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Old Sunday, February 16, 2020
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Math Maniac View Post
Are not expressions like man up, cry like a girl, herculean task examples of gendered language?
Gendered language is usually taken to mean masculine nouns and pronouns being used or preferred when the gender is unspecified (e.g. MANkind, MAN-made, MANpower) or when the job title is linked to a specific gender (e.g. policeMAN, chairMAN, BusinessMAN, SIR when referring a letter or email to a head of a company or another good example is nurses are always considered female so we feel the need to specify MALE nurses).

But the phrases you have listed are also gendered language because they imply that a certain characteristic (strength, emotions) is the norm for one gender and if the other gender takes part in it then it is an exception not the rule. So in a nutshell these phrases perpetuate a gender dichotomy and hence are a part of gendered language.
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