Sustainability in English Academic Writing: The Binary Dilemma on Pronoun Utilization

Abstract

Abstract Discussion on sexism regarding language focuses on how women are discriminated against in our daily language and in academic writing. Although we are against any kind of discrimination, when it comes to dealing with this phenomenon in language and language use, we should be more careful. Language is not only a symbolic means whereby humans interact, it is also a product of human intellectual activity imbued with various experiences of our past and recent ancestors. Thus, it is also a reflection of our society’s conceptual system through which we interpret physical and mental phenomena. In this paper, we have analyzed views regarding sexism and language; tried to display how improving the so-called injustices in language would result in some dire situations which may have never been foreseen. We finally put forth our own solutions to overcome the problems of sexism in academic writing.