Words are more than a string of sounds and letters that denote a particular meaning. Linguistic anthropologist Judith T. Irvine contends that speaking is a social activity where the relationship of language, culture, and society is enacted (249). Linguist Deborah Cameron defines language ideology in "Verbal Hygiene" as the notions, concepts, and understandings of how language is created, used, and changed. Language denotes and connotes particular meaning and signification in the letters and sounds themselves, but the way people use language also conveys an ideology about people and objects. Language ideology is, in short, the beliefs and attitudes about language that reveal their relationships of power with each other. This article describes how the author would teach a unit about gender and language with an increased knowledge of ideology about language.