About

This is a feminist blog about language (in fact, mostly the English language), written by a feminist who’s also a linguist. In this space I’ll try to address some frequently asked questions, debunk some common myths, and ponder some of the linguistic dilemmas confronting feminists in the 21st century.

26 thoughts on “About”

  1. I love some of these pieces and plan to use them with my students. No one ever seems to want to address the structural problems. It seems that some have decided that it’s better to fix the ‘symptoms’, especially as they manifest in the people who are the victims of those same structural problems.

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  2. Thank you so much for writing these blog posts! I took my first linguistics class at Stanford during my freshman year and we lightly touched on this topics, but never quite had the time to flesh our ideas out, particularly regarding biases against women’s voices. It’s refreshing to have this discussion continue in postgrad -keep up the great work!

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  4. I admire what you’re writing and the linguistic aspects of it. As a linguist, you gave me more aspects in the world of language. I look forward to know and learn more.

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  5. I studied some of your work as part of my English Language A-Level – it will be interesting to see what else you have to say on Language and Gender!

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  7. If you’d seen the comments I was getting when they were open you would be less surprised. Feminists get abuse from MRAs, linguists get abuse from pedants and prescriptivists, I found the combo was just too time-consuming to moderate

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  8. I figured as much, but had hoped that there might still be places on the internet where open discourse can happen without people resorting to insults.
    It comes from a place of fear, so I guess we should empathize with them, but it is hard when people are seemingly purposefully ignorant.
    What happened to the concept of disagreements and discussions. It seems nowadays everyone takes everything so personally, and never even considers the chance that their opinions may change, or they may change anothers opinions. Debating is not a competition, it’s a team sport.

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  9. I love receiving your posts in my inbox. You make a complex subject easily accessible and by doing so you increase my awareness of where I lack understanding, empathy and how I can inject critical awareness of this topic in my everyday. You have such a lovely writing style that I always feel like you are my wiser friend – you educate me without ever getting tired of it and also with such warmth and passion. Thank you.

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  11. A recent OU English Language graduate myself , I have a 17 year old daughter who is gifted in her English studies and is also very interested in gender equality. I am glad to have found your blog, we will both enjoy reading your posts.

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  13. I love your blog. It’s academic, and yet accessible. You have a gift for clarifying confusion, and I love that you’re speaking out for such an important cause.

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  14. Your work has been one of the things that has kept me going, right back to “The feminist critique of language: a reader”. Now I look forward eagerly to every new blog post. I’m glad to have found this space where I can tell you so. Thank you!

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  16. This is a wonderful blog, excellently written. Thank you for putting your ideas out in such an accessible way

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  18. I’m delighted to find this clear and thoughtfu resource. In “It ain’t what you say…” you include four guidelines. As a writer, I really appreciate this and hope you’ll continue. I’m puzzled by the fact that comments are closed even on your latest article: not enough time to engage with readers, I presume?

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  19. Not enough time to moderate the comments. It wasn’t a problem early on, but once the blog started attracting large numbers of readers I found I was getting a lot of comments that I wouldn’t want to publish. But thanks for yours.

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  20. Hi Debbie, excellent blog! I tutor a Translation Internship at a Translators’ Training Programme in Buenos Aires, and my students have translated your article “It ain’t what you say” into Spanish. I could send it to you in case you might want to circulate it among Spanish-speaking media. Look forward to your answer

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  22. I always enjoy your thoughtful and thought-provoking posts, and am delighted whenever an email arrives announcing a new essay. Might I make a small request, though? Your use of a gray background and a slightly darker gray font is very hard to read. A higher contrast would be a real gift to those of us whose eyes are as old as we are!

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  23. Thanks Deborah, I’ll take that on board–it’s probably about time I refreshed the look of the blog (this ‘theme’ has features I like, but I agree the contrast isn’t great)

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