【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 relatively new title, was introduced to end the inequality in the system but instead you could say that the inequality has increased. Instead of having only one title (which does not reveal marital status, in line with titles for men) there are now three possible titles in circulation, and all three appear alongside Mr. on most of the forms we have to fill in. Until very recently at least, women had no choice but to reveal whether they are single or (ever) married every time they wanted to refer to themselves in conventional titlepluslastname manner. One was rather Miss SomebodyorOther, Mrs. SomebodyorOther. Now, of course, one can be Ms. SomebodyorOther and supposedly avoid the whole issue. However, this is not always the case. The use of Ms. is often interpreted to mean “unmarried, and slightly ashamed of the fact”. As one writer reports,“After four attempts to convince a travel agent that I was not Miss or Mrs. But Ms., she finally responded with ‘Oh, I’m not married either, but it doesn’t bother me.’” If you choose not to tell the world your marital status by selecting Ms. , some people will assume you are divorced。 others will assume you are a feminist. n other words, the use of Ms. , if you had the choice of using Miss or Mrs. , can seem to carry the information about your political opinions. Furthermore,since the introduction of Ms. , selecting Miss or Mrs. as your title can seem to indicate that you do not want to appear to be a feminist. Therefore not only do two of the titles that women use reveal marital status, all three titles can appear to carry information about the user’s political affiliations. This is not a situation men face.Why should a woman’s title change with her marital status, but a man’s title stay the same? Doesn’t this imply that a woman’s place is in the home? If not, why doesn’t a man’s title (“Mr.”) designate his marital status? Feminist Dale Spender’s mentary sheds some light on an explanation in that respect.Although some sociolinguistic mentators remark that this asymmetry is primarily a matter of power and status differences rather than of sex/gender differences, there is nevertheless some evidence that when the status of the sexes is reversed (. female boss vs. male assistant/clerk or secretary) women in positions of power are still more likely than men to attract asymmetrical forms of address. Indeed, ments made by female bosses indicate that their male assistants often initiate or determine the forms of address to be used between them (usually a prerogative of the more powerful) and occasionally address them by an endearment. Sexism in proverbs, idioms, dicta, and riddleSome proverbs, idioms, dicta, riddles portray females as idle chatterboxes, weak, jealous, stupid, possessive and concerned with physical beauty or trivial things. The following are some of the examples:In proverbs: A thousand men may live together in harmony, whereas two women are unable to do so though they are sisters.[5] A woman’s hair is long, but her sense is short[6].In dicta: With women,the heart argues,not the mind.[7] A river without islands is like a woman without hair.[8] In riddles: Why should ladies who wish to remain slender avoid the letter “C” ? (Because it makes fat a fact.)[9] What is the difference between a soldier and a young girl? (One powder the face, the other faces the powder.)[10] 2. Sexism in ChineseThe number of Chinese is much more than English’s. There are also including sexism in Chinese such as sexism in word formation, word order, proverbs, riddles and pronouns. Sexism in word formationIn the Chinese writing system, many characters related to females contain the meaning element or the feminine/female radical‘女’ (nǚin pinyin, meaning ‘female’ ), representing behaviors, actions or states of being that have negative connotations or considered bad. For instance, 姘 (pīn in pinyin, meaning ‘to have illicit sexual relations’), 妒 (d249。in pinyin, meaning ‘to be jealous’ ). There is a Chinese word‘嬲’ (niǎo in pinyin), which insults the female to the utmost. According to the wordformation rule of the Chinese writing system, the meaning element of ‘嬲’ is ‘女’ , but there are two ‘男’ (n225。n in pinyin, meaning ‘male’ ) surrounding and teasing one ‘女’ with frivolous language and conducts. Strange enough, there is no such meaning element or radical as ‘男’ . The absence of a specific masculine radical may be due to the fact that the ancient Chinese might think that only men were human beings, so they could use characters with the human radical to represent meanings related to men. Sexism in word orderIn fixed collocations or phrases, male referents occur first. For example:爺爺奶奶、外公外婆、父母、公婆、岳父母、伯父伯母、叔叔嬸嬸、舅舅舅媽、夫妻、夫婦、兒女、兄弟姐妹。 Diminished Names for WomenNames include “姓” (surnames or family names) and “名” (given names). In addition, some people may have nicknames or pen names. “姓” is used to refer to which family one is from. “姓” is inherited. Though simple in use, “姓” has a plicated meaning: with few exception, people always get their family name from their fathers。 but the semantic symbol of “姓” is “女” (woman). If we trace the history of marriage, we will find the monogamy that is mon today came into existence quite lately in history. Marriage meant a woman was wife of many men, and a man was husband of many women. There were records in classical writings that the ancient men “know who his mother is but know not who his father is”. That “姓” took “女” as its semantic symbol suggested that when “姓” was devised the blood lineage was only tied to mother in matriarchal society. In fact, the earliest family names usually took “女” as their semantic symbols, such as “姬”, “姜”, “姚”, “婁”, etc. .In theory, at least, any Chinese character or bination of two Chinese characters can be adopted as a given name. Though there is no logical relationship between a person and the name assigned to him by his parents, names conv