Question 1

1) Why do cultural studies theorists separate words with capital letters from those without, even when the words in question are not proper nouns (e.g., woman vs. Woman)? Explain why we do this (i.e., what is the convention a shorthand for), and what significance it has. (30-50 words)


The difference between words with capital letters versus words with letters that are not capitalized is that the capitalized word represents the idea or construction that word represents. To expound on the previous example, a “woman” is just that: female, but a “Woman” is how a female is constructed (i.e., cooking, cleaning, glamorous, etc.). This is significant because this means that it is recognized to have a construction that is different from what it actually is. Using the previous example, the construction of Woman can very easily be different from what every woman is.