Language bias against women in British and Malaysian newspapers

This paper examines a few techniques of sexist role reinforcement in the British newspapers The Sun and The Daily Mirror and the Malaysian newspapers The Star and The New Straits Times. Beginning with a discussion of stereotyping and the conservative male- dominated ideology prevalent in the British press, it goes on to cite linguistic items and female/male ratios that expose this ideology. Features we look at include modification, relexicalisation and reductive language, as well as puns, alliteration and the classification of women as either pin-up commodities or annexes of the males to whom they ‘belong’. Sexist language in the Malaysian press being much less explicit, many of these categories are not present when it comes to The Star and The New Straits Times. In a more limited study of these papers, we nevertheless find an even greater bias towards males as the makers of news. It is suggested that teachers refrain from using sexist materials in class unless it is to discuss their ideology explicitly.