Spanish Language: The Battle of Genders

Whenever the topic of Spanish machismo comes up, I’m never sure which position I should take, that of a language specialist or a language user (as a woman and mother of two girls, I’m also a victim of machismo). Sometimes I mix the two positions and end up becoming a language specialist victim.

As a language specialist, whenever I discuss the topic with friends, I always ask them to be specific. What exactly are we talking about here, biological gender or grammatical gender?  I think a distinction must be made there, and within that distinction we should maybe even include lexical gender.

The animal kingdom clearly has gender (think Spanish words like gata and gato, león and leona), but el café is masculine and la leche is feminine for linguistic reasons that remain woven into the historical fabric of the language. Defining el café as masculine or feminine is just a useful resource that provides coherency to texts and conversations (all languages have their own resources and this is one that Spanish just happens to have, attempting to reject it would be quite impossible):

Another important distinction is that of gender in lexical contexts: to refer to two or more parents that may include mothers we say padres, to refer to hermanos and hermanas we say hermanos. It’s another resource that Spanish provides to cover communicative needs, but this one ruffles a few feathers. As a language specialist, I know that the –o ending is just the generic form, but as a user, I’m not going to argue with anyone that finds lines like “los alumnos de ESO” discriminatory.

There are books that advise speakers to adopt generic terms such as: el alumnado, which although is still a masculine word, it clearly describes a group and doesn’t make anyone feel alienated. As a language specialist, I consider something else: what about the right that speakers have to use feminine generic terms when referring to a group that includes an equal or greater number of females compared to males? I have honestly never heard anyone exercising that right, and as an advocate of linguistic gender equality, I don’t even really ever do it comfortably in casual speech, and when I do it’s quite conscious, even kind of forced, but I use it because I think it’s a good idea to consider it and spread its usage. As a Spanish teacher, I want my students to be aware that they can use it. The fact that its usage is rare and not automatic shows that it has not been adopted at all, and in my opinion, if we women who are consciously fighting against machismo don’t even use it, it’s because we don’t consider it an important part of the battle. It doesn’t really bother me to be included in references like: profesores, españoles, padres and hermanos.  That doesn’t seem to me to be machismo, but a simple linguistic resource. In this regard, I recommend reading Ignacio Bosque’s report entitled “Sexismo lingüístico y visisbilidad de la mujer”.

Machismo in Spanish Culture

Then there’s sexism that has nothing to do with language but which has to do with culture: that type that is illustrated by the classic example of the words zorro/zorra. It’s an example that shows how machismo is a part of Spain’s historic culture and embedded in its views. It’s a machismo that I’d like to eradicate, but I think it will only be eradicated when our conceptions change, and those will only change when our society has achieved total equality. And that for me is a desirable goal.

For example: "Los galardonados vendrán acompañados de sus esposas". I don’t doubt that there could be women among the award winners, but what I do doubt is that there are esposos among the esposas, or couples among them. That’s just one example, and it’s not the most offensive. I think it is important to revise our writing and our documents to avoid these types of affirmations, beginning with the Royal Spanish Academy, which should eliminate entries like the third definition they’ve listed for the verb gozar.

In conclusion, I think revising texts and the use  of words is a good thing, just like I think that stopping to think about sexism is healthy, important, and just a great idea. But we should understand that language is made from a collective consensus, not an imposing minority, no matter how well intentioned it may be. Controversy in any case is positive, especially if it is followed by critical reflection.