This is longer than my usual podcast, but we wanted to delve into this topic in depth. Professor of Linguistics, Alaric Naudé and I were watching a recording of a lecture at Rowan University in New Jersey during this show, and commenting on what we saw and heard, so my apologies for comments about visuals, you can watch the video here to see what we’re talking about. I tried to read the slides we were looking at so you wouldn’t miss anything in the audio version.
The gist of their presentation is that ascribing gender can be an act of aggression if you don’t have the proper authority to do it, and that means you mom and dad! We didn’t get to the part of their lecture where they go into depth on second and third-person gendering, so I recommend listening to the full lecture, but we did our best to explain why all of this is, to put a fine point on it, kinda nuts.
That said, don’t be comforted by how “nuts” it seems. Many people take it seriously, including their audience of would-be K12 teachers. You should know what teachers are being taught because whether public or private, schools share the same pipeline. Don’t assume their students reject these notions. In fact, for your children’s sake, assume they don’t.
Video we're watching:
Alaric Naudé has written "everything is language, and language is everything." In this show, he explains why understanding this fact, and understanding how people use language to quite literally alter the way we think, about the world and each other, is more important than ever right now. If you're interested in the subject of ideological indoctrination, of children especially, or wondering how we got to the point where a nominee for the Supreme Court could say, under oath, that she does not know what a "woman" is, this is the show for you. Alaric is a Professor of Linguistics at Suwon Science College in the Republic of Korea. He is an expert scholar, researcher and free thinker in the fields of education, linguistics, social science and business. In 2020, during the global Covid19 pandemic he became Head Professor of the English Department. Due to this unique worldview, his extensive academic research network extends from Korea, Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, USA, Japan, China, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, India, Indonesia to Sudan. At present, his international collaboration includes increasing the quality and educational opportunities in Pakistan. The scope of his publications covers communication, business, linguistics, translation, education and social sciences to name but a few. You can read more of Professor Naudé's writings on his website.
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Gender & Speech Act Theory