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few cases where 'sh~' is widely used in this way, for example 'if
sec~etary st:ms gettmg backache, the chances are that her offi
equ.lpment IS at fault.' 'She' is used in this way when the ster~ typ~cal member of the set of people at issue is a woman: typical secretary, or nurse, is a woman. But if the use of 'she' £ non-specific reference i~ based upon such a stereotype, is that also true ~f 'he'? I~ university rules contain things like this:j student wishes to mterrup~ his course of study for personal health reasons, he should dISCUSS the matter with his tutor i first instance,' is not the stereotype of 'the student' here ~:l! For an argument to this effect, see Martyna (1978). Although m.0st of the ~ebate h~ again centred upon contin~¡ ?on-dem~cratlc ~d sexrst practices, the context for the deb~ IS ~ certaIn. 0p~nlng .uP and democratization of gender relatilln.s which has Its discursive facets. Not only self-conscious feministS' but many other women, and many men, actively intervene thes days to make languag~ practices less sexist, with varying degre~~ of. su~cess. Intervention may take various forms: produciti gu.ldelm~s for non-sexi~t practice in institutions; inscribing gr;tf:. fi~1 on billboard adverrisemenrs to highlight and challenge sexis discourse, or struggling for women's access to prestigious discl1[.~ SIV~ pr~ctlces and roles. An important form of intervention is en ~agmg m struggles of a more hegemonic nature, to shih practic ~, ~or e~ample,. trade uni.on o~ academic departmental meetin~~ m directions which make It easrer for women to contribute or to foster collaborative rather than competitive modes of inte~ctioii which are often more highly valued by women than men. Nor. should 'the language of silence' as a mode of intervention be dis~ c.ounted: people m~y interpret and react to discourse in opposiZ tional w~ys even If ~eir opl.'0sitiot,t is not overtly expressed; I?terventlon ~y men IS sometimes directed at discursive dimen~IO?S of prac?ces o.f masculinity, for instance at assumptions tha.t being a m.an ent.ails aggr~sslve and obscene discourse practices. ~uch practices of mtervennon are more typical of, and have more Impact upon, certain strata within the middle class than elsewhere. Ques?ons of intervention are a timely reminder that abstract ~ndencles such as democratization are the summation of contradicrory struggles, within which interventions to restructure ord~rs of discou~se may be ~esisted in v.arious ways, and may be subjected to various strategies of contamment, in order to pre-
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eve existing hegemonies in the sphere of discourse. One such
.~. ategy is marginalization, and a notorious example is the title
Ms'. 'Ms' was originally designed to impose get;tder sy~metry on 'des, sharing with 'Mr' the property of l~avmg mantal star.us ¡en. But 'Ms':Mrs' and 'Miss' are now WIdely used on official rins as alternatives to chose between. Choosing 'Ms' then beIDes a political act, which in most domains may lead to one eing marginalized. The struggle over such forms. goes o~, an~ though democratization of gender-related discursive practices. IS ything but a smooth and univers~ process, gender asymmetnes discourse have been denaturalized and problematized on a 'guificant scale.
Commodification 'Commodification is the process whereby social domains and institutions, whose concern is not producing commodities in the narrower economic sense of goods for sale, come nevertheless to be organized and conceptualized in terms of commodity production, distribution and consumption. It is no longer surprising, for example, for sectors of the arts and education such as theatre and English language teaching to be referred to as 'industries' concerned with producing, marketing and selling cultural or educational commodities to their 'clients' or 'consumers'. Commodification is not a particularly new process, but it has recently gained new vigour and intensity as an aspect of the 'enterprise culture' (Keat and Abercrombie 1990). Marx himself noted the effects of commodification on language: referring to people as 'hands' in industrial contexts, for example, is part of seeing them as commodities useful for producing other commodities, as embodied labour power. In terms of orders of discourse, we can conceive of commodification as the colonization of institutional orders of discourse, and more broadly of the societal order of discourse, by discourse types associated with commodity production. I shall refer to examples from education and educational discourse. A widespread feature of contemporary educational discourse is the wording of courses or programmes of study as commodities