The Feminist Revolution of Words

Translating the Feminist Discourse through Newspapers

Abstract

Gender differences and hierarchical relations, cultural values and expected gender behaviours: all these elements are reflected into languages in terms of syntax, lexicon and contexts of use. At the same time, a language is the privileged territory for its reference culture.
The feminist perspective has given relevant contribution to the creation of the feminist gender discourse by offering values and expressions designed to eradicate the established androcentric language, and by defining key words and concepts: the Spanish empoderamiento (empowerment), techo de cristal (glass ceiling), inequidad de género (gender inequality) are some of the terms which were born with the feminist stance and became part of a discourse on gender spread through the written medium, in particular press. As a specific literary genre, journalism has indeed welcomed the features of the feminist discourse, providing a powerful communicative tool for the feminist standpoint.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between feminist theories and the feminist language, observe its main features on Spanish newspapers and its influence on the creation of gender identity.