The Legitimization of Gender Bias in Selected English Proverbs

The study of language and gender reveals how language works as a symbolic tool to construct and preserve personal, social, and cultural aspects and identities, going beyond merely documenting the distinctions between men's and women's linguistic patterns. Thus, tackling proverbs as data being loaded with important themes, mainly, gender inequality and prejudiced views represents a fertile area of research. The study attempts to examine sexist proverbs pragmatically to prove the legitimation of the ideological aspects of gender bias in terms of speech act. This leads to a major aim the study sets in advance, which is to show that gender neutrality is not always the case. The study hypothesizes: 1. Proverbs are performative speech acts as proverbial speech acts both constitute and instigate gender discrimination. 2. Gender bias is legitimized in the proverbial discourse that blocks the way towards gender neutrality.The study concludes: (1) Proverbs, related to gender, provide insight into gender dynamics in terms of locutions and lexical triggers (father, mother, etc.). These proverbs are discriminatory speech acts in which hate, and discrimination are promoted and instigated by the social and traditional authorities. (2) Gender bias and the ideologies behind it are legitimized in proverbs by the social authority like, the personal and model authority of father; and traditionality where it is generally not opposed.