Rethinking Speech: Upspeak and Vocal Fry

The gang's all here and we're ready to discuss the sexism and misogyny imbedded in many words in our language and we're using the book Wordslut by Amanda Montell as our starting point.

Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs language—from insults, cursing, gossip, and catcalling to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women and other marginalized genders from power. 

Dawn "Sam" Alden, Sean Marlon Newcombe, Lauren Torres and Kimberly Rockwell take a deep dive into Ms. Montell's language deconstruction and bring in some language analysis of their own.

What's in a name? A lot, apparently!