Shari - Cauthen article

For Monday, April 14th, I came prepared on the Cauthen and Trailor pieces.  Sadly, Hotmail had put the email from Dr. Cauthen in my Junk folder.  So I saw it only in class on the 14th at 8:30pm, when Dr. C announced that everyone should have received his email with comments on blog entries and the reading assignment.

So per the Cauthen piece, I found it interesting what Sheila McIntyre said about why law school is difficult for women, ""Going to law school is learning to speak male as a second language, and speaking it fluently.'"  Perhaps all language to some extent is male dominated. Why is is "history" and not "herstory"?  Even in the French language, "la barbe" which is a beard, is a feminine word.  Why?  It is known in the business world, assertive and career-determined women and the language they use makes them be viewed as bitches.  Men could use the same language and be considered strong, go-getters, etc. Robin Lakoff at U.C. Berkeley has been looking at the differences in women's and men's discourse.

When I teach the English language, I do not address this side of language with my students.  Perhaps, I think that by keeping the belief that English is gender and sociolinguistically neutral, my students will believe the same. If my female students believe the English language has the power to keep them lower than men, then they may not really like using the language and not try to harness the power it for themselves. 

"One way of leavening this generalized aggression is the elaborate formality of the law school which seems to be, in turn, an object-lesson in what Cramton calls law's, "unreal professional model of detachment, non-involvement and insensitivity.'"  I can't help but think that this nature of law school is necessary as the law itself should be without sensitive bias and involvement.  Law school should not be personal.  And I can only imagine that medical school has a similar environment and culture. 

Many of my students have gone on to become lawyers.  Often they speak more than two languages.  Does that ability to speak more than one language (if it assumed that to know a language means to know a culture), even in the field of law, enable students to have a greater awareness of the starkness of the law field?