Broad-ly Speaking

The 1979 film “10” is a romcom that epitomizes unbridled hedonism. In the film it appears that the sole purpose of the characters lives is the “pursuit of happiness”. It seems that in their eyes happiness is synonymous with personal gratification. Though I found the film extremely raunchy a specific scene between George and his significant other Samantha (Sam) caught my attention. As Sam and George are settling down for the night they get into an argument about George’s use of the term “broad”. Sam immediately becomes defensive and assails George claiming that he is using an extremely derogatory term for women and is implying that all women are nothing more than chattel. George becomes defensive exclaiming that in his opinion ‘broad’ is simply another way of saying ‘woman’, he claims that he is not using the word in a derogatory way and that Sam is simply attaching a derogatory connotation to the word. The altercation continues until George looks up the term in a dictionary and discovers that it is in fact a slang word used to convey a derogatory attitude towards women. Sam is smug that she has proven her point and tells George that in addition to being a “male chauvinist pig” he is gutless because he “refuses to take it and lose like a man”. Though spoken in a bantering sort of way George replies that he wouldn’t mind losing like a man if Sam did not insist on winning like a man. This brings up how value ladened our language is, even though we don’t always realize it. Language is like a loaded gun that we tote around unaware of its potential to inflict harm. What exactly does George mean when he tells Sam that her domineering attitude is unfeminine? Is he implying that women are supposed to be passive and that in carrying on in her altercation she is being unwomanly? What exactly does in mean then to be a “man” or a “woman”? This is a question covered extensively in Barkers anthology of cultural study. The question of identity and it’s implications is an extensive field of study. In this field language is a significant player. Language is the means through which we attempt to create our identity and at the most basic level attempt to let others know who we are as well. Therefore when George tells Sam that she is insisting on being a man he is attacking her verbally by questioning her gender. To theorist Stuart Hall this scene would be a clear example of how “we are formed as sexed subjects in the context of gendered families. Thus what it is to be a person cannot be universal or unified since, at the very least, identity is marked by sexual difference.” (224). Essentially Hall is postulating that the reason we use such gendered language when communicating is because this sexed code has been inculcated in us from childhood. Rather than being human we are categorized as “man” or “woman” “boy” or “girl”. Barker explores poststructualism and feminism and states that these movements argue “that sex and gender are social cultural constructions that are not reducible to biology…where femininity and masculinity are not essential universal and eternal categories; rather they are understood to be discursive constructions”. (224). Hall would concur that sex and gender are socially constructed institutions that creep up in our daily lives and most definitely manifest themselves in the way we speak.

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Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies, Theory& Practice. California: SAGE Publications Inc. 2008. Print