Gender stereotypes and social normativity: Insights from the Great Chain of Being metaphor in proverbs

Abstract

Recent studies (e.g., Caldas-Coulthard 2020) have shown that while feminist linguistic activities have been successful to some extent in mitigating gender discrimination in language, the successes achieved have been mainly at the lexical level whereas discursive practices that indicate underlying sexist beliefs continue to endure in most societies around the globe. Proverbs are an instance of discursive practices which, as the result of a sexist society, perpetuate harmful gender beliefs. Within the Spanish context, quite a number of them reflect gender-related stereotypes and ideologies which were common not only in Spain, but also in many parts of medieval Europe (Garrido 2001; Crida Álvarez 2001). This paper seeks to examine how Spanish proverbs preserve gender stereotypes and influence social normativity using Lakoff and Turner’s (1989) Great Chain Metaphor Theory, Glick and Fiske’s (1997) Ambivalent Sexism Theory, and principles of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis as proposed by Lazar (2005). Particular attention is paid to how ideals of masculinities and femininities are perpetuated through language use. The findings reveal that proverbs and other types of popular literature remain significant sources for gender ideologies and can serve as channels for institutionalizing sexism.