Jamie King, head coach of women's tennis, has published a book chapter, "Language, Gender, and Sport: A Review of the Research," co-authored with Jeffrey O. Segrave (Skidmore College) and Katherine L. McDonald (SUNY Buffalo School of Law) in the book Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender (2006) by Palgrave MacMillan.
The purpose of this chapter is to review the research on the language of sport and gender. The specific linguistic conventions identified include masculine generics, gender marking, naming conventions, descriptive linguistics, the metaphorical language of sport, the language of sport in cultural discourses, and subcultural language. Ultimately, we place our analysis within a poststructuralist perspective and argue that despite heightened sensitivities to the dangers of sexist language, the language of sport nonetheless contains linguistic variations that are neither random nor indiscriminate but are in fact structured and discriminatory. We also argue that these linguistic variations are not only a direct consequence of the structured social variations found in gender relations in general but a significant, contributory factor to the perpetuation of gender inequality itself.
The purpose of this chapter is to review the research on the language of sport and gender. The specific linguistic conventions identified include masculine generics, gender marking, naming conventions, descriptive linguistics, the metaphorical language of sport, the language of sport in cultural discourses, and subcultural language. Ultimately, we place our analysis within a poststructuralist perspective and argue that despite heightened sensitivities to the dangers of sexist language, the language of sport nonetheless contains linguistic variations that are neither random nor indiscriminate but are in fact structured and discriminatory. We also argue that these linguistic variations are not only a direct consequence of the structured social variations found in gender relations in general but a significant, contributory factor to the perpetuation of gender inequality itself.
