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Discourse is the relationship between language and its real-world context, often linked to power structures. Gender and discourse research analyzes how language reflects or influences gender stereotypes and differences in language use between men and women. Michel Foucault’s theories on language as a means of controlling people’s actions have influenced much of the use of the word speech. Gender and discourse studies analyze how men and women are portrayed in public communication and how they use language in different cultures. Women’s speech styles are often found to have power within domestic circumstances, while men’s speech styles are believed to be more powerful in public settings. Theorists disagree on whether these differences constitute a form of social oppression of women.
In sociolinguistics and other related academic areas, discourse is usually defined as the relationship between language and its real-world context. Many researchers and theorists link discourse specifically to power structures in a given society, and this is the area where there is the most overlap between gender and discourse. Approaches to gender and discourse research can analyze how language reflects or influences gender stereotypes, or they can discuss the differences between how men and women use language.
Much of the use of the word speech in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been influenced by the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who defined the use of language and other sign systems as a means of controlling people’s actions. Drawing on Foucault’s theories, many researchers have analyzed gender in relation to existing social and cultural power structures. Some theorists argue that the way language is used strengthens existing power structures, while others argue that speech merely reflects the existing state of affairs. The relationship between power and discourse can also be seen as cyclical or mutually reinforcing: social structures influence language and language influences social structures. Foucauldian approaches to gender and discourse tend to focus on the relationship between gender and power.
Some research focuses on the difference between how men and women are portrayed in speech. For example, some gender and discourse studies analyze how men and women are viewed in public communication, such as advertising or TV. The goal of such analysis is often to reveal the unspoken assumptions about gender interactions and the underlying power structures that these interactions reveal.
On the other hand, a significant portion of gender discourse studies analyze the difference between how women and men themselves use language. These types of studies almost always focus on a particular culture or subculture. For example, a study of Malagasy speakers revealed that women’s speech was more direct in that cultural context, while men’s speech was rounder. This study provoked debate about the types of power exerted when each communication style was used.
In many different cultures, women’s speech styles are often found to have power within domestic circumstances, while men’s speech styles are believed to be more powerful in public settings. Most theorists believe this difference is primarily due to how boys and girls are socialized from a young age, rather than any innate biological differences between the sexes. They may disagree, however, that these differences constitute a form of social oppression of women. Those who identify as gender egalitarian or liberal may argue that these differences shouldn’t exist. On the other hand, some people, such as difference feminists, would respond that while the power assigned to women in society is of a different kind from that assigned to men, it is not an inherently unequal system.
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