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In my college fiction class we had a discussion on the English language being a mans language, and what implications that had on women, especially women writers. How to truly communicate, the question seemed to be, in a language that was not really yours? A language that has words like hysterectomy, derived from the days when removing a woman�s uterus seemed the appropriate thing to do when they became hysterical. A language that has a saying, �rule of thumb� that comes from the days when the law stated you could beat your wife as long as it was with something no wider than your thumb. Even more current words�cunt, slut, bitch, whore�they have no male equivalent. So it seems not only right to ask the above question of how to communicate, but is there a woman�s language at all? If you were to pick up a book blank in cover and read it, would you know the gender of the author? One critic suggested that there is in fact a woman�s language, that it is more fluid and wavy than men�s. When I read Lorrie Moore, I agree. When I read Wally Lamb, I don�t. What I don�t fluctuate in is the belief that the language itself, the common vernacular, is mans language.

So how to put power in your words? Virginia Woolf suggests that there will be no equality until we have a gender neutral language, which, though radical in its suggestion, makes sense. Men write of war, business and politics while women write of home, of love, and dress. And while it is not always so black and white, it remains true. I sat down to write my final paper plagued with the desire to make this not true, or to make it something that women writers could ignore when they sat down to tell a story. Two things happened�first, I gave up the notion that the English language would ever become gender neutral. Second, I realized that it need not happen for women to take it and make it theirs. Both in syntax and subject women are able to transcend the bias everyday, and it perhaps the struggle that makes the writing as good as it is. The power does not come from the words, but how one chooses to use the words. Most of all, the power comes from daring to use them in the first place, to make them your own and give them away.