the female form of greed) or the rise of the “supermom” and the “soccer mom”. According to her, such words clearly indicate that women´s status is still not equal to men´s: it is normal

Hence, she said it will be impossible to take out ‘gender’ from the political and cultural meeting point in which it is always produced and maintained” (Butler 1999:06). She pointed out that the political assumption that there must be a general fundamental principle or stand point for feminism, one which must be found in an identity assumed to exist in every culture and situation, often goes along with the notion that the oppression of women has some particular form discernible in the general or hegemonic structure of patriarchy or male domination. Moreover, gender is not a generalized topic and the ideology of universal patriarchy has been criticized by so many for not stating the issue of gender suppression in accordance to it cultural context in which it is found” ( Butler 1999:06). On the other hand, in as much as universal patriarchy may no longer enjoy its position of being generally accepted as before, it is difficult to get rid of the general shared conception of women. There have been so many debates; “is there a feature held in common among ‘women’ that existed before the suppression or do ‘women’ have a bond as a result of their oppression alone? Is there a particular issue in women´s cultures that is independent of their secondary position by hegemonic, male dominant cultures? Are the specificity and honesty of women´s cultural or linguistic practices always stated against and hence, within the terms of some more dominant cultural formation? ” (see Butler 1999:07).There is an unhealthy assumption that the term “women” denotes a common identity and the word women has become a troublesome term, site of contest and a cause for uneasiness or the fear of the unknown. Language is one of those main practices that