THE PROBLEM OF USAGE FEMINITIVES IN RUSSIAN–SPEAKING MEDIA: MEDIADISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF 2022

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the use of feminitives in the Russian-language media discourse in 2022. The empirical base includes news (“Kommersant”, “Vedomosti”, “Izvestia”) and entertainment (“No, this is normal”, Wonderzine, “Knife”) media. Based on the texts of 2022, a comparative analysis of the frequency of use of feminitives and masculinatives in the text was carried out on the basis of 20 paired lexemes. As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the issue of using feminitives is acute in modern Russian-speaking media. In relation to this issue, the media has been conditionally divided into more traditional, nonconformist and those who are between these poles. On the Internet, this topic provokes a violent reaction from the audience. Some netizens, noticing a feminitive in the text, may leave a negative review about the material, even if the material is not written about feminism. This topic causes a lot of discussions, the media audience has questions about the use of feminitives. Thus, it was found that in 2022, professionalisms with suffi xes of femininity were more common in entertainment publications than in news. Journalists of news publications resorted to the use of feminitives in creative materials, such as reviews. It is concluded that last year many media outlets used feminitives for reasons of increasing the visibility of women in society, as well as their active participation in various spheres of life. Also, feminitives can be used to consolidate existing stereotypes, convey attitudes towards the person in question and to refl ect their ideological position. This is due to the fact that the use of feminitives is conditioned by the communicator’s attitude to feminism.