women", "kings and queens", "brothers and sisters", "guys and dolls" and "host and hostess" are all commonplace in today's society (Neilsen, 52). Even business letters begin with "Dear Sir or Madam,". This shows that the semantic usage of many of the English words is also what contributes to the bias present in the English language. Alleen Pace Nielsen notes that there are instances when women are seen as passive while men are active and bring things into being. She uses the example of the wedding ceremony. In the beginning of the ceremony, the father is asked who gives the bride away and he answers, "I do." It is at this point gender bias comes into play. The traditional concept of the bride as something to be handed from one man (the father) to another man (the husband-to-be) is perpetuated (Neilsen, 52). Another example is in the instance of sexual relationships. The women become brides while men wed women. The man takes away a woman's virginity and a woman loses her virginity. This denotes her inability, apparently due to her gender, to hold on to something that i
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