Just don’t do it

language: a feminist guide

This week everyone’s been talking about an article in the Economist explaining how men’s use of language undermines their authority. According to the author, a senior manager at Microsoft, men have a bad habit of punctuating everything they say with sentence adverbs like ‘actually’, ‘obviously’, ‘seriously’ and ‘frankly’. This verbal tic makes them sound like pompous bullshitters, so that people switch off and stop listening to what they’re saying. If they want to be successful, this is something men need to address.

OK, people haven’t been talking about that article—mainly because I made it up. No one writes articles telling men how they’re damaging their career prospects by using the wrong words. With women, on the other hand, it’s a regular occurrence. This post was inspired by a case in point: a piece published last month in Business Insider, in which a former Google executive named Ellen Petry Leanse…

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“The Pursuit of Happiness”

Fans in a Flashbulb

Lou Bernstein (1911-2005), Petunia C, Pony Foundation, 1970 (65.1992)

Louis Faurer (1916-2001), Silent Salesman, Philadelphia, ca. 1937 (2013.99.53)

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972), Untitled, 1959 (30.2005)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed… with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

(This is the fourth of four, for the fourth…)

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Flags and fireworks

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Faith Ringgold, Judson 3, 1970, (877.2002)

Jasper Johns, Moratorium, 1969, (837.2002)

George Maciunas (1931-1978), U.S.A. Surpasses All the Genocide Records!, 1968, (817.2002)

Artists’ Poster Committee of Art Workers Coalition, Peoples Flag Show, 1970 (883.2002)

Artists’ Poster Committee of Art Workers Coalition, Flags; An Open Exhibition, 1970, (811.2002)

ACT UP New York (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), American Flag, 1989, (1107.2000)

Silence = Death Project, Silence = Death: Vote, 1988 (1251.2000)

Martin Munkacsi, [Fireworks], 1933

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed… with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“

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Photos of (mostly) unidentified people with flags, made by (mostly) unidentified photographers

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Unidentified Photographer, [Two Unidentified Men with Sleeping Puppies in Wheelbarrow and an American Flag], ca. 1860s (2009.55.1)

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Girl with American Flag], ca. 1885 (2007.54.16)

Jacob Riis (1849-1914), Saluting the Flag, ca. 1892 (185.1982)

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Woman, with American Flag in the background], ca. 1910 (1034.1990)

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Soldier with American Flag], ca. 1940s (711.1990)

Unidentified Photographer, [Astronaut David Randolph Saluting Beside the American Flag on the Moon], August 1, 1971 (2012.99.1)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed… with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“

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