Performing Gender Through Dialogue

One of the latest Disney princess movies is Frozen which was released in 2013. Female characters in Frozen differ from the female characters in previous Disney movies, such as The Little Mermaid and Tangled. In comparison, female characters in Frozen are portrayed as having more heroic values and norms, which makes it interesting to examine their speech characteristics. Do they use typical female speech despite having more heroic characteristics? This paper aims to provide insights into the female speech characteristics in this movie based on Lakoff’s (1975) model of female speech. Data analysis shows that female and male characters in the movie used almost equal number of female speech elements in their dialogues. Interestingly, although female characters in the movie do not behave stereotypically, their speech still contain the elements of female speech, such as the use empty adjectives, questions, hedges and intensifier. This paper argues that the blurring of boundaries between male and female speech characteristics in this movie is an attempt to break gender stereotyping by showing that female characters share similar characteristics with heroic male characters thus they should not be seen as inferior to the male characters.

The study of gender is essential to the study of language. It is quite clear that male and female characters are different in many aspects. They not only different in their physical aspect but also in using a language. This research aimed to uncover the differences of a linguistic feature in the speech of male and female characters based on woman’s language theory revealed by Robin Tolmach Lakoff, linguistic features which are dominantly used by male and female characters and its implication in teaching speaking. Lakoff is a linguist who began the research of the feature of woman’s language. The data of this research were taken from conversations of male and female main characters in Pride and Prejudice novel by Jane Austen. Data collection technique used was documentation which was applied two steps they are reading the novel thoroughly and enlisting all speeches uttered by the main characters of the novel. The instrument of this research was Documentation Guideline. The researcher analyzed the data by using analysis technique according to Mile and Huberman, namely data reduction, data display, and verification. This research revealed that male and female character differs in their number of using of linguistic features. Female characters are stated use more lexical hedge, avoidance of strong swear word, rising intonation on declarative, empty adjective, intensifier, emphatic stress and super polite form than male do. Female characters use those features to show their uncertainty toward things; they tend to avoid strong swear word and use more superpolite form. Therefore, female expressions are considered more polite than male. Consequently, they can avoid friction in their conversation and build effective communication across gender. This result is in line with Lakoff theory. The researcher found that the feature which is dominantly used by male and female is an intensifier. Furthermore, the implication of this research in teaching speaking especially complimenting and interrupting expression as the functional expression is the student needs to exposed expressions of complimenting and interrupting appropriately.

The manner in which manga can reflect and influence readers’ gender perceptions has been a frequently researched issue. This article is an attempt to consider those questions through language, a traditionally less-examined element, in order to shed new light on how male and female characters are used in manga. To do so, I use a linguistic corpus of ten popular shōjo-manga and shōnen-manga to look at (1) how much of the text found in speech bubbles was spoken by male and female characters; and (2) how many characters were seen. With regards to approximately 80% of all text, the corpus shows that shōnen-manga are extremely skewed towards male characters, compared to shōjo-manga, which is more balanced between female and male characters. While many more characters appear in shōnen-manga, the majority are male. Furthermore, only two female characters in all of the shōnen-manga series account for more than 10% of text, whereas all the shōjo-manga have male characters accounting for over 12%. In examining why this might be, I suggest that the focus on interpersonal relationships – including both friendship and romance – in shōjo-manga may lead to a smaller cast of characters and better balance between male and female characters. However, with authors usually writing for their own gender, I also maintain that it is related to differences in the roles of women and men in Japanese society. These distributions also have an impact on characterization itself, particularly in regards to the use of gendered speech patterns. With insight from Kinsui’s yakuwari-go, or role-playing language (2003), I specifically argue that the results predict that shnōen-manga will use more stereotypical speech, particularly in depicting female characters. In offering supporting evidence for this hypothesis, I suggest that this may affect how readers engage with the characters, thus creating different types of reading experiences within the genres. Through this discussion, it will become clear that linguistic data can shed light into how characters are manipulated in manga on a variety of levels, thus appealing to its potential as a legitimate and unique approach to manga research.

This study is an update of research done primarily in the 1970s on gender representation in children's cartoons. In the present study, 175 episodes of 41 different cartoons were coded for numbers and demographic characteristics of male, female, and androgynous characters. Behaviors, communication characteristics, and total talk time of male and female characters were coded, along with copyright year and country of origin. Results indicated notable discrepancies between prominence and portrayal of male and female characters. Both male and female characters were portrayed stereotypically. Compared to female characters, male characters were given much more prominence, appeared more frequently, engaged in more of almost all of the noted behaviors, and talked significantly more. When male or female behavior and communication variables were divided by number of male or female characters or by total talk time, results indicated consistency with gender role stereotypes. Comparisons of pre- and post-1980 cartoons, however, indicated significant change toward a less stereotypical portrayal of the characters, particularly female characters.

This study discusses the nonverbal communication particularly body language. This study focuses on kinesics such as: eye contact, posture, and facial expression of the male main character (Edward Cullen) and the female main character (Bella Swan) in Twilight movie by Stephenie Meyer. The aims of this study is to know the meaning behind those nonverbal communications of male main character and female main character as their acting in the movie. The method used to answer the problem of this study is Descriptive qualitative. The data of this study is a film entitled Twilight produced in 2008. The data is described in the form of images and words. From this study, it can be seen that there are three kinds of nonverbal communication used by the male and female main character. Those are eye contact, posture, and facial expression where the nonverbal communication used by the male character is concerned, serious, brave, romantic, cool postures, friendly and bright eyes. Whereas the female character uses dim eye contact, glace and shock posture, and amazed facial expression. It is found that there are several differences of using nonverbal communication between male and female character in the movie.

This study was motivated by the lack of research that discussed in detail the types of slang words used in popular media, one of which was the Wednesday series. The study aimed to identify and analyze the types of slang words spoken by teenage characters. This study used descriptive qualitative analysis of adolescent dialogues that used slang and then analyzed them using the theory of Allan and Burridge (2006). The data analysis technique follows Spradley’s method. The results of the study showed 89 types of slang were found, with the most frequently appearing type being flippant slang. These findings not only reveal slang in general but also reveal differences in the use of slang between female and male teenage characters. The results showed that overall, female characters used slang more often than male characters. There is a difference in the types of slang used by each gender, male characters tending to use flippant slang more often, while female characters use fresh and creative slang more often, and other types. These findings indicate that the use of slang was influenced not only by frequency of occurrence but also by different preferences for types of slang between female and male characters.

This study aims to investigate the representation of gender and the presence of male dominance in spoken discourse in two selected English Language textbooks for junior high school year one students: Longman English EDGE (2nd Edition) 1A and 1B in Hong Kong, and New Horizon: English Course Book 1 in Japan, respectively. This research employs both qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine the content of dialogues in each unit. Key areas of analysis include the number of domestic and occupational roles assigned to male, female, and gender-neutral characters, the range of activities undertaken by these characters, the character initiating conversations, the occurrence of males, females and gender-neutral characters in dialogues, and the number of spoken words and turns by them. The findings indicated an improvement in gender equality in both textbooks in various aspects, compared with other earlier textbooks which were examined by other researchers (Lee & Collins, 2008, 2010; Lee, 2018). In terms of role allocation and activities, a relatively balanced representation of male and female characters was observed. Female characters demonstrated a higher frequency of initiating conversations and taking turns. The average number of words spoken per turn by male and female characters was similar in the LE1A and LE1B textbooks, but male characters still spoke more per turn in NH1 textbook despite female characters taking more turns. Moreover, LE1A and LE1B employed gender-neutral names to mitigate gender stereotypes but gender-neutral names were not utilized in the Japanese textbook, despite the author’s effort to achieve gender equality. Considering these findings, this study reveals that male characters were underrepresented in the textbooks in Hong Kong and suggests that it is crucial to enhance gender awareness among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, provide explicit gender-sensitive instruction, and establish specific guidelines by educational authorities to assist textbook authors in creating gender-inclusive educational materials.

This study investigated viewer perceptions of female and male television characters as a result of viewer sex and sex role orientation. Young adult viewers (N=677) rated television characters and themselves using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Viewers were classified as feminine, masculine, androgynous, or undifferentiated in their PAQ orientations. The television characters were four men and four women who shared the lead and a working relationship on crime action shows. Results indicated that viewers rated all the male characters as stereotypical masculine, but only one female character as stereotypical feminine. Viewer sex and sex role orientations did affect ratings. Viewer sex had a greater impact on the ratings of female characters than on the ratings of male characters. Female viewers tended to rate female characters as higher in instrumental and masculine traits than male viewers did. Results based on sex role orientation of the viewer were inconsistent across characters, but in general, undifferentiated viewers rated both male and female characters as low in expressive and instrumental traits compared to how androgynous viewers rated them. Further, a masculine sex role orientation appeared to block perception of expressive traits in both male and female characters.

This paper presents the findings of research carried out with the aim of gaining an understanding of the characteristics of male and female child characters in children's literature. "Characteristics" in our research refers to the representation, role and description of male and female characters. The sample consisted of 32 literary texts with child characters in readers used in the first and second grades of primary school. Using the descriptive method and the technique of content analysis, it was established that male characters are almost twice as represented as female characters and that they are more frequently the main characters in a text. With regard to character description, inquisitiveness, imaginativeness and resourcefulness are the most common traits of male characters, while kindness and sensibility are characteristics ascribed only to female characters. It is surprising that the female characters did not have negative traits, leading to the conclusion that their characteristics are more positively rated than the characteristics and actions of male characters. Based on our data, we can conclude that gender stereotypes are present in the descriptions of male and female characters, and we therefore invite readers to take part in further discussions and a more comprehensive analysis of the representation of child characters both in literary works and in other cultural products.

Gender-stereotyped roles of female and male characters are common in literature. Seeing that Harry Potter series has gained much popularity especially among children and teenagers, this qualitative paper attempts to investigate to what extent the author, Rowling (1997), confirms or challenges the gender stereotypes in the portrayal of the main male and female characters through her lexical (words) and grammatical (nouns, verbs, adjective and adverbs) choices. Halliday’s transitivity system is used to examine the lexis and structures that Rowling chose to describe the characters in her novel. Several scenes which contain descriptions about the main male and female characters were analyzed. Analysis of the excerpts from the novel showed that both the male and female main characters are portrayed with either feminine or masculine roles.

The purpose of this study was to examine the number and type of appearance comments made and received between female and male characters and whether the employment of women writers mitigated verbal interactions about appearance in the 1999–2000 prime-time season. The results show that although male and female characters comment equally on other characters' appearance, female characters are twice as likely to be the recipients of those comments. The gender of the receiver also influences the type of appearance comment made. Male characters are more likely to insult males than females and to compliment females than males. In contrast, female characters insult and compliment female and male characters with equal frequency. Overall, the employment of women writers is related to a significant increase in the overall number of appearance comments made and a significant decrease in the number of insults.

Trends of Sexual and Violent Content by Gender in Top-Grossing U.S. Films, 1950–2006

ABSTRACTFemale characters are less likely to engage with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content than male characters on young children’s television shows. The current study examined how preschool-aged children’s selective trust of male and female characters to teach STEM differed by child gender, and how trust relates to children’s character identification. Forty-eight 3- to 6-year-old children’s selective trust of male and female characters to teach STEM content, gendered character identification, and personal interest in STEM activities was measured. Boys and girls had similar interest in STEM and had greater identification with same-gender characters. Although boys had significantly greater trust in male characters, girls had similar levels of trust in male and female characters. Overall, children had greater trust of male characters to teach STEM content, but this effect was driven by boys, indicating identification and selective trust are related, but not identical constructs. The discussion considers how representations of female and male characters on television may impact children’s trust of educational media characters to teach STEM.

Female “Lone Wolves”: The Anti‐Social Heroine in Recent Television Series

This study focuses on the textual analysis of the representation of female and male characters in Changes , a love story by Ama Ata Aidoo. The story depicts male and female characters differently. The findings of this study suggest that the representation of male characters in the selected story is generally in line with the possessor attitudes and reflect women's possessed. The male characters are stereotyped to represent the patriarchal roles that reflect intelligence, triumph and strength and these forms of representation affirm the traditionally held beliefs about men as rulers and heads of families. On the contrary, this study finds that the representation of women differs greatly from that in which males are represented. Women are given feminine roles represented negatively as failures or as being capricious and disrespectful of social norms. The division of labour into gender-hyper-specific roles widens the gap of differences in the representation of female and male characters. The author hides behind Ghanaian culture is the major phenomenon that promotes patriarchy and ensures that women remain suppressed by the rule of men because text is a powerful means of sending messages and through that social actions and processes are interpreted and acted. The role represented by Esi Sekyi, one of the female characters in the story doesn’t gain the approval of her family and her friends but rather damaged the reputation of women and tarnished their image. This gender role stereotyping which foreground the oppression of women while giving opportunities to their male counterparts to dominate and exercise authority over women that this study concerns itself. Article visualizations: