Language and Gender

Does Your Language Influence How You Think? by Neal Whitman directly begs the questions "Would it be harder for people who speak a highly gendered language to create a more gender-neutral society?" Although Whitman posed an interesting argument about the way language might influence the way gender is thought about within a particular language, I tend to disagree. The examples the author gave were not particularly convincing to me. The one example that I found particularly unconvincing was that of the keys. It cited a study in which Spanish speakers and German speakers were showed keys. In Spanish, key is a feminine noun and in German it is masculine. The participants were asked to describe the key in their native language. The study claimed that the Spanish speakers used more "feminine" adjectives, such as tiny and beautiful. Whereas, German speakers used "masculine" adjectives such as useful and heavy.

Frankly, this analysis is a vast over simplification of the complexities of gender in the modern world based on assumptions of implications of language. This article also makes assumptions about what it means to be man or woman in a particular society, without evidence to back it up besides the way that feminine or masculine nouns are used. Additionally, something worth noting is that there is a vaguely Eurocentric sentiment conveyed throughout this piece, which directly states that other languages SHOULD follow suit with english's using of "they/them" (in SOME circles, might I add). 

All and all, I am of the opinion that gendered pronouns are not necessary, and people can choose whether they adopt any particular use language and how it influences their thoughts of gender. At the end of the day, gender is deeply personal based on culture that is reflected by language, not influenced by it.