Sexism, Language, and Women: A Study of Some Proverbial Expressions Used in the Barpeta District of Assam, India

Abstract

Today, issues related to gender and sexism in language have received unprecedented critical attention, because the language used to represent women in our society is typically gendered. A woman often faces different nuances of gender stereotyping to which one is exposed since one’s childhood—at home, in the locality, in schools and in the day-to-day social exchanges. Hence, there is an urgent need to explore the emotional, domestic, cultural and social territories as well as the personal spaces of women and discuss how in our society, the politics of language influences our perceptions about women. This paper is based on an area specific research conducted on the sexist proverbial expressions on women by the Assamese speaking people of the Barpeta district of the state of Assam, India. The research is based on locally available secondary sources. Proverbial expressions treating women negatively are only used as part of the research. The important finding of the research is that the embodiment of sexism in the proverbial expressions in Assam often assign an inferior status to women and that, from local to global, biasness against women is still widespread despite rising awareness about the politics of language in a homosocial world.