Language and Gender
Monday 16th – Thursday 19th September
“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man.
When a woman gives her opinion, she's a
bitch.”
Bette Davis
“A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's
face is her work of fiction.”
Oscar Wilde
In pairs, first discuss then individually produce a
paragraph response to the following question:
To what extent is our cultural value of men and
women defined by the language we use?
For example:
Why is it ok to call a single woman a ‘spinster’ and
a single man a ‘bachelor’? The connotations of
these words have different cultural values.
For each of the posters on the sheet, comment
on the following aspects for analysis:

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How does it challenge gender stereotypes?
Are there aspects of the ad that paradoxically reinforce or
play into these same stereotypes?
Is this ad ultimately liberating?
How does the text of the advertisement either complement
or work against the image?
Language and Gender
Thursday 19th September
In boy – girl pairs, where possible, discuss the
following questions:

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Do men and women speak differently?
Do men and women use language
differently?
Or is there a combination of the above?
For Tuesday 24th September, produce a page
long magazine opinion column which explores
the gender differences between men and
women
Think about your audience, purpose and use of
language.
Think of this as a practice for your Written Task
Analyse the ‘Zits’ image carefully.
Treat it like an unseen in your Paper 1 exam.
You have 15 minutes to annotate the text
Think about:
Audience, stylistic features, language and consider
the cultural values being commented on.
Be prepared to share your ideas with the group

Liz Lochhead’s work frequently focuses on girlhood,
motherhood, the female side of a relationship.

She is very much a Scottish writer and Scotland is not an
infrequent presence in her work, in one way or another.

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One of her most prominent works is her punchy play Mary
Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (1989), which
brings both previous points together.
In the play, the main protagonist, Mary Stuart, is, after all,
a Catholic queen in a Protestant land, and a woman in a
man’s world.
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Working through Lochead’s poem
Complete the tasks on the other side of the
sheet