Language Mirroring the Society's Contemporaries, Conditioning and Perception

    The language (spoken, written, non-verbal, and visual) - that we generally use for communication and transmission of knowledge - has the potential to reveal and often influence the intrinsic facets (contemporaries, social conditioning, and social perception) of any social community, by being an instrument of rendering the facets of society in many ways.

    Firstly, I think the language we use has the tendency to reveal our contemporary social realities, by picking up key facets of the contemporary and rendering the same in its very linguistic style (spoken, written, non-verbal, or visual). Geetha et al in their book The 9 Emotions of Indian Cinema Hoardings (2007), from the chapter "Producing Pleasure: Hoardings in Context", recount the visual language of hoardings in the contemporary Tamil Nadu (the 1950s) as "[b]old, graphic lines, close-ups of faces marked by an earnestness of feeling, a realism that yet managed to achieve a mythic effect - these came to define political...hoarding” (84). The visual vocabulary - i.e. “bold, graphic lines, close-ups of faces” - featured in political hoarding suggests the designated artist’s attempts to create winning pieces that seek maximum public attention and popularity. Such a crucial facet - being the persuasive political ambiance - of the contemporary Tamilian community (the 1950s) was rendered through the use of such bold and captivating artistic elements, depicting the Tamil public life that came to be dominated by the political escalation. To share another instance when language spoken by contemporary, I would like to talk about Kimberlé Crenshaw's TED Talk "The Urgency of Intersectionality'', where she begins her talk by requesting the audience to stand up and asking them to sit down when any name from the two lists of names (mentioned by her) do not come to their recognition. After doing this, she reveals that, "those of you who recognized the first group of names know that these were African-Americans who have been killed by the police over the last two and a half years. What you may not know is that the other list is also African-Americans who have been killed within the last two years. Only one thing distinguishes the names that you know from the names that you don't know: gender (male and female)" (01:32). When she presented the first group of names, half of the people who were standing were those who recognized the African-American men who had been killed by the police in the last two years. On the other hand - when she presented the other list - there were about four people still standing (comparatively very less in number) who were able to recognize the African-American women who had been killed by the police. Here, she uses spatial language in her attempts to mirror society's contemporary awareness about the level of police violence against black women. In other words, she employs the audience (representatives of diverse social backgrounds, resembling society) as a statistical figure to demonstrate society's consciousness of the level of violence a black or African-American woman is experiencing. This reaffirms how the use of language reflects the contemporaries of the society.

    However, the use of language does not solely communicate with social contemporaries but also hints at the various social conditions that are prevalent in our society. It tends to reflect the conditionings of society by being the means of rendering or propagating the inherent social norms, belief systems, and ideologies in its own linguistic style. In Emily Martin's paper "The Egg and The Sperm" (a critique about the romanticized use of language in the scientific community based on stereotypical male-female roles), we discern a stereotypical basis on which language is used to describe the roles played by the sperm and the ovum in the process of fertilization (489-491). For instance, Martin describes how Gerald Schatten and Helen Schatten use metaphorical language to personify the egg's role in the fantasy of Sleeping Beauty: "a dormant bride awaiting her mate's magic kiss, which instills the spirit that brings her to life." (as quoted by Martin 490). This metaphorical description implies that the egg is dependent on the sperm (its mate) to be rescued in the fertilization process. Their use of such a language renders the inherited idea of gender roles - that they seem to be accustomed to - reflecting the prevalent gender stereotypes in our society, which even the scientific community is not liberated from. To give a similar instance, Geetha et al. recount how one of the major innovations in the history of hoardings art was not able to get rid of gender biases either: "the cut-out came to exist as the iconic face of a film world that was captive to a carefully cultivated and managed culture of masculine adoration" (85). Although the cut-out came to be known as an ever-appealing asset for film publicity, it was confined to the traditional culture of venerating masculine supremacy. In an age where hoarding art was experiencing great transformations, the predominant gender biases managed to gain their so-called importance in artistic innovations like vertical cut-outs. This unchanging social conditioning was rendered in the artist’s way of excessively featuring the male actors, thereby drawing maximum public interest in a particular film. The artist’s use of language not only reflected his own inheritance of gender stereotypes like the Schattens but also reflected society’s adherence to the same. In the meantime, it seems to be a mode to create a stretched influence of the same culture in society. Therefore, it is apparent how the use of language portrays social conditioning like the inherent gender stereotypes, prevailing in society.

    Lastly, the use of language also reflects our ability to perceive our societal facets by manifesting a linguistic form that helps us discern and articulate the basis of the same. In the section “Making of a Hoarding”, Geetha et. al describe how different people playing different roles in the hoarding-making process are referred to differently: while the person having the discretion of the tasks at hand - and playing the most important roles - is called the “chief” artist, other artists involved in fundamental tasks (or low-risk tasks) are called “apprentices” (Geetha et al. 80). The use of such denominations to designate people, based on their involvement in the hoarding-making process, is enabling the different roles played by different people to gain a place of importance in our consciousness, thereby helping us to discern the division of labor and perceive its hierarchical nature. Similarly, Kimberlé shares how her use of the term “intersectionality” helped her to perceive and articulate multiple levels of social injustice that are often overlapping (04:45). She credits that to her chance encounter with Emma DeGraffenreid, an African-American woman, whose complaint of not getting hired in a local car manufacturing plant (basis being the race and gender biases) was dismissed by the judge for the fact that both African-Americans and women were hired by the employer. However, another fact being: “the African-Americans that were hired...were all men [a]nd the women that were hired...were all white” (05:59) got ignored due to a “framing problem” (08:41). Basically, the court was not able to perceive Emma’s case because their prism did not give a place of importance to Emma’s story: a “black” woman not getting hired at the company. So, Kemberle was able to bring a prism that helped her to articulate the multiple levels of social injustice that Emma was facing through her analogy of intersectionality (09:24). Her calling of being impacted by multiple forces of social injustice as “intersectionality” allowed her to perceive the camouflaged levels of injustice in the society. This affirms how the use of language reflects our social perception.

Works Cited

1. Datta, Sayantan. "Response Paper: Use of Language and the Society". KCCS101:WOC:B, Canvas, 09 September 2021
2. Geetha, V, et al. "Producing Pleasure: Hoardings in Context", The 9 Emotions of Indian Cinema Hoardings. Tara Books, 2007, pp. 80-85
3. Martin, Emily. (1991).“The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Signs 16(3), pp. 488-591
4. Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “The Urgency of Intersectionality.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 7 December 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o.