It seems like I've missed out on an interesting lecture!

I remember asking my parents when I was a little girl, why countries and 'Mother' Nature are 'female', while almost everything else is 'male'. They gave me their standard reply: "You'll know when you grow up." And indeed, years later I did find the answer - sexism. Its pervasive nature is reflected not just in the way different genders are perceived and treated, but also in our everyday usage of language.

So why do we conform to these labels and talk/behave in gender-stereotypical ways?

Being a psychology major, this would be a familiar topic of course. Starting from an early age, children are found to frequently mix around with peers of the same gender, and they will attempt to talk/behave similarly among their groups. Parents and teachers encourage this further by rewarding and punishing boys and girls differently, according to how they 'should' behave.

It's no wonder that over a long period of time, languages have incorporated sexist concepts under the huge societal pressure.

Even the media encourages females and males to talk differently by exaggerating the differences. Below's a funny clip from the TV drama Friends, on how an all-girls group and an all-guys group react in drastically different ways to the same event.