Mind Your Legal Language!

  •   Sat, Aug 26 2023
  •   By Prof Dr Zita Lobo

August 26, 2023

We are what our thoughts have made us. Our beliefs become our thoughts. Our thoughts translate into words. Words change into actions. Actions make up a civilized or uncivilized society. Language plays a vital role in expressing ideas and perspectives as well as prejudices. Any discourse deliberated specially in a public sphere should be in neutral, inoffensive, and in an unbiased language.

Over the centuries, through rooted indigenous ideologies combined with ideologies of invaders and colonialists we Indians have evolved our own brands of stereotypical attitudes and languages infiltrated into our daily lives, at home and in workplaces including temples of learning where young minds are formed.

Towards a benevolent cause of setting right historically unjust systemic flaw, an attempt to induce unlearning of stereotypical language especially in the deliberations and delivery of justice, DY Chandrachud, Chief Justice of the supreme court of India has made available a handbook to ‘assist judges and the legal community in identifying, understanding, and combating stereotypes about women’.

Why the legal system?

It is an undeniable fact that even in the temples of justice women are attacked during the deliverance of justice where lawyers and even judges use stereotypical and derogatory words sometimes deliberately or simply due to unconsciously acquired language through acculturation. There are studies and lists of cases where deeply rooted patriarchal words used by judges and lawyers wished women did not report the sexually outrageous violence meted out to them in public and in private spheres of their lives.

A 2018 study called Gender Notions in Judgements of Rape Cases” by G.S Bajpai and Raghav Mendiratta, National Law University, Delhi examined Supreme Court judgements in 50 rape cases to study the impact of judges’ preconceived notions and outcomes of the trials and concluded that the present legal framework was inefficient in eliminating preconceived sexist biases and prejudices with crimes against women.

Justice cannot be gendered. Therefore, the handbook cautions that “Judges must be vigilant against all (emphasis mine) forms of gender biases and ensure that every person, regardless of their gender identity, is treated equally and with dignity before the law.” Most importantly the handbook identifies stereotypical language and gives alternative usage of proper words to be used in courts.

This is certainly a great leap towards an inoffensive and politically correct language that does not intimidate, shame, degrade, demoralise, or discriminate against the persons involved in a case. The handbook urges the users to use just woman instead of “Chaste woman”, “career woman”, “woman of easy virtue”, “seductress”, “slut”, “prostitute”, “whore”, “woman of loose morals/easy virtue, promiscuous woman/wanton woman”.

In a session of no confidence motion in the parliament, a politician used the word ‘misogynist’ to refer to another politician’s act of a flying kiss. Misogynist means “a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women”. Be that as it were a conjecture as to the gesture of flying kiss towards a group of people in general sent the country in a tizzy of debates and name calling. Instead of pointing out the flaw in her argument or how she strategically derailed a discourse of the main issues on the agenda by using a strong word to digress the discussions, she was attacked with references to her marital history. Personal and sexual attacks and are commonly used on women than on men to shame them. Words have the power to humiliate and humble. For the distinction between good words and not good words hopefully another handbook for parliamentarians who use unparliamentary language without qualms will soon find its place when a consensus is met!

The HANDBOOK OF COMBATING GENDER STEREOTYPES is a platter of distinction between the existing stereotypical terms and the preferred politically appropriate language, stereotype Vs reality, and clarity on what the Indian Constitution says on gender and equity and the Supreme Court’s ruling on gender roles and stereotypical belief systems.

1. Some excerpts from the table Stereotypes based on the so-called “inherent characteristics” of women and what it is.

2. Some excerpts from the table with some common stereotypes about the gender roles ascribed to men and women, and why they are incorrect.

3. Some excerpts from the table of Stereotypes concerning sex and sexual violence.

 

The HANDBOOK OF COMBATING GENDER STEREOTYPES a downloadable public document of 31 pages is a must read for every cog in the wheel of justice. As much as we would like to believe we are unbiased, we are not immune to the subconscious narratives shaped by societal beliefs and stereotypes. I would urge every person to read it, for our thoughts do translate into words and this action could be one more step towards a more humane society.

 

 

 
By Prof Dr Zita Lobo
To submit your article / poem / short story to Daijiworld, please email it to news@daijiworld.com mentioning 'Article/poem submission for daijiworld' in the subject line. Please note the following:

  • The article / poem / short story should be original and previously unpublished in other websites except in the personal blog of the author. We will cross-check the originality of the article, and if found to be copied from another source in whole or in parts without appropriate acknowledgment, the submission will be rejected.
  • The author of the poem / article / short story should include a brief self-introduction limited to 500 characters and his/her recent picture (optional). Pictures relevant to the article may also be sent (optional), provided they are not bound by copyright. Travelogues should be sent along with relevant pictures not sourced from the Internet. Travelogues without relevant pictures will be rejected.
  • In case of a short story / article, the write-up should be at least one-and-a-half pages in word document in Times New Roman font 12 (or, about 700-800 words). Contributors are requested to keep their write-ups limited to a maximum of four pages. Longer write-ups may be sent in parts to publish in installments. Each installment should be sent within a week of the previous installment. A single poem sent for publication should be at least 3/4th of a page in length. Multiple short poems may be submitted for single publication.
  • All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format or text file. Pictures should not be larger than 1000 pixels in width, and of good resolution. Pictures should be attached separately in the mail and may be numbered if the author wants them to be placed in order.
  • Submission of the article / poem / short story does not automatically entail that it would be published. Daijiworld editors will examine each submission and decide on its acceptance/rejection purely based on merit.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to edit the submission if necessary for grammar and spelling, without compromising on the author's tone and message.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to reject submissions without prior notice. Mails/calls on the status of the submission will not be entertained. Contributors are requested to be patient.
  • The article / poem / short story should not be targeted directly or indirectly at any individual/group/community. Daijiworld will not assume responsibility for factual errors in the submission.
  • Once accepted, the article / poem / short story will be published as and when we have space. Publication may take up to four weeks from the date of submission of the write-up, depending on the number of submissions we receive. No author will be published twice in succession or twice within a fortnight.
  • Time-bound articles (example, on Mother's Day) should be sent at least a week in advance. Please specify the occasion as well as the date on which you would like it published while sending the write-up.

Comment on this article

  • k b r, Mangala Uru

    Tue, Aug 29 2023

    public figures when they express their feelings in public, should be thoughtful and be on the right side of law ... even a slip of tongue can cost the person lot of consequences ...

  • Olga B Noronha, Bejai, Mangalore

    Tue, Aug 29 2023

    Your article is true to reality. It clears up a lot of misconceptions about gender stereotypes, thereby promoting balanced thinking on the issue at hand. More power to your writing, Dr Zita Lobo!


Leave a Comment

Title: Mind Your Legal Language!



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.