the effect of this otherness is that many feminine characteristics-language included- are devalued in comparison to their male counterparts because women's language in general, and jigs in particular, focuses on emotions rather than facts and objects it is judged more ambiguous, less direct and more trivial than masculine speech. if jig is fighting, trivial, and deferential, then it must be remembered that all of those terms are judgements which depend on a foreign standard, maleness