How the words we use-and don't use-reinforce dominant cultural normsWhy is the term "openly gay" so widely used but "openly straight" is not? What are the unspoken assumptions behind terms like "male nurse," "working mom," and "white trash"? Offering a revealing and provocative look at the word choices we make every day without even realizing it, Taken for Granted exposes the subtly encoded ways we talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, social status, and more.In this engaging and insightful book, Eviatar Zerubavel describes how the words we use--such as when we mark "the best female basketball player" but leave her male counterpart unmarked-provide telling clues about the things many of us take for granted. By marking "women's history" or "Black History Month," we are also reinforcing the apparent normality of the history of white men. When we mark something as being special or somehow noticeable, that which goes unmarked-such as maleness, whiteness, straightness, and able-bodiedness-is assumed to be ordinary by default. Zerubavel shows how this tacit normalizing of certain identities, practices, and ideas helps to maintain their cultural dominance-including the power to dictate what others take for granted.A little book about a very big idea, Taken for Granted draws our attention to what we implicitly assume to be normal-and in the process unsettles the very notion of normality.

Preface ix1 The Marked and the Unmarked 1
2 Semiotic Asymmetry 10
Semiotic Weight 12
Tacit Assumptions and Cognitive Defaults 14
The Common and the Exceptional 18
3 Social Variations on a Theme 21
Marking Traditions 21
Marking Conventions 24
Situational Variability 26
Marking Battles 28
4 The Politics of Normality 32
Normality and Deviance 35
The Shape of Normality 40
Normalizing and Othering 44
Representativeness 50
Neutrality and Invisibility 52
Self-Evidence
and Cognitive Hegemony 58
5 Semiotic Subversion 60
Marking the Unmarked 60
The Politics of Foregrounding 63
Academic Foregrounding 68
Artistic Foregrounding 74
Comic Foregrounding 78
Backgrounding 85
6 Language and Cultural Change 92
Notes 99
Bibliography 113
Author Index 133
Subject Index 137