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UCL Women’s Liberation SIG Spring Term 2022 – Deborah Cameron
By UCL Women's Liberation, on 24 February 2022
‘Use the right words’: verbal hygiene and feminist politics
Professor Deborah Cameron
Both conservative and progressive movements have a long history of engagement in verbal hygiene, attempting to influence the use of language so that it aligns with their beliefs and values. In this talk I will focus on the ways in which progressive movements, including feminism, have sought to regulate language-use in pursuit of political goals, looking at the forms their interventions have taken and the questions or problems these may raise. ‘Use the right words’ may be a familiar exhortation, but determining what ‘the right words’ are is a more complicated matter than it might look.
UCL Women’s Liberation are delighted to welcome Professor Deborah Cameron.
Deborah Cameron is a professor in the Linguistics Faculty at Oxford University. Her research focuses on the relationship between linguistic and social phenomena, and she has published numerous books and articles about language and sex/gender, including one aimed at non-linguists, The Myth of Mars and Venus. She has also written a short introduction to feminism for Profile Books, and is the owner of the blog Language: A Feminist Guide.
Date: 16th March 2022, 14.00-15.00 GMT
A recording is now available via UCL Media Central ‘Use the right words’: Verbal Hygiene and Feminist Politics