Notes on Gender for AQA's latest English Language specification (A-level 7702)
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Language and Gender
In order to gain your AO2 marks, you need to know key theories:
George Keith and John Shuttleworth (1999)
Women Men
Talk more than men Swear
Talk too much Don’t talk about emotions
More polite Talk about sports
Indecisive / hesitant Talk about women + machinery in the same way
Complain / nag Insult each other
More questions Competitive in conversation
Support each other Dominate conversation
Co-operative Speak with authority and are commanding
Interrupt more
Judith Butler
Proposed the idea that gender is performative
Questions the belief that certain gendered behaviours are natural
Deborah Jones (1990)
All women conversations can fall into one of the following categories
House talk The exchange of information and resources connected with the female role as an
occupation
Scandal A considered judging of the behaviour of others
Bitching Overt expression of women’s anger at their restricted role and inferior status
Express this in private to women only
They do not expect change from bitching, just to complain where they’ll be
understood
Chatting Intimate form of gossip
Talk about skills they’ve learned as part of their job of nurturing others
(e.g. secrets)
, Otto Jespersen (1922)
Published a set of ideas about women’s language:
Talk a lot
Use half-finished sentences because they speak before they have thought about what they will say
Link sentences with ‘and’ because they are emotional rather than ‘grammatical’
Use adjectives such as ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’ too much. They are also fond of saying ‘so pretty’ and ‘so
nice’
Use adverbs too much and tend towards hyperbole
Have a smaller vocabulary than men – the words they use are the ‘indispensable small change of a
language’
Know their smaller vocabulary so well that they are more fluent in speaking and less hesitant than
men, who are searching for the precise word in their large vocabularies
Women had a "preference for veiled and indirect expressions" which preclude them from being as
effective as men.
Men are responsible for introducing new words into the language
John Gray (1993)
Women use metaphors, superlatives + generalisations which mislead men
e.g. “you never learn”
Women use reassuring noises when talking to other women
Men show their love by not worrying
Deborah Cameron (1990)
Argues that women have been instructed in the proper ways of talking just as they have
been instructed in the proper ways of dressing
This acceptance of a ‘proper’ speech style – she describes as verbal hygiene
Deficit Model
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