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Language and gender. Deborah Cameron claims that the English language "insults, excludes and trivialises women". There is evidence of this in the English Language. "In 1553 the grammarian Wilson ruled that man should precede the woman in pairs. Such as: male/female, husband/wife, brother/sister, son/daughter".(1) Wilson thought that it was more natural, and nobody disagreed with him. Joshua Poole (1646) thought it was more natural and 'proper' as men were the worthier sex. This, women may find insulting. Many books which deal with human beings in general, use male nouns such as men, man, and mankind, these all exclude women. he pronoun that follows these nouns is of course 'he'. Women are therefore not linguistically represented. As the American Writer, Julia Stanley, puts it, they occupy 'negative semantic space'.(2) Meaning that nouns referring to women are only used if they really have to be or where men aren't referred to at all. Women also seem invisible...

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