A brief reflection on language and cultural norms + values
Fri 05 February 2021It is interesting how much of our language is shaped by cultural mores and social institutions. “Social institutions” though, are of course made up of individuals, who each and together hold cultural values and personal biases.
The now-productive English prefix andro- was borrowed from the Greek andr- meaning “man” or “male”. We see this form all over—from android (literally, “man-like”) to andragogy (the study of adult learning; contrasted with pedagogy1) to androgen (the so-called “male” sex hormone—so-called in that people of both sexes produce and require androgens, just as people of both sexes produce and require estrogen). The feminine counterpart to andr-, in Greek, is gune-, whose English form is recognizable as gynaeco-, defined as “relating to women; female”.
It’s interesting how German educator Alexander Kapp (1799-1869), in creating a new term for his philosophy of adult education (andragogy), chose to use the Greek form for man (and it doesn’t mean “man” as in the dated synonym for “human”, it relates specifically to a “masculine”, or male, quality)2. Developed in the first half of the 19th century, it is easy to see why this choice made sense, at the time. A reflection, indeed, of the fact that at that time, women were excluded from most of higher education (among other domains). But interesting, still, that the etymology of the term gives us hints as to the cultural state of affairs at its inception.
With the increasing prevalence of women’s participation in society in all spheres, at all levels, language use has adapted: much more frequent are the more accurate “humankind” and “salesperson” and “chair of the board”. The question of causation vs. correlation aside, this is rather cool.
Also interesting is how gynaeco- in its widest-used combined form is gynecology, the branch of medicine dealing with women’s reproductive health. Of note on a personal level: I was already comfortably familiar with andro- as the combining form for “man/male”, but until closer inspection had assumed gynaeco referred to some aspect of the female reproductive system, rather than simply being the counterpart, if you will, of andro-. If andragogy and its roots give us any clues, we might consider looking at gynecology through a similar lens. Why is it that this term has as its literal meaning (constructed by combining its constituent parts, gynaeco- + ology) “the study of women”, but this medical discipline is focused on the reproductive system? Of course, there is also andrology, which deals with conditions and diseases specific to men. However, it is the case that the medical model itself— at the level of the institution, not just the discipline—is biased toward the male body as the standard, or the baseline, and the female body as a variation, as such—a proportionately smaller version of the standard. While this is very much not the case, it doesn’t change the fact that, for example, car manufacturers still use anatomically male crash dummies, and women are at a greater risk of serious injury and death because seatbelts haven’t been tested on female-proportioned dummy-subjects3.
So, a question that arises is: how might the differential usage of such terms reflect conceptual filaments, or substrates, within a culture or a society? How might an androcentric lens (largely the result of few alternate and equally influential perspectives in academic and social disciplines) have shaped some of this vocabulary, and what does it mean for us now? From words (“hysteria”) to idioms (“grow a pair/have the balls”), the language we use is directly influenced by culture—whether aligned with current norms and values or vestigal clues to past worldviews.
meaning is not the sum of its parts
1 pedagogy is the more general term, referring to “the method and practice of teaching” (cited from Merriam-Webster English dictionary). Andragogy is essentially similar, but specifies teaching in the context of adult learners.
2 A fairly random and context-less example; I came across this figure+term while reading an article about communication, and it spurred these thoughts. Will try to find it again and link it here.