The document discusses several topics related to feminist sociolinguistics including: 1) Differences in language and cultural traditions that reflect biases against the left side of the body and by extension women, 2) Differences between orthodox and gnostic religions in their treatment of women and sexuality, portrayals of Eve in the Bible, and abstinence-only education, 3) Historical changes in the meaning of words related to female sexuality and power, 4) Quotes about restricting women's access to language and knowledge in the 1500s.

1. Slide One: Feminist Sociolinguistics<br />None<br />Slide Two: Evolutionary Psychology<br />-“If a right-handed person has a major stroke in the controlling left hemisphere, with few exceptions, a catastrophic deficit of speech, right-sided muscle paralysis and/or dysfunction in abstract thinking will occur. Conversely, damage to the right brain will impair the afflicted person’s ability to solve spatial problems, recognize faces, appreciate music, besides paralyzing the left side of the body” (Shalin 18)<br />-- Female strength: right brain<br />-Female strength: verbal capabilities, used to pass down culture and traditions to children<br />-Right brain traits ensure social safety, left hand is linked with right brain<br />- “Many cultures use the left hand exclusively to aid in the elimination of feces and urine and consider it unclean, reserving the right hand for eating. The evidence that these prejudices still persist resides in our language. To be left out, to be served left-overs, to receive a left-handed compliment, or to be left in the lurch reflects the negative connotation associated with this side, and by extension, the right hemisphere. The word for left in Italian is sinistra. The word sinister in English comes from the same root. In French, left is gauche, which also means clumsy. Droit, the right, means correct” (Shlain 26).<br />-Cones: male, Rods: female; cones developed from hunting, more specific to humans than any other animal species<br />-Cones function in a liner fashion, linked with left-brain, reads one-at-a-time and scrutinizes<br />-Rods are based at viewing the world all-at-once, intuiting gesture and bodily communication, more linked with female.<br />-Cones used more for reading<br />-In speaking, both hands and cones and rods are used.<br />Slide Three: Religion<br />-“The ruling elite of the 1500’s took pains to keep this high explosive out of women’s hands, muzzling 80 percent of the population with enforced illiteracy. ‘Rhetoric in all its forms,’ declaimed the authorities, ‘lies outside the province of women.’ Those who rebelled were forced into marriageless obscurity and social exile” (Prioleau 121).<br />-Orthodox: written scriptures and divine revelation. Gnostic: spiritual instructions were given and received orally.<br />-Orthodox: misogynisitc, literal biblical interpretations, written records, wiped out Gnostics, celibacy and purity, demonize sexuality: “sin”<br />-Gnostics: equality, symbolic interpretations, oral traditions.<br />-“Because Adam and Eve are characterized as they are, human history and social relationships are set in order in such a way that certain possibilities are excluded” (112).<br />-Eve took the apple, punished for knowledge and sexuality, suffering and death in childbirth<br />-Last commandment: women listed as property, alongside donkey and house<br />-The biblical word for wife, beluah, meant “owned”<br />-Eve is made from one of Adam’s ribs, literally supporting a man.<br />-Hebrew word for rib, Tsela, was “stumbling”<br />-Lilith, Adam’s first wife, omitted from mainstream knowledge, ‘Why should I lie beneath you,’ she demanded, ‘when I am your equal since both of us were created from dust?’ <br />- Abstinence education: girls told that condoms are highly effective and won’t prevent HIV, HPV shot will increase promiscuity, promiscuity increases depression and lowers grades, skin-to-skin contact can transmit an STI, you can get pregnant just by touching someone else’s genitals, STI from someone else’s tears, swallowing bleach to avoid an STI, premarital sex against the law<br />Slide Four: Language and Body<br />- Cunt was a female title of power and respect, a slut or prostitute was sought for safe haven and cleansing, and whores were holy<br />Slide Five: Language and Body<br />- “The very word ‘erotic’ comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects - born of Chaos, and personifying creative creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the life-force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.” <br />Slide Six: Language and Body<br />None<br />Slide Seven: Language and Body<br />None<br />Slide Eight: Language and Body<br />None<br />Slide Nine: Language and Body<br />- There have been several scenarios that Emma Salazar, Community Education Coordinator of local organization, SASO (Sexual Assault Services Organization), has encountered during her Bystander Intervention sessions in high school classrooms where girls have reportedly said, “Well, what does it matter if she was raped? She’s a slut,” implying: it doesn’t count, she couldn’t have been violated if she’s “easy.”<br />Slide Ten: History<br />None<br />Slide Eleven: History<br />None<br />