Gender

Question 1

What is gender / how does gender work?

Answer 1

• Societal expectations of men/women, e.g. boys wear blue, girls wear pink.
• Gender differences caused by upbringing, interactions with our society and culture and our environment.

Question 2

Where do gender roles come from?

Answer 2

• Way we speak to a child, e.g. ‘where’s my princess’, ‘where’s my big boys’.
• Clothing -> boys wear lots of blue, girls wear pink/dresses etc, flowers, pastel colours.
• TV cartoons, e.g. Peppa pig wears dress whilst brother wears blue.
• the influence of the media etc.

Question 3

What is gender representation?

Answer 3

• How images of men and women are portrayed in, e.g. books, adverts, scripts and the media. The image an audience is given of men + women.
  
  • Image may reinforce stereotypes or may challenge stereotypical attitudes.
• Children not coded (boys like blue, girls pink etc) WE (society) condition them to do this, e.g. shops, boys clothes are blue, have dinos etc, girls are pink, dresses etc.

Question 4

What are the stereotypes usually given to men in the media?

Answer 4

• Strength (physical + intellectual) - e.g. Yorker bar ad, not for women.
• Powerful
• Sexual attractiveness / physique
• independence

Question 5

What are the representations usually given to women in the media?

Answer 5

• beauty (within narrow conventions) - L’Oréal ads, well-known celebs.
• Physique.
• Sexuality - e.g. Muller ads -> Nicole (from Pussy cat Dolls).

Question 6

How does male talk compare to female talk?

Answer 6

Male talk:
- Straight-forward
- swearing

Female talk:
- Apologetic
- Nurturing?

Question 7

What did Charles de Rochefort say about gender in ‘natural + moral history of the Antilles islands of America’?

Answer 7

• Some features of lang used only by males, vice versa with females -> clear links to masculinity.
  
  • Lang used to main identity - idea of performance (job interviews etc).

Question 8

Describe the impact/influence of Robin Lakoff (1975) ‘Language and women’s place’

Answer 8

• during 20 years after publish, ‘met with widespread criticism’
  
  • Lakoff admits it is her impression’, not ‘based on precise statistical evidence’.
  • Uses uncertain phrases in book like ‘many men’ and ‘men tend to’.
• However launched ‘far reaching program of research’ which are still felt today.
• Lakoff’s work is still often quoted today.
• representative of the ‘deficit approach’.

Question 9

List the main features of female speech in Robin Lakoff’s book:

Answer 9

• Super-polite forms: ‘would you mind’, ‘is it OK if?’.
• Apologies more: ‘I’m sorry, but I think that’.
• Hedges phrases like ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’, ‘it seems like’.
• Empty adjectives: ‘divine, adorable, gorgeous’
• avoid coarse language or expletives.

Question 10

What is the ‘deficit approach’ to language and gender and who is it attributed to?

Answer 10

• Otto Jesperson (in 1922) argued male lang forms were the ‘norm’ and the Lang of others (including women) were ‘deficient’.
• Considering list of Lakoff female features -> apparent why it may be seen as ‘weaker’.
• Lakoff saw female lang as deficient.

Question 11

Describe Jenny Cheshire’s study on children (1982)

Answer 11

• Looked at certain grammatical variations in speech of children, considered frequency of children using: non-standard ‘has’ (you has to), non-standard ‘was’ (you was), non-standard ‘do’ (she do), use of ‘ain’t’ (I ain’t).
• boys use non-standard forms more frequently -> due to vernacular culture of boys (sports, dinos, video games, cars.
• Boy’s speech governed by norms, transmitted through peer group.
• variation in girls’ speech appears to be a personal process and less controlled by norms.

Question 12

Describe Pamela Fishman’s (1983) dominance model and her theory

Answer 12

• Focused on tag questions, listened 52 hours of pre-recorded conversations between young American couples.
• Agreed with Lakoff, tag Qs used by women more.
• Argued for girls, Qs used to start conversations and sustain conversation.
  
  • use for conversational power rather than uncertainty.
• Try to keep conversation, ‘conversation shit work’.
• Fishman accepts this is due to male dominance, don’t do shit because they should not as the dominant role.

Question 13

Describe Deborah Tannen’s difference model

Answer 13

• ‘there are gender differences in ways of speaking’.
• advocated idea that men and women speak differently.
• established 6 differences between sexes in language:
  
  • status vs support
  • Independence vs intimacy
  • advice vs understanding
  • Orders vs proposals
  • Conflict vs Compromise
• Different from deficit model, lang not used by men to be dominant although it is different.

Question 14

What is the status vs support difference (difference model)

Answer 14

• Men use language to show power and dominance in conversations.
• women are more likely to use language choices to support and agree with others.

Question 15

What is the independency vs intimacy (difference model)?

Answer 15

• Men will use language to show they do not need to rely on others.
• women will prefer to use language as a way of connecting with others and maintaining closeness.

Question 16

What is the advice vs understanding difference (difference model)

Answer 16

• Similar to Tannen’s Advise Vs Understanding concept, men are far more likely to be factual in their language choices.
• women will use language choices that are less factual and stem from a more emotional viewpoint.

Question 17

What is the orders vs proposals difference (difference model)?

Answer 17

• men more likely to be direct in lang, using imperatives to command others.
• Women avoid using commanding tone and be more suggestive in lang choices.
• E.g. man: ‘close that window as it’s cold’,
  Women: ‘isn’t it cold in here’.

Question 18

What is the conflict vs compromise difference (difference model)?

Answer 18

• Men use lang to argue a point.
• Women use lang to avoid conflict and more likely to negotiate with others to try and find a solution or compromise.

Question 19

Describe Jennifer Coates’ research on the difference model (1989)

Answer 19

• Girls and boys tend to belong to same-sex friendship groups when growing up and subsequently develop different styles of speaking.
• Female lang cooperative in single-sex conversations.
  
  • Tag questions and modality as characteristics that help to make women’s talk supportive and cooperative.

Question 20

Describe Jane Pilkington’s research on the difference model (1992)

Answer 20

• Women in same-sex conversations were collaborative and used positive politeness strategies.
  
  • Inclusive pronouns ‘us’, ‘we’, men use exclusive pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘you’ more freq.
• Women support, build on each others’ points and complete others’ utterances -> ‘also’, ‘yes, because’.
• Men in same sex talk were a lot less collaborative, less complimentary and less supportive than women.
  
  • Competitive to point of verbal abuse -> take part in verbal sparring -> often using mock insults, ‘pillock, moron, bastard etc’.

Question 21

Describe Deborah Cameron’s views on the difference model (2008)

Answer 21

• difference in speech is ‘one of great myths of our time’. -> ‘Myth of Mars and Venus.
• Myths evolved on ideas that women pay more attention to being good communicators than men, men have natural desire to be competitive resulting in aggressive speech style.
• Provides re-evaluation of stereotypes on male and female talk.
• Argues myths actually shape expectations of men and women.
• Her work representative of studies that move away from categorising male/female talk as driven by biological differences.

Question 22

What is Janet Hyde’s ‘gender similarities hypothesis’ (2005)?

Answer 22

• Claims there are differences between male/female lang.
• where there are differences: due to other variables like age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality, politics etc.

Question 23

What is the gender ‘performativity’ theory?

Answer 23

• coined by Judith Butler -> may be used to project on identity rather then reinforce gender stereotypes.
• in book ‘gender trouble’ (1990), argues it is wrong to reinforce binary views of gender and assert that women are group with common characteristics and interests.
• ‘we act, speak and talk in ways that consolidate an impression of being a man or a women.
  
  • we conform to social norms and are not biologically constructed.

Question 24

Summarise the generally accepted key characteristics of male language

Answer 24

• Dominate conversation by topic initiation, topic shifts, lack of turn-yielding clues and interrupting and speaking more.
• use more informal register through use of accent, taboo, slang, dialect, sociolect and grammatical variations, likely to use covert prestige to sustain masculine identity (likely to use nonstandard dialects).
• Likely to be factual, competitive, direct and detached when speaking while maintaining a need for status.

Question 25

Summarise the characteristics of female language which are generally accepted

Answer 25

• More submissive in conversation and speak less, unlikely to interrupt, initiate or change topics or attempt to hold the floor.
• Likely to use overt prestige to create feminine identity and succumb to stereotypes of how ‘lady-like’ they should talk (formal lexis and less phonological variations)
• More supportive, co-operative, polite and emotional when speaking.

Question 26

Describe Dale Spender’s (1980) ‘Man Made Language’ and her view on the dominance model

Answer 26

• in mixed-sex conversations, men more likely to interrupt than women.
• radical view of lang as embodying structures that sustain male power.
• difficult to challenge power system as way we think reinforces male power.
• inspired by study conducted by Zimmerman and West in 1975.
• interpreted women’s silence (fewer turns speaking, interrupted and corrected more) a form of oppression.
  
  • example given include pronoun ‘he’, men being before women grammatically, and identifying the all-powerful God as being male.
• generally accepts Dominance theory, does not accept ‘deficiency of women or concomitant supremacy of males’.
• According to Spender (1980) there are 220 terms for promiscuous females but only 20 for males:
  
  • female: slag, slut
  • male: stud, player

Question 27

Explain the criticisms Dale Spender has of other linguistic studies

Answer 27

• Moore (1922) found men talked more about work than women -> Spender thinks he ‘defined work implicitly as something which men do’, ‘skewed data in favour of men’.
• Hartman (1976) -> women’s lang was euphemistic, ‘flowery’ and therefore a lesser. Spender thinks if men spoke as women did, he would say it was thoughtful, polished and balanced.
• Spender says that ‘research has frequently been rigged’.

Question 28

Give some of the ideas Robin Lakoff gives in her book ‘Language and woman’s place’

Answer 28

• if woman refuses to talk lady-like, is ridiculed and criticised as unfeminine, if does succumb, seen as unable to think clearly, unable to take part in a serious discussion.
• 2 choices woman has, to be less than a woman or less than a person are highly painful.
• women exp linguistic discrimination in 2 ways: way they are taught to use lang and lang used to treat them.
  
  • Both regulate women to certain subservient functions: that of sex object, or servant.
  • certain lexical items mean one thing applied to men, another to women (marked and unmarked terms)

Question 29

What are unmarked terms?

Answer 29

• ‘normal’ or neutral form of a word.
• Most of these in English are the male forms.
• many actually carry explicit or covert prestige and power.
• Many terms in English which have strong connotations that are dependent on gender.
• E.g. priest

Question 30

What are marked terms?

Answer 30

• different equivalent term.
• often marked term is the female term.
• usually the marked term carried with it reduced power or respect, or a negative association.
• Many terms in English have strong connotations that are dependent on gender.

Question 31

List unmarked terms for men and the marked female equivalent of these terms, then comment on the connotations of each of these terms.

Answer 31

• master = mistress
  
  • master is a man with authority (positive), mistress is a woman that a man may own along with other mistresses (negative).
• male prostitute = prostitute
• bachelor = spinster
  
  • bachelor is an educated man or man who has never unmarried, spinster is an old. unmarried, possibly undesirable woman.
• surgeon = female surgeon

Question 31

List unmarked terms for men and the marked female equivalent of these terms, then comment on the connotations of each of these terms.

Answer 31

• master = mistress
  
  • master is a man with authority (positive), mistress is a woman that a man may own along with other mistresses (negative).
• male prostitute = prostitute
• bachelor = spinster
  
  • bachelor is an educated man or man who has never unmarried, spinster is an old. unmarried, possibly undesirable woman.
• surgeon = female surgeon

Question 32

Explain Janet Holme’s theory of animal imagery on gendered language

Answer 32

• Animal imagery example where images of women seem less positive than those of men.
  
  • E.g. ‘bitch, old biddy, cow’ compared to ‘stud and wolf’ for men.
• Imagery for men often at least has some positive component (e.g. sexual prowess).
• ‘birds’ regarded as feather brained.
  
  • more positive ‘chick’ are sweet but helpless.

Question 33

Explain Janet Holmes theory on food imagery on gendered language

Answer 33

• Women also referred to in terms of food imagery.
  
  • saccharine terms: ‘sugar, sweetie, honey’ mainly used for addressing women.
  • Less complimentary terms ‘crumpet, tart’ restricted to females.
• Terms originally neutral eventually acquire connotations as they increasingly refer only to women, their meanings focus on women as sexual objects.

Question 34

Explain Julia Stanley’s theory on gendered language

Answer 34

• Argued there was a negative semantic space for women. Couldn’t be writers, doctors, surgeons.
  
  • Women could only be women writers, female surgeons, lady doctors.
  • Similarly we referred to working ‘working mothers’ but not ‘working fathers’.
  • ‘drivers’ and ‘women drivers’, suggests women drivers and different from the usual ‘drivers’, possibly inferior.

Question 35

Explain Anne Bodine (1975) theory of androcentric language

Answer 35

• There is a bias in the English language in favour of males -> andocentric language.
• ‘man/mankind’ always a generic term but has been criticised because it implies that men are more important.
• ‘man’ refers to the species as a whole and males - this is why the term men has been labelled the false generic.

Question 36

Explain the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) and how it helped change sexist language?

Answer 36

• passed to stop sexual discrimination and harassment, esp at work and school.
• was a push to get rid of sexist lang.
  
  • Reflected the work of feminist campaigners, who wanted to promote equality.
• lang doesn’t just reflect sexist attitudes -> helps keep them alive.

Question 37

What is covert prestige?

Answer 37

• The notion of going against the accepted norms of society by using non-standard forms of English, pronouncing with a strong accent and perhaps lowering one’s lexis.

Question 38

What is overt prestige?

Answer 38

• Notion of trying to conform to socially respectable behaviour by using standard English, toning down one’s accent and perhaps raising one’s lexis.

Question 39

Describe Jenny Chesire’s study in Reading?

Answer 39

• Cheshire investigated the speech of adolescents in an adventure playground and found similar patterns to those which exist among adults (as referred to by Trudgill).
  
  • Suggests some differences in male + female lang use are already strongly evident during childhood.

Question 40

Summarise the dominance theory?

Answer 40

• Women traditionally occupied less powerful position in society than men, conversational behaviour is less assertive and less confident.
  
  • Men dominant within society so tend to reflect domination when engaging in mixed-sex convos.
  • Suggested this social conditioning is reason why women are often polite + respectful when talking to men.

Question 41

Summarise the theorists who go against the dominance theory?

Answer 41

• Dale Spender (1980) + Zimmerman and West (1975): Shifted away from women’s talk as being somehow deficient.
• Markers of female uncertainty, e.g. tag questions now reassessed, e.g. Fishman (1977) looked at how tag Qs were means of keeping convos going -> ‘conversational shit work’.
  
  • Spender looked at how lang is socially constructed by the dominant group in society (males).

Question 42

Summarise the difference model

Answer 42

• Focus on differences in male and female attitudes and values -> date back to a person’s childhood.
  
  • Studies of children’s play found in boy’s play more emphasis on competition + confrontation, girls’ games are more focused on cooperation.
  • May reflect why in adulthood women’s talk focuses more on personal feelings + problems, more supportive in convos.
• Deb Tanner ‘You don’t Understand’, men raised to view interaction for power, while women trained/raised to view them for like mindedness.
  
  • Men compete, women co-operate.
  • suggests we suffer from cross-cultural miscommunication.