Violence in language or language that violates. Gender equity and language

Abstract

Through language, human beings can represent ideas, feelings, emotions and also name objects. We apprehend the world around us and the reality that is offered to us. We learn to represent the world and thus to possess it. Language is transformed into practice through discourse, but not only that: discourse is transformed into practices or, as it is said in psychoanalysis: the word becomes an act. Within language we also find schemes that typify human experience: how to resolve common situations, what treatment certain objects or persons deserve. Within these typifications, gender as a category shows us what men and women should be: what they are, how they should behave, how they should be treated.