Gender Flashcards
What are the four D’s?
Dominance
Defecit
Diversity
Difference
What is the Dominance theory?
Men have more power and authority and men are seen as controlling and dominating
Schulz and Lakoff
Conducted research into the terms in which men and women are reffered to suc as marked terms and semantic derogation
What are marked terms?
When a suffix is added at the end of a term or word to diminis the role or meaning usually ess eg. actress, hostess
What is semantic derogation?
Where words have gained negative connotations as time has progressed eg. masters female equivalent is mistress which has connotations of prostitution
Janet Holmes
Looked into the way which women are referred to in affectionate names, semantic field of food and animals eg. Sugar honey bitch cow
Stanley (1970s)
Examined number of insults for women against men
220 insults to describe promiscuous women and 20 for men
Tyler Drew-Honey (2015)
Asked people in the streets how they would describe a woman who slept with 30 men and a mean who slept with 30 women
Woman= slag and slut
Man= lad
Dale Spender
Culture of “male is norm” men are dominant models and women are add ons eg. Men always introduced first, mankind
Germaine Greer
Tried to linguistically reclaim the term c*nt to remove negative connotations
Zimmerman and West (1975)
Studies interruptions in conversations between men and women
Found men interrupted 96% to 100% more of the time
Small sample of subjects who were white middle class men under 35
Beattie
Much larger representative and found there was an equal number of interruptions
What is the deficit theory?
Women’s language is weak and contains weak traits
Otto Jespersen
Investigated non fluency features eg. Fillers and pauses
Women speak without thinking and use more non fluenxybfeatures
Relies of evidence from literature and travellers, dismissed as folk linguistics
Onnela
Disputes Jespersen’s research, found with masters there was a very similar mean length of utterance
Robin Lakoff (1975)
Weak features of spoken language:
Hyper correct grammar
Over apologising
Empty adjectives
Tag questions
Overuse of intensifiers
Special lexicon
Less swearing
Lack sense of humour
Kira Hall
Found that phone sex workers often made use of Lakoffs features to appear more feminine
O’Barr and Atkins
Courtroom study, found lower class men use Lakoff’s language features in court, not to do with gender but power
What is the difference theory?
The idea that men and women are inherently different
Deborah Tannen
Advice vs understanding: men would rather find a solution than understand
Orders vs proposals: men = imperatives, women = requests
Status vs support: male = control women = supported
Information vs feelings: men = facts, women = emotional overview
Independence vs intimacy: men = independent women= intimacy of situations
Conflict vs compromise: women= compromise instead of conflict
Tannen’s type of speakers
High involvement: take active role in conversation, leading conversation of back channeling
High considerateness: speak more slowly, avoid talking at the same time as someone else
Report and rapport
Report: direct (men)
Rapport: used to create and sustain relationships (women)
Jennifer Coates
Techniques used by women to maintain conversation and are signs of intelligence
Deborah Jones
Researched gossiping among women and calls it house talk:
Scandal: discuss behaviour of others
Bitching: expression of anger as relief
Chatting: intimate form of gossip
Deborah Cameron
Girls bitch covertly as dominant behaviour is more acceptable for women
Pilkington
Locker room banter: created within all male groups, found insults were part of culture and create bonds
Kuiper
Men use more insults and expletives
What is the diversity model?
Gender isn’t the only thing that influences language such as upbringing and groups
Valentova and Havlicek
Investigated someone’s percieved sexual orientation
Whether you could tell a man’s sexuality based on aesthetics and voice
Ppts could detect someone’s sexuality based on voice and how they looked
Certain femininity in the voice eg, elongated vowel
Lavender linguistics
Describes the language of homosexuals
Leap believes the way homosexuals interact with heterosexuals and with other homosexuals claims it is a whole other language
Judith Butler
Performativity: constrict your gender based on how you behave and the language you use
