Little Red Riding Hood is growing up. Surrounded by a dizzyingly changing world, she wants to grow up equal. But when she talks about it with her grandmother, a veteran feminist, they understand such basic concepts as “woman”, “gender” and “feminism” in such different and even opposing ways. How is this possible?
Her mother is a linguist who has been taught fine spinning by other spinners and weavers. And she tries to provide her basket with discourse analysis tools. Hopefully they will help Little Red Riding Hood dialogue with her grandmother… so she can feed on what has been thought and named before… and to make a map with which to navigate concepts so that the drift does not take her into the wolf’s maw.
With words, human beings create concepts. And we then see reality through those concepts. Naming things is another way of exercising power.
Words do not have a “true” meaning but they do have consequences. Each word used presupposes some things and implies others, creating frameworks. If we do not analyze them we will not understand each other even if we use the same word… and we will not detect who is exercising the power to define… and for what purpose. If we do not know how language works, we cannot take charge of the consequences that our words have for the speaker and for the whole community. And there is no democracy without shared language.
And how is all of this affecting the Little Red Riding Hoods of the 21st century? That’s what this blog is about. You’ll find more detailed information on what for, how and with what frames of reference in the menu tabs.