Press reporting on a woman Brigadier reinforced patriarchy
What you need to know:
- Even just saying ‘Ms Fatumah has been appointed Brigadier’ is qualifying in itself.
- The social implication here is that ‘Brigadier’ means a man, which is the same implication society uses when referring to a ‘male nurse’ – that a nurse should be a woman.
- In ordinary conversations about people, female and male have no place, unless one is referring to the animal kingdom. You will not hear anyone say, for example ‘I just saw a male in a green jacket go by’.
I celebrate the appointment of Fatumah Ahmed as a Brigadier in the Kenya Air Force and Managing Director, Defence Forces Medical Insurance Scheme (DEFMIS). The key word here is Brigadier, a rank that we are reliably informed, has not been held by a woman in Kenya before.
It was quite irritating to see headlines – even from progressive family dailies such as the Nation – refer to the Brigadier as the ‘first female Brigadier’.
First and foremost, it is sexist to point out someone’s sex before passing on the required information about them. It implies that something is out of place with the social order because it certainly isn't with the biological order. This is 2015, gentlemen.
Using the word 'female' in place of 'woman' in all contexts, except for clinical or educational purposes, is meant to demean and is applied in contempt. It is worse when this application is not even conscious, but simply an extension of the way society continues to view women in public life in spite of major leaps and bounds in social thinking.
I believe that grammatically, use of ‘woman’ or ‘female’ is correct; one as a noun and the other as an adjective, but in the struggle for equity, when ranking equals in the workplace, we might as well be Neanderthals.
Even just saying ‘Ms Fatumah has been appointed Brigadier’ is qualifying in itself. It would be interesting to see a debate on what gender the name 'Fatumah' denotes.
MATTERS OF MENTAL APPLICATION
There are two valid arguments for the use of ‘female’ as opposed to ‘woman’; one claims that ‘female’ is used as an adjective, which is grammatically correct, but socially inappropriate. The use is often as an explanation of the ‘other noun’.
‘Female’ in its most basic of uses denotes one with the ability to produce ova. In the context of being appointed to a rank in the military, reference to one’s ability to produce ova is at best preposterous, unless of course it is also used in direct reference to the ability of male Brigadiers to produce sperm. The use of ‘female’ is only applicable when referring to animals and primates except humans – or man!
Women birth all human life, but it is still amazing that society has been unable to apply simple equity when dealing with issues of mental, as opposed to physical application.
Many counter-argue that since we cannot refer to a ‘man Brigadier’ then the use of ‘woman Brigadier’ is not applicable either. The social implication here is that ‘Brigadier’ means a man, which is the same implication society uses when referring to a ‘male nurse’ – that a nurse should be a woman.
Both happen to be extremely default positions in the struggle for equity and social justice, and precisely the point that feminists have been trying to correct in language use among other things since the 1800s, that is, the use of patriarchal terms as non-sexist in the daily application of language.
'MALE IN A GREEN JACKET'
As feminists argue, language casts power over people’s perception. My reference to feminist perception is the brand of the 60s and 70s, whose primary objective was addressing workplace inequalities such as upward mobility and salary levels through anti-discrimination laws.
It is interesting that our ethnic languages do not differentiate the word ‘women’ from 'female' and in all instances, do not imply a derogatory position. But in the Gaelic saying ‘If a man loses his language, he loses his world’, the application is for practical purposes when referring to the loss, and ironically uses 'a man' and not 'humankind'.
The idea that our languages are much more empowering and present a better case for gender equality by their use of neutral terms sees ample expression in the appointment of Brigadier Fatumah.
When one wants to demonstrate that women have overcome the gender-assigned roles that deem them incapable of attaining high rank in public office, the appropriate word to use is 'woman'.
In ordinary conversations 'female' and 'male' have no place, unless one is referring to the animal kingdom. You will not hear anyone say, for example, ‘I just saw a male in a green jacket go by’. But one can ask ‘is the dead lizard female?’ In common conversations about people, the term female is often used for misogyny.
It is therefore prudent for media and other social users to use the word 'female' as a noun only when referring to animals or for scientific or clinical purposes, no matter how juicy they may wish to make a headline.
Twitter: @muthonithangwa
