2. Gender and Sociolinguistic Variation

What I found most interesting in this chapter was the role that the burnout girl plays in society. The fact that she has more to lose in terms of power and status is what motivates her to use standard language in a more conservative way. The burnout girl is at the bottom of the sociolinguistic hierarchy. She has to prove herself in more ways than the jock girl, whose economic status already puts her at an advantage over the burnout girl because of her access to education and the probability of parents who encourage or demand excellence in academia.

I can relate to this.

There was little expectation of me by high school "guidance" counselors. Like the burnout girl, I had to learn to play by their rules in order to get them to notice me as a serious student, as a contributing member of society; I learned to read, write, and speak the in the dominant discourse. I am at a point in my life where I can float between economic classes through language variation. I do not have the power of race or gender to elevate my class status, but I have the power of written and verbal language to lay my claim.