Derogatory Terms Used as Tools for Maintaining the Privileged Status of Young White Males
In the United States of America, young white males from the middle class occupy a privileged status and therefore enjoy many benefits, such as being able to attain their goals without facing social pressures and barriers. While this group is occupies a position of power, people who fall short of any of the characteristics which would allow them to enter it, are discriminated from one or more points of view. Race, class, ability, gender, age, sexuality and ethnicity are some of the demographic features which are considered when establishing the power relation in the society. Groups which occupy a lower status are labeled using derogatory terms, which is a result of the inequality which continues to pervade all of the areas of the society. The demeaning terms which are used in order to name people who belong to these groups reinforce a certain image that has been historically associated with them, and stop them from being fully integrated in the society. The derogatory labels are used to exclude them and to maintain their outsider status, which stops them from enjoying many of the benefits of the privileged classes. The negative or insulting terms which are used in relation to historically discriminated groups continue to maintain the power balance which situates the young white males at the top of the social hierarchy, while excluding everyone else from positions of power (Dobratz, Waldner & Buzzell, 2012). In this paper, the problem of discriminatory or insulting labels will be analyzed with relation to sexism, racism and ageism, three types of discrimination which represent the fear of young white males of losing their privilege. Derogatory labels that directly result from sexism, racism and ageism have the role of preserving the power status of the privileged groups by canceling the claims that other groups may have to the same power.
Women have been historically discriminated in Western society, and they have been excluded from all of the positions of power. Women have been expected to focus on their roles as mothers and wives and they have been discouraged from pursuing public roles, or from having a career. Both at home and in the larger society, men have been considered the more powerful gender. As Karlberg (2005) showed in his article, power is related to domination discourses, and in what women are concerned, it is also related to male privilege. Because historically, women have been expected to stay at home, rather than taking a job, most terms designating a job are masculine, excluding positions which have been traditionally occupied by women, such as nurse. For this reason, many professions are formed with adding a suffix in women’s case, such as waiter-waitress (Wareing, 2000). It is common in English language for unmarked terms to refer to males, while marked terms refer to women (Wareing, 2000).
However, certain terms which refer to occupations end in “man”, such as policeman or chairman, thus excluding women entirely from the occupation. Since women have penetrated these fields of activity in the recent past, attempts to integrate them resulted in different denominations such as “Madam Chairman”, which is insulted because it preserves the assumption of masculinity for the position. As Talbot (2010) showed in relation to traditionalists, “by choosing chairman over chairwoman, chairperson or chair, he says something about his attitudes towards women, for which he can then be held accountable. He no doubt finds this state of affairs disagreeable” (p.234). Thus, the use of sexist terms reflects the prejudicial attitude of the users, who may consider women unfit for the role. In what policeman is concerned, this sexist label has been changed to ‘police officer’ in politically correct speech, but the way in which police women are labeled continue to reflect the society’s attitude towards professional women in general. For example, in a journalistic article, the author used the term ‘police girl’, perhaps in order to emphasize the woman’s youth, which is a marker or attractiveness in women’s case (Wareing 2000). While the term ‘police boy’ is completely unacceptable for the audience, because it carries a derogatory meaning, police girl is more acceptable because women’s status depends on their physical aspect, while that of males depends on other qualities, such as intelligence and strength.
Women continue to be subject to sexist labels because they are devalued when compared to men, due to their specific characteristics. As Karlberg (2005) showed, “throughout the public sphere, in our economy, political institutions, judicial systems, educational systems, and so forth, systems of reward tend to privilege conventionally “masculine” adversarial traits over conventionally “feminine” traits such as caring and cooperation”(p.5). Therefore, even today, women are excluded from certain occupations because the characteristics associated with femininity are devalued at the level of the society. Insulting terms associated with women often serve as reinforcement of feminine characteristics which makes them unfit for power, or reestablishes the masculine privilege by asserting the power that male bodies have over female bodies. As Waeing (2000) explained, many labels diminish women by representing them as the property of men, lower status, or sexual objects. These usages represent women unequally and contribute to the fact that women are treated unfairly in the society.
Apart from gender, race is also a category which causes great discrepancy between the ways in which different groups are perceived in the society. Racist labels are no longer accepted in the society as they used to be, but they continue to be employed and to affect the lives of individuals. As Smith (1992) showed, the label used to denominate African Americans has evolved as this group gained respect and a higher status in the society, changing from “Colored” to “Negro”, to “Black”, and then African American. The first three labels are disliked because they reinforce the skin color difference, and continue to define this group primarily in terms of physical appearance. Furthermore, “Black”, as opposed to “White” carries different meanings derived from religion which identifies Black with evil, while White is associated with purity and goodness (Smith, 1992). As such, the term African American which changes the shift towards culture and heritage seems more appropriate. For this reason, it is preferred by young, urban-dwelling African-Americans (Sigelman, Tuch and Martin, 2005). The same politically correctness is employed to other racial minority groups, such as Asian Americans or Native Americans.
However, insulting labels related to race are still employed to accentuate racial differences and to preserve the ‘outsider’ status of racial minority groups. Insulting terms are still used to describe different races, such as “nigger”, “crow” or “ape” for African Americans, ‘beaner’ for Mexicans, ‘redskin’ for Native Americans, or Japs for Japanese people. It is important to note that the connotation of these labels depends on the context in which they are used and thus, while ‘nigger’ is insulting when used by Whites, it is perfectly acceptable when African Americans use them between themselves. However, other labels, such as ‘crow’, ‘ape’ or ‘beaner’, are insulting because they are based on racist stereotypes. According to Green, Davis, Kashmer, Marsh and Straight (2005), stereotypical language expresses the “differences that matter and are also deemed by others to be undesirable” (p.197). The reaction to these labels leads to a pronounced sense of otherness, and felt stigma (Green et al., 2005). Furthermore, stigma stops people from participating in the political, social or economic life of individuals, thus leading to status loss and discrimination. Consequently, identifying the difference and using it to label people who have it with derogatory terms enable privileged groups to lower the status and power of those who may threaten to destroy the hierarchy.
Finally, from an age perspective, young people often apply derogatory terms to aged individuals whom they also perceive as outsiders due to the generational gap. This is because youth is revered in the American society, while old age is not respected (Green, Davis, Kashmer, Marsh and Straight 2005). The lack of respect for the elderly results from how elderly people are perceived. Stilwell Peccei (2000) showed that, people have “low expectations of the elderly resulting from cultural stereotyping of old age as an inevitable decline in physical and mental capacity” (p.99). For example, calling a woman an ‘old bat’ means that she is slightly crazy while ‘old-timer’ alludes to the old-fashioned ideas of elderly people. Therefore, such insulting terms stereotype elderly people as less capable of functioning in the contemporary society, and exclude them on this ground. For this reason, elderly people have lower chances of being hired than young people, who are considered more up to date regarding new practices. As Gregory () showed, “while emotion, prejudice, or hatred generally underlie race, national origin, and (sometimes) sex discrimination, the sources of age discrimination are inaccurate, stereotypical conceptions of the abilities of older workers in general” (p.22).
Furthermore, discriminatory labels addressed to older people cause the society focus on stereotypical flaws that may affect some elderly people, while ignoring the unique qualities that elderly individuals have, and which benefit the society, families and the working environment, such as experience, extensive knowledge and wisdom, among others. As in women’s case, the society devalues experience and knowledge in favor of energy, familiarity with technological devices and rapidity. As compared with other societies, were the elderly people are valued and treated with great respect due to their life experience and wisdom, in the American society, these qualities are ignored mainly because the society transforms so quickly, that elderly individuals are perceived in many cases as unable to offer pertinent advice, or to find the best solution for a problem.
Furthermore, these stereotypes cause young and middle aged people to perceive elderly individuals as unpleasant, and to avoid them. This results in social exclusion and rejection, which is encountered even within the family unit. The stereotypes that label the elderly as weak, disabled, mentally fable or old-fashioned cause other age groups to reject them. However, in his work, Sargeant (2011) suggested that this may not be the primary cause for discrimination but rather, the elderly may be regarded as inferior in order to lower their status. In societies where the qualities of the elderly are highly valued, they are powerful members of the society, while young people are devalued for their lack of experience. However, young people have much more power. Sargeant (2011) argued in this respect that, that “one might speculate that the younger adult is the norm and that the lesser regard for the elderly results from them being a deviation from that norm” (p.8). Thus, a person who does not have the “ideal age” is discriminated against simply because young persons want to preserve their power status.
Therefore, derogatory terms both reflect and reinforce the discrimination that certain groups suffer from. They reflect the stereotyping views that the society holds in relation to people who belong to these groups, and they reinforce those stereotypes at the same time, giving greater force to the perceived flaws of the groups, while hiding the qualities that these people have. Therefore, derogatory terms not only cause the society to focus on stereotypical images of these groups, but also help devaluing them and preserving the power balance that places young white males at the top of the social hierarchy.
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