how can we say that the mirror is not biased
Answers
Explanation:
Language is a telltale mirror. The language we use reveals information
about us: our thoughts, our preconceptions, our biases, our perceptions.
Language appears to leave room for debate, yet no matter what we claim to
believe in or how hard we try to hide our thoughts, the words that we use
inevitably reflect our true beliefs in the short and long term. According to
social psychologists James Pennebaker and Yla Tausczik, words have pro-
found social and psychological meanings. The words that people use can shed
light on their cognitive processes and thinking styles; emotions; assumptions
about status, dominance, and hierarchy in interpersonal relationships; and
perceptions about identities. This reflective feature of language allows us to
understand the scope of social bias and prejudice. By examining a person’s
choice of diction, we can discover the lurking biases and discriminatory
thoughts that live just below the surface in one’s consciousness.
Diction reveals perception. Examining language use can be particularly
helpful as we seek to understand perception because it permits us to delve
deeply into covert and entrenched biases. Anthropologist Emily Martin
attempts to reveal the astonishing scope of sexism in our society by examining
the words employed in scientific discourses about the female reproductive
system. In her essay “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed
a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles,” Martin asserts that
sexism is so prevalent in our society that even scientific depictions of repro-
duction are tainted with stereotypes and discrimination against females.
Females are rendered inferior because the female reproductive system is
“wasteful” and “unproductive,” whereas the male reproductive system is
“remarkable” and “productive” (487). The diction adopted in many promi-
nent biology textbooks reinforces gender discrimination in our society by
stereotyping eggs—female reproductive cells—as passive gametes waiting for
sperm—male reproductive cells—to start the reproductive process (491).
This “passive gamete” stereotype is consistent with society’s damsel-in-dis
Hope this helps u