Constructing Gender Identities : A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Language Used in Media Space and Texts

 

Constructing Gender Identities: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Language Used in Media Space and Texts

Abstract

The study aims to lay a look at the social construction of male and female identities that are reinforced through the language used in mass media and texts. Gender identity refers to our sexual self-image- to the fact that we actually feel male or female. A person’s gender identity does not always agree with his or her biological sex. We learn and relearn gender throughout our lives which illustrates the concept of social reproduction. In this regard, gender can be conceived as a social institution, created and recreated in our interaction with others. This paper has attempted to focus on the construction of stereotypical gender identities through discourses and explore the relationships between gender, gender identity and discourse by placing them in diverse and often new contexts. An attempt has been made to delve into the workings of gender in particular domains and genres, both verbal and non-verbal and also how advertisements, children's textbooks, toys contribute to the reproduction and reinforcement of stereotypical gender identities.

 

 

Introduction

 

‘Sex' refers to the biological and physiological differences between male and female sex, whereas 'gender' is an analytical tool socially constructed to differentiate the biological differences between men and women. Judith Butler explains that 'sex' though seen as natural, is as much a product of society as is gender. So, the term 'sex' is also socially constructed. Butler further explains that 'sex' is not just an analytical category but a normative category that lays down what men and women ought to be.The components of gender are sex categories allocated to an individual at their birth.

 Each such category provides the individual with gender identity, a prescribed sexual orientation, gendered ideologies, and gendered ways of interacting. We live in a patriarchal-dominated society wherein men are the family's breadwinners. Women are supposed to take responsibility for the private realm to provide opportunities for men to fulfill their duties towards their families. Such stereotypical notions are dangerous to women and men who are entrusted with the responsibility to take care of the entire family simply because he is a 'boy' and society has allocated this responsibility to him. Such stereotypical ideologies become dangerous when they invade the mindset of the individuals and hence, align themselves with maintaining the status quo in society, thereby granting legitimacy to social and economic arrangements that facilitate their oppression. Quite similar to Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony wherein he argues that the dominant class is successful in maintaining their dominant status in society over the subordinates, not through coercion instead through the "willing, spontaneous consent of the ruled"- the working class thus accepts the dominant ideologies without questioning. Similarly, patriarchy operates in subtle ways such that its ideologies are accepted by the masses without any questioning and serve to persuade the people that the patriarchal ideologies are just ‘common sense.’ In the book Masculinities, RW Connell talks about hegemonic masculinity that has its roots in the writings of Gramsci. Connell defined hegemonic masculinity as the hierarchical interaction between multiple masculinities and explains how it appears natural for some men to wield domination over women and other men. However, it does not necessarily mean those wielding power in society will be the bearers of the cultural ideal of hegemonic masculinity. Indeed, people who portray hegemonic masculinity as a cultural ideal may be very different from those who possess power in society.

It is important to remember that individuals are not passive entities or unquestioning recipients of gender "programming." People are active agents that create and modify roles for themselves. In these lines, Judith Butler (1990) points out that individuals are not passive objects who embody societal values and ways to behave in a community but instead are "active performers who can vary their linguistic behavior since our body is not passive or invariable." Thus, according to Judith Butler, “individuals use language as a tool to construct and reveal realities- language possesses the power to create new gender identities and thus to shape our thoughts and understandings of the world” ( Butler, J., Gender Trouble,1990). Harold Garfinkel’s work on the social construction of gender has proved to be a groundbreaking work wherein he gives a modern comprehension of gender as an ‘enactment, performance and social construction which is dynamic but not static.’ ( West and Zimmerman, 1987)

Mills (2003) argues that the concept of femininity has often been associated with the private realm rather than public ones, and thus ultimately with care and subservience placing women on the same plane as 'nature' simply because their bodies and their functions are closely tied to reproduction. These elements have an impact on the portrayal of women in society, linguistically speaking.

Masculinity is placed at the opposite realm as that of femininity. Behaviors considered to be 'masculine'- including masculine linguistic behaviors would be aggression and commanding ( Coates,2005), although the portrayal of masculinity and femininity has undergone a symbolic change. Gender stereotypes are usually reflected in the 'linguistic constructions' that people consciously use in their interactive situations within a specific socio-political context. 

Research objectives

1. Using Critical Discourse analysis to understand how the discourse of media, texts, language maintain, mediate power connections
2. To study how linguistic resources can influence the flow of conversation and ideas that involve construction of gender identities in myriad ways.
3. To explore the language of mass media( including cinema and advertisements) and texts and its role in maintaining hegemony of the dominant ideologies and legitimising unequal power relations.

 

Review of Literature

A large number of scholarly works has been done in the arena of texts, media and their contribution to the construction of stereotypical gender identities. One such study was conducted by sociologist Lenove Weitzman and her colleagues who examined the gender biases prevalent in the books of pre-school children employing content analysis methods. Males played a much larger part in the stories and pictures than females, out-numbering females. The activities of males and females differed. The males engaged in adventurous pursuits and outdoor activities demanding independence and strength whereas the portrayal of girls were mostly confined to indoor activities. Girls cooked and cleaned for the males or awaited their return. Men were often depicted as fighters, policemen, kings and so forth. In contrast women were depicted as imaginary creatures like witches or fairy godmothers. Texts play a key role in the construction and the reproduction of stereotypical gender identities and such representations constitute an important part of hegemonic strategies to establish dominant interpretations of reality.

Film scholar and author Shoma Chatterji says, “Women in Hindi cinema have been decorative objects with rarely any sense of agency being granted to them. Each phase of Hindi cinema had its own representation of men and women, but they were confined largely to the traditional, patriarchal framework of Indian society.’’(Shoma Chatterji,2000).  Women portrayal in cinemas is necessarily limited to a character who needs to be saved by the hero from the clutches of a villain whereas men were portrayed as someone possessing immense strength.

 Methodological Imagination

The research approach adopted for this study is Discourse analysis and, in particular, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Discourse refers to how we think and communicate about people, things, the social organization of society, and the relationship among and between all these, thus constituting the field of truth wherein specific knowledge, discipline, and values are imposed upon dominated groups. CDA goes beyond this and examines the overall meanings conveyed by language in a contextual setting. The ‘context’ here refers to the social, cultural, and historical backdrop, which is crucial to comprehending language's underlying meanings.

For my study, a Critical Discourse analysis (CDA) has been used because it is through this approach that I will gain a better insight into how the patriarchy maintains its hegemony over society, thus contributing to the creation of a collectively shared knowledge order. Patriarchy can maintain its hegemony not through resorting to force but rather through consent and, therefore, shapes what we can think and know at any point in time. CDA provides the opportunity to link the different societal norms and expectations which relate language to 'context.' It helps us gain insight into how unequal power relations operate in society and how they are legitimized even without the knowledge of those subjected to it. Gender is embedded in verbal and non-verbal cues and their application in interactions with others in various ways. For example, when we use the term 'femininity,' we have a mental picture of women who are essentially responsible for the household, while 'masculinity' is associated with being the breadwinner. Gender stereotypes are embedded in these verbal constructions, which people actively use in their interactions within a socio-political context. The choice of words that people use in their everyday interactions reflects the societal and cultural norms instilled in their minds throughout their lives. This constitutes our lifeworld which is often taken for granted. The group with the power to ordain the structure of language, cognition, and reality has the potential to create a universe in which they are the central figure. In contrast, those who belong to this group are exploited. As a result, the difference in language between men and women reflects their social differences in actual life. A Critical Discourse Analysis helps us uncover how language structures (both verbal and non-verbal) contribute to gender inequalities and, hence, to stereotypical gender identity construction. As identity constructions are infused with power and ideology, CDA appears to be an acceptable choice to gestate and analyze these processes.

Looking at Judith Butler's work Gender Trouble (1990), wherein she draws from Foucault's book Discipline and Punish, we find the concept of self, a 'discursive effect that occurs through ritualized repetitions of existing norms.' Our gender self is a product of the repetitive citation of gendered norms constituted in and through discourse. The gendered self (or gender identity) is seen as a continuous activity or a 'doing' within everyday life; that is, the project of becoming male or female is never complete. In this context, Butler talks about performativity (to refer to how bodies are a product of recursive and repetitive practices of gender performance), wherein she says that a subject is wholly constituted in and via discourse. The dominant discourse produces the rule of social order, which Butler referred to as 'regulative discourses' that shape the social actors. For example, discourses of femininity mandate acceptable ways of speaking and acting, and individuals who do not adhere to these prescribed norms are disciplined in various ways. These discourses can be thought of as scripts that pre-exist the social actor and define the normative patterns of society.

For this study, I have relied both on primary sources of data wherein I will be collecting first-hand data of the interactions taking place between people belonging to different socio-politico-economic context and secondary source of data wherein I will be looking at the previously done research available on the study.

The methods employed for this study are content analysis wherein I will be looking at the magazines, texts available for pre-school children to develop an understanding of the language used in these texts that contribute to the construction of male and female identities and conversational analysis that will allow for a more in-depth examination of how speakers use language to index a broader range of cultural identities, thus proving an insight into the verbal cues that people consciously use in their interactive situation within a specific socio-political context that will serve as a reflection of the gender stereotypes prevalent in society.

 

 

To understand how patriarchal hegemony is maintained in society, I will look at the discourse of language ( and specifically the discourse of language as portrayed in mass media and textbooks) and its contribution to the maintenance of such ideologies, which are perceived as 'common sense.

 

Discourse and Media

 The mass media provides an essential medium through which we can learn about the world, facilitate communication between individuals, and shape the interaction between individuals through verbal and non-verbal cues. In the postmodern culture wherein we see a rapid increase in consumerism, media becomes an important tool to shape our gender identity mediated by images provided by the mass culture. The scenes, the stories, and the cultural texts offered by the media are intended to provide individuals with an assortment of attitudes that can shape their personalities. Mass media provides us with a plethora of images that we can imitate and identify ourselves with. These images provide us with social role models that value specific patterns of behavior and a certain way of speaking while discouraging others- thus, providing us with ready-made identities to associate ourselves with. Therefore, the media serve as an effective tool for disseminating ideologies that carry the baggage of power and dominance. Discourse in the media raises ‘awareness, informing, persuading, giving justice, advocating, and ultimately spreading identity.’ (Yanow, 2000) It is believed that the media shows a reflection of the world through words. The portrayal of women in Hindi cinema discourse as someone who needs to be saved by a man from the clutches of a villain and the man as a ‘savior’ find its rationale in the power structures that govern Indian society. Such portrayals act as carriers for ideologies, and any hegemonic use of ideology is directly relevant to the study of language and power. Social actors (including identities) come to be shaped by language, gestures, and all manners of symbolic social signs. Nicola Dobbin (1999) asserts that in music feminity is constructed in patriarchal ways wherein females are depicted from masculine, heterosexual perspective and respresents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of male viewer.

Just like Hindi cinema contributes to the dissemination of ideologies similarly, advertisements in contemporary times are the primary form of promotional discourse readily appropriated via the mixing of genres. Advertisements use multiple semiotic modalities, including linguistic texts, to make a composite image of a preferred representation (Bhatia,2004, p. 89). Hussein’s study using discourse analysis of advertisements for Fair & Lovely states that advertisements have historically targeted women constructing fairness as a criterion to gain approval in the marriage market and recently been related to gaining well-paying jobs. They reinforce old-age prejudices by emphasizing terms like ‘white,’ ‘bright,’ ‘sparkling glow.’

 

Discourse and Texts (with emphasis on the language used in the texts)

Gender is embedded in the language that texts use and in their use in communicative practice in a variety of ways. For example, when we use the adjectives ‘pretty’ and ‘handsome’, they both implicate ‘good looking’ but have background connotations that correspond to the cultural ideals of good looks for males and females, respectively. The mutually dependent correlation of language and gender was first investigated in Language and Women Place (1973) by Robin Lakoff- wherein he focused on the unconsciously used linguistic cues used by women to convey their inferior status in a patriarchal dominated society that has been influenced by the societal and cultural norms instilled in their minds from a very young age. Linguistic resources can be utilized to project oneself as a certain type of person, convey an attitude or posture, and influence the flow of conversation and ideas. And these can involve gender in a myriad of ways. The gendered aspects of the speaker’s self-representation are reflected in the voice tone and pitch, vocabulary selection, and even pronunciations. A postmodern modern approach to the study of language and gender identity wherein the concept of the gender binary is challenged lays emphasis on the notion of ‘indexicality.’ According to Irvim and Gal, “Indexicality concerns the semiotic process that exists within an interaction, whereby speakers connect particular linguistic features with representations of the social groups that are stereotyped as using them” (Irvim and Gal, 2000)- that is, speakers use language to carry a particular ideological meaning associated with their gender, in turn ‘gendering their identity performance.’ Language contains the power for the construction of new gender identities thus, shaping our ideas and perceptions of the world.

Similarly, looking at the content of the texts for preschool children, one will encounter that all social and outdoor activities, including sports, working in offices, etc., have been monopolized by the males. In contrast, females are restricted to household chores. CDA thus helps us to explore the relationship between linguistic choices within the texts and talks and the socio-cultural settings in which these texts are used and their contribution towards maintaining inequalities. Discourse analysis necessitates the examination of the text as well as the different affective and cognitive responses to the same text.