Is the term 'Big Brother' sexist?

Question

As in oppressive, police state society, not your older male sibling.

Does this suggest brothers are more likely to oppressive and fascist than big sisters? What are your thoughts? :-)

Answer 1

You are reading too much into this.

Answer 2

No I don't think it is......IMO you'd have to have some serious issue problems to think it was sexist.

Answer 3

"Big Brother" is synonymous for "The Man" which in today's society (as in the past) represents those in power - white males.  It's not sexist - it's still true.

Answer 4

Man this whole political correctness thing is getting out of hand

Answer 5

Simple: NO!

Answer 6

I don't care.

Answer 7

No.  I don't think it suggests that big brothers are more likely to be oppressive than big sisters.

That's an interesting point to ponder though.

Answer 8

no its an age old term, from orwells book (as im sure you know).

the leader was a man, therefore he was 'big brother'

EDIT - alyssa knows it all - hah obviously you dont. doesnt anyone here know about orwell? just big brother the reality tv show!?!?

Answer 9

Please, the term 'Big Brother' come from the book '1984' which was written in 1944 as a sort of sci-fi pridiction future. Big Brother was some sort of government thing to make sure you behaved. Big Brother sounds more powerful then Big Sister or Big Sibling, and remember in 1944 people were not trying as hard to be politically correct.

Answer 10

the term "big brother is watching you"

whenever i hear that, i think of "you cant do anything without someone critiscizing you."

:]

Answer 11

It is called marketing

If the cllaed it " Big Sister" it would not sell the audience.

Anyway, it comes as from George Orwells book about a nanny state looking over you.

Bob

Answer 12

as long as you don't use it in a clearly sexist way I don't think it is.

Answer 13

erm  it is in a way because u can say why didn't they thinkof big sister or big girl but they dolet girls into big borther so its probably a incidently thing that they didnt realize they where doing

Answer 14

No, the term 'Big Brother' was coined by G. Orwell in his publication 1984 to metaphorically define a construct of thought control.

Answer 15

what's wrong ...don't you wanna be the little sister?

Answer 16

Please. Over-reacting is bad for your health.

Answer 17

No, "Big Brother" is not sexist. It emanates from George Orwell's prophetic 1984, depicting a nightmarish world of the future where men AND women were subjected to mind control.

Unfortunately his vision of the future has been overtaken by reality. Nowadays we call it 'political correctness' or 'polcor'.

Answer 18

Not if you have a Big Brother Surely,,,

Answer 19

Go read some Orwell.

Edit:

*sigh* OK, you're so right. Let us no longer use a classic literary reference to refer to the police state because some feminist thinks it's sexist. Lets change it to "Big Person". That sounds way more scary.

[I hope you get the concept of irony.]

Answer 20

I think it is no big deal.

Answer 21

Its a negative term, so why would women consider it sexist.

Then again, (other then arguably Maggie Thatcher) can you think of any oppressive, tyrannical, megalomaniac dictator who were female?

Answer 22

I think that in this case 'brother' may be used as a generic term which applies to all humans, in the same way that 'man' sometimes is. 'Brother' can also be a slang word for friend and I've heard it used for girls too.

In the book, it's unclear whether Big Brother exists as a person, or just as a representation of the state's policies. So, I don't think he really had a gender. :)

Answer 23

you read to much into it.  The terms you use are way too aggressive. Big brothers are just more likely to be the one that is dominant over the younger siblings and that they look up to, regardless of their nature.

Answer 24

It's from Orwell's "1984" and everyone over the age of 12 should know that.