Living with Patriarchy: Discursive Constructions of Gendered Subjects across Cultures 9027206368, 9789027206367

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Living with Patriarchy

Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture (DAPSAC) he editors invite contributions that investigate political, social and cultural processes from a linguistic/discourse-analytic point of view. he aim is to publish monographs and edited volumes which combine language-based approaches with disciplines concerned essentially with human interaction – disciplines such as political science, international relations, social psychology, social anthropology, sociology, economics, and gender studies. For an overview of all books published in this series, please see http://benjamins.com/catalog/dapsac

General Editors Ruth Wodak and Greg Myers

Associate Editor

University of Lancaster

Johann Unger

Editorial address: Lancaster University, County College South, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster LA1 4YL, UK. [email protected] and [email protected]

University of Lancaster [email protected]

Advisory Board Christine Anthonissen

Konrad Ehlich

Christina Schäfner

Stellenbosch University

Free University, Berlin

Aston University

Michael Billig

J.R. Martin

Louis de Saussure

Loughborough University

University of Sydney

University of Neuchâtel

Piotr Cap

Luisa Martín Rojo

Hailong Tian

University of Lódz

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Tianjin University of Commerce

University of Lancaster

Jacob L. Mey

Joanna hornborrow

Teun A. van Dijk

University of Southern Denmark

Cardif University

Universitat Pompeu Fabra,

John Richardson

Sue Wright

Barcelona

University of Newcastle

University of Portsmouth

Paul Chilton

Volume 45 Living with Patriarchy. Discursive constructions of gendered subjects across cultures Edited by Danijela Majstorović and Inger Lassen

Living with Patriarchy Discursive constructions of gendered subjects across cultures

Edited by

Danijela Majstorović University of Banja Luka

Inger Lassen Aalborg University

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia

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he paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Living with patriarchy : discursive constructions of gendered subjects across cultures / edited by Danijela Majstorovic, Inger Lassen. p. cm. (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, issn 1569-9463 ; v. 45) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Language and language--Gender. 2. Language and languages--Sex diferences. 3. Code switching (Linguistics) 4. Language and culture. I. Majstorovic, Danijela. II. Lassen, Inger, 1951P120.S48L59 2011 408.1--dc23 isbn 978 90 272 0636 7 (Hb ; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 8394 8 (Eb)

2011029815

© 2011 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · he Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

Table of contents

Gender imbalances revisited: Introduction Danijela Majstorović and Inger Lassen

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Part I. Patriarchy and emancipation in private spaces “He beat her so hard she fell head over heels”: Normalising wife abuse in Colombia Laura Tolton he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya Michael Abudi, Felicia Yieke and Catherine Kitetu

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Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish: Gender-neutral or patriarchal? Karin Milles

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What it means to be a Bosnian woman: Analyzing women’s talk between patriarchy and emancipation Danijela Majstorović and Maja Mandić

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Part II. Mediating gender in public spaces Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct: he appropriation and hybridisation of deontic discourses Ourania Hatzidaki

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Representation of desire and femininity: he advertisement in late-modern consumer culture of Japan Toyoko Sato

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Gendered discourses: Liberia’s ‘Iron Lady’ vs. George Weah Grace Diabah

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Living with Patriarchy

Gender ideologies in the Vietnamese printed media Nguyen hi hu Ha

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Part III. Trajectories of patriarchy and emancipation across professions Constructing masculine work identity through narrative: Two case studies from emergency medicine in Quebec Stella M. Advani

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Stereotyping gender: Discursive constructions of social identities in a Danish bank Inger Lassen

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Living in therapeutic culture: Feminine discourse as an agent of change Joanna Pawelczyk and Eva-Maria Graf

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Index

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Gender imbalances revisited Introduction Danijela Majstorović and Inger Lassen

Gender research is by no means a new activity, and over the past century many aspects of women’s roles in society have been addressed from a variety of perspectives and theoretical and methodological approaches. In spite of the many eforts made at explaining why women seem to occupy inferior positions to men in society, and in spite of research having shited focus from gender being determined by biological sex to gender being constructed in interaction through discourse, little has been achieved in terms of actually bringing about changes in social practices. Women in the 21st century still earn lower wages than men for the same type of work, they are overrepresented in unemployment igures, underrepresented in high positions and have lower possibilities of being promoted (Alvesson and Billing 2009: 2), all of which bears witness to the claim propounded by some that we live in a patriarchal society. In the 21st century we are still facing the extremes of battered wives at one end of a scale of gender inequality and the desire to be feminine and attractive as more subtle manifestations of gender inequality at the other end of a scale. hese examples symbolize an unequal relationship between the powerful (oten men) and the disempowered (oten women). Along this cline of symbolic expression of gender hierarchy, there are also more subtle elements of institutional discrimination, which are diicult to challenge because they oten go unnoticed as part of our taken-for-granted value systems and cultures, and we might say that all of these examples help substantiate our claim that patriarchy has survived several waves of feminism and gender research. But what does it mean to live in a patriarchal society, and does it mean the same to all women across the world? Patriarchy has been with us for thousands of years. Lerner (1986: 217) deines the concept as ‘the relationship of a dominant group, considered superior, to a subordinate group, considered inferior, in which the dominance is mitigated by mutual obligations and reciprocal rights’. he system can only be upheld if women cooperate, and various means for cooperation have been devised over time. hese include for instance gender socialization,

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denial of education and knowledge of women’s history, division of women through disciplinary means such as punishment and rewards, or by discrimination in terms of limited access to political power and economic resources, to name but a few (ibid.). Over time the socialization of gender has taken on a number of what Lerner (ibid.: 214) refers to as gender-deined social roles. Central to the establishment of social roles for both women and men is the commodiication of women, who were the property of men until quite late in our history. Daughters could fetch a bride-price, or be sold as slaves. Later, with the emergence of class systems, lower-class women were oten sexually exploited by upper-class men, and if the upper-class men were at the same time white colonial masters, a race dimension appears on top of the gender and class issue (ibid.: 215). Like Lerner, Figes (1970) places male dominance in an historical perspective, and examines some of the factors that might have determined the role of women in society. She discusses the inluence of Christianity, the emergence of capitalism and Freudian psychoanalysis and asks to what extent sexuality has contributed to women’s inferior role in society and to what extent women are responsible for their own destiny. hese issues keep boggling gender researchers’ minds, and many attempts have been made to explain why women have been and still are subordinated in society, leading to ardent debates about the concept of patriarchy (Stacey in Richardson and Robinson 1993: 53). In feminist theory some have found the concept too difuse to be meaningful, while for others it has ofered a useful starting point for analysing the oppression of women. As a result of the debates, numerous deinitions have been suggested according to speciic analytical purposes (ibid.: 55). Stacey (1993: 56), referring to Walby (1986, 1990), describes six dimensions of patriarchal society, which include employment, household production, the state, sexuality, violence and culture. hese dimensions seem to have changed over time from being situated primarily in the private sphere in the nineteenth century to taking on more public forms in the twentieth and twenty-irst centuries (ibid.: 57). It is a change that relects social structures in capitalism, without making assumptions about any relationship between capitalism and changing social structures, and without revealing whatever bias there might be in the division of labour between the two gender categories. Even in the 21st century, because of – or perhaps despite – capitalism, we see that in Folbre’s (2009: 206) words ‘women devote considerably more time than men to nonmarket work, including the care of dependents’, which entails that the private sphere is still women’s primary domain despite equal opportunities initiatives taken around the world. In this book we deine patriarchy along the lines of Walby’s six dimensions of patriarchal society, acknowledging that all of these dimensions necessarily have an impact on gendering, although the impact may be more forceful in some societies and less in others. (See Stacey 1993 for deinitions of patriarchy; see also an exchange on

Introduction

patriarchy between Sheila Rowbotham and Sally Alexander and Barbara Taylor in Morgan 2006.)

Why another book on gender? Empirical evidence that supports claims about society being patriarchal, leading to gender-deined social roles, is not hard to come by, and the interest in gender issues – both as an academic ield of investigation and as a topic of debate in the public media – seems stronger than ever. So against this background one might ask what impelling reasons there might be for yet another book on gender? Part of the answer to this question has already been given, for as long as the problem of inequality persists, it is of crucial importance to share knowledge about research undertaken in the ield. It is therefore the primary purpose of the book to provide a better understanding of current societal trends as regards gender issues around the globe, by throwing light on some of the trajectories that are necessary in the movement from patriarchy and emancipation. A second purpose is to show that although all the chapters of the book are resemiotizations of patriarchal systems in a number of highly disparate countries, the visible efects as well as the sometimes subtle and unspoken realities seem to stem from the same breed of hegemonic discourses, whether in global North or South. (For a similar stance, see Lazar 2005: 17.) So far most books on gender issues have had a Western focus, but by including new, rich data and insights from scholars in countries such as Colombia, Canada, Liberia, Kenya, Vietnam, Japan, Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sweden, Denmark and Poland, this book tries to counter-balance the so far rather heavy Anglo/American bias of gender research. It is our hope that by giving a voice to scholars in global North as well as South, we may critically examine what it means to ‘step outside of patriarchal thought’ as Lerner (1986) puts it. According to her this means ‘being sceptical toward every known system of thought and being critical of all assumptions, ordering values and deinitions. Lerner’s approach invites us to do Critical Discourse Analysis in order to deconstruct lives and professional activities of women and the ways in which they construe their social identities in diferent cultural contexts and how these identities are being discursively constructed by others.1

1. Fairclough (2003: 8) distinguishes between construal and construction in the following way. We may construe (represent/ imagine) the social world discursively/ textually, but there is no guarantee that such construal will have any efect on changing the construction. However, it has not been possible for us to uphold this distinction in the book because the chapters do not

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At this juncture, it is important to mention that in this book culture should be understood in a broad sense to incorporate both culture at national levels and values and beliefs that inluence our behaviour at diferent levels of society. he concept thus embraces organizational cultures, subcultures of society, cultures of clans or tribes as well as national cultures, depending on the meanings ascribed to the notion by people in public and private spaces. It should also be noted that the book has the underlying conception that studying gender is a political choice. In the chapters in this book, gender is thus seen as a meaningful and relevant category when studying discursive constructions of diference and similarity between men and women. In some contexts, however, the relevance of gender might be questioned as there might be other stronger determinants for how men and women construct themselves, their roles and identities.

Gender research – A brief overview Much gender research, including studies of gender and language, varies in the extent to which it attaches importance to biological sex. However, while earlier research of gender issues in the 70s and 80s tended to focus on ‘diference’ understood as diferences in the behaviour of and language used by bio-men and biowomen (Alvesson and Billing 2002: 76), gender research has moved away from the perceptions of essentialism and body-counting (ibid.: 75) inherent in the ‘difference’ approach and has gradually occupied the position that gender is socially and discursively constructed. his implies that biological sex is no longer of main interest; instead gender researchers are more interested in studying the formation of ‘men’ and ‘women’ in social and cultural processes (for approaches to gender research from a diference perspective, see e.g. Lakof 1975; Kanter 1977; Tannen 1990; Rosener 1990). In a similar vein, and focusing on gender in organizations, Alvesson and Billing (2002: 76) share the view that each individual has many social identities and that gender is only one of these identities. In organizations, they suggest, an individual may be categorized or may categorize himself or herself as e.g. manager, economist, middle-aged, mother, colleague, etc. and he or she may in turn perform any of these identities, which are not necessarily all gender-speciic. Alvesson and Billing (ibid.: 87) take the idea of gender as a social construct one step further, by pointing to the absence of a mechanical relationship between biogender and masculine/feminine behaviour, and they see gender as a cultural and all of them follow Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis and consequently do not distinguish between construal and construction.

Introduction

social phenomenon where social institutions play a central role. he corollary is that there is not necessarily a feminine orientation linked to being a woman; instead, orientations towards what – for a lack of better terms – has been referred to as feminine or masculine behaviour – relect ‘work situations and career prospects that are typical of a particular group of people’ (ibid.: 73). In their discussion of complexity of gender studies, Alvesson and Billing (2009) pay particular attention to problems of gender over-sensitivity and under-sensitivity, claiming that in the past much management and organization theory was characterized by undersensitivity to the gender issue, ignoring the topic altogether. Over the past two decades, however, gender has become a mainstream topic of discussion leading to over-sensitivity in the sense that gender is always seen as a relevant parameter, even in situations when other aspects or interpretations might be more relevant. Alvesson and Billing (ibid.) therefore argue in favour of striking a sensible balance between the two extremes. However, although gender research seems to be moving away from assumptions of a binary gender distinction, acknowledging that an individual may perform multiple identities (see e.g. Kotthof and Wodak 1997: 367), no complete break-away from describing people in simplistic terms as ‘men’ and ‘women’ has been made. In line with later trends in gender research, the simple binary distinction between socially constructed femininity and masculinity has been criticized as inadequate by some researchers, who think of gender and gendered language use as highly luid categories, inluenced by how people perform in diferent contexts. Performance and language use need not relect gender, but might instead be associated with other social factors (Swann 2002: 51). It has further been suggested that the high luidity, also referred to as variation (Wodak 1997: 9), gives the individual access to many identities arising from the possibilities available to individuals in diferent social contexts (Ivanic 1998, cited in Litosseliti and Sunderland 2002: 7). he view of multiple identities is supported by Litosseliti and Sunderland (2002: 7) who argue that identities should be seen as a result of an individual’s relationship with others and therefore in continuous lux and never stable. In the quest to unravel the complexities of identity construction in gender research, the combination of language and discourse invariably plays a signiicant role, seeing that gender roles are primarily constructed through discourse with language as a crucial component. In their book Gender and Language Research Methodologies, Harrington et al. (2008: 2) ofer an overview of research on language and gender as approached from an anthropological angle. Mary Haas (1944) studied women’s and men’s speech in a Native American language and paved the way for later ethnographical and sociolinguistic studies based on

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biological sex – work that Harrington et al. (ibid.) refer to Labov (1990, 1966); Cheshire (1982); Milroy (1980); Gal (1978); Trudgill (1972). In the 1970s and 1980s various gender studies explored the thesis that gender determines language, in the sense that women’s language use was assumed to be diferent from that of men. he most well-known scholar within this ield was Robin Lakof (1975) whose results, although widely referred to, also met with some criticism, not least because her results could not be generalized beyond educated, white, middle-class women (Harrington et al. 2008: 3). In essence, looking at gender as determined by language fuelled the argument that men dominate women through language. However, from the 1980s, the dominance perspective was taken over by a cultural diference perspective according to which women and men were assumed to be using diferent codes as a result of membership of diferent linguistic sub-cultures (Gumperz 1982; Maltz and Borger 1980; Coates 1989; Tannen 1990; Johnson and Meinhof 1997). his new perspective gradually gave prominence to studying code in context (see e.g. Kotthof and Wodak 1997; see also Cameron 1997) and paved the way for a turn from the ‘diference perspective’, in which language use was seen as a relection of gender to ‘social constructionism’, which assumed gender to be constructed by language (Harrington et al. 2008). From a social constructivist2 position, Koller (2004) argues that male dominance in the corporate sector is perpetuated through the use of the WAR metaphor in business magazines to the efect that both discourse and related social practices are masculinized. he claim builds on an assumption of ‘diference’ between the language used by men and women, however based on representation in business magazines rather than on naturally-occurring talk. Koller’s research of metaphors is grounded in the cognitive branch of CDA. An example of recent research that sees gender as constructed through language is Baker (2008), who explores the relationship of language, gender and sexuality by considering how people construct themselves as men, women, etc. and how everyday language enables ‘the construction of discourses, which in turn positions people in diferent ways’ (ibid.: 22). Other recent contributions to workplace discourse and gender are seen in Holmes (2006), who raises the question whether there are distinctively feminine or masculine ways of interacting, but concludes that men and women draw on a varied discourse repertoire to the efect that there are gendered ways of talking in organizations. Also focusing on the relationship of language and gender 2. We make the distinction between social constructionism and social constructivism that constructivism has an element of cognition that is not part of constructionism. Constructivism is mainly used in psychology and cognitive science, while constructionism is the concept used in social science.

Introduction

is Mullany (2007), who studies the discourses of managerial professionals in UK organizations, considering the ‘ideologically imposed separation between private and public spheres’ (ibid.: 4). Such a separation becomes particularly central when addressing the balance between work and home among professionals. In the ‘performance perspective’ (Gofman 1959; Butler 1990), gender is being performed in interaction; drawing upon this idea and to a limited extent on views from more recent feminist works (Martin 1989; Kitzinger 2005; Nettleton 2006), Gatrell (2008: 4) explores ‘the gendered nature of women’s work through the lens of the body’, addressing ‘the blurring of the boundaries between home and the workplace’ by examining women’s position between motherhood and employers’ expectations (ibid.).3

Purposes, approaches and structure his book is a product of the thinking relected in much of the more recent work referenced in the introduction. he contributions in the book together highlight some of the complexities of gender from a variety of perspectives, using diferent methodologies and eclectic theoretical approaches, however positioned in the post-structural paradigm of social constructionism and critical discourse analysis. hrough eclecticism the book may be seen as triangulation in the sense that the same issue is addressed through a variety of data, diferent analytical approaches and research methodologies to answer the overall question: How do discourses around the world construct gender in social life – how do discourses construct life in patriarchial systems? hese issues are seen from three perspectives: Part I deals with patriarchy and emancipation in private spaces, Part II ofers examples of media representations in public spaces and Part III looks at patriarchy and emancipation from the vantage point of professional workplaces. hese three ields of investigation bring to the fore aspects of gender sensitivity as well as problems of striking a balance between work and home. Moreover, they address important societal issues that might enable or constrain the possibilities of women achieving individual and common goals in society and in personal life. he analyses seem to come to conclusions that corroborate the situation of inequity that we mentioned at the beginning of this introduction, viz. that for various reasons women seem to be deprived of opportunities in their working lives compared to their male 3. For a thorough overview of approaches to research of gender identities and gender discourse, see Alvesson, M. and Billing, Y. D. (2002: 72–91); see also Litosseliti, L. and Sunderland, J. (2002). For later works on gender identity construction and gender performativity, see e.g. Butler (1990, 2004); McIlvenny (2002); Holmes (2006).

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counterparts. However, the last chapter in the book brings new hope, advocating a new avenue towards emancipation, viz. (stereotypical) feminine discourse as an agent of change in psychotherapy.

Overview of book chapters he irst part includes four cases which together serve to illustrate gender inequality as an all-pervading phenomenon, which at the same time seems to take on diferent forms of representation and mediation, showing great variation from one cultural context to the other as regards the gravity and subtlety with which it presents itself. Combining critical discourse analysis with grounded theory, Tolton explores how wife abuse and violence against women is discursively normalised in newspaper internet forums in Colombia. Drawing on sayings, metaphors, euphemisms, and jokes, she demonstrates how the internet forum postings employ discourses which suggest that violence is an acceptable and even important part of intimate partner relationships. he data analysed elucidates part of an ideology in which masculinity is linked to authority, abuse is related to love, and sufering is part of femininity, thus illustrating the connection between a centuriesold patriarchal ideology and the normalisation of wife abuse in contemporary Colombian society. A somewhat diferent perspective, however with a similar outcome, is offered by Abudi, Yieke and Kitetu, who focus on honoriic expressions by Dholuo speakers in Kenya. Using the discourse historical approach of Critical Discourse Analysis for analysing transcribed interviews, the authors found that gender bias within the Luo community is produced and reproduced linguistically in subtle ways in commonplace idioms, relecting unequal power relations between males and females in their everyday interaction. hey found that the Luo tradition and patriarchal society that are reproduced in discourses tend to reduce women’s self worth by perpetuating a situation where women are regarded as objects and subordinates. Milles ofers a critical linguistic analysis of a feminist language reform project that took place in Sweden in the 1990s. She describes the introduction and reception of a new word in Swedish, Snippa, which refers to girls’ genitals. Focusing on the main agents in the language planning project, she assesses the outcome of introducing new gender neutral words and discusses whether the word snippa really contributes to gender equality or whether it is counter-productive to the feminist project.

Introduction

he last article in Part I by Majstorović and Mandić is based on an ethnographic investigation of the ways in which female discourses in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) construct identities and subjectivities. Approaching analysis primarily from a critical historical discourse angle, the study looks at recurrent rhetorical strategies and topoi, as well as lexical and syntactic structures in focus group discussions among Bosnian women at opposite ends of a social continuum. Analysing the discursive construction of gender roles and attitudes to feminism and emancipation against a background of patriarchal social values, the authors found that womanhood in BiH was expressed in terms of patriarchal submission, victimhood, and sacriice. However, they also identiied day-to-day struggle as an emancipatory potential. he second part of this volume explores how gender is mediated in public spaces like for instance men’s and women’s magazines, advertisements and printed media. Hatzidaki compares the use of deontic modality in Greek men’s and women’s magazines, including Greek versions of well-known international titles and arrives at the conclusion that there are greater stylistic and ideological commonalities between men’s and women’s magazines than long-established and taken-for-granted ideas about diferences between men and women have led us to believe. At a subtler level, though, the analyses indicate interesting diferences in the representation of power relationships, the style in the women’s magazines being more hierarchical while the men’s magazines – although having a more aggressive tone – tend towards a more equal power relationship. hu Ha discusses gender equality in the context of Vietnam. Analysing Vietnamese media articles related to the International Women’s day in March 2010 from a feminist critical discourse analysis perspective, she explores prevailing Vietnamese gender ideology and progressive changes in women’s roles in the public domain. Using systemic functional linguistics as analytical method, she posits that despite progressive legislation, there still exists gender inequality in contemporary Vietnam, a situation that is relected and perpetuated in the media. While the spirit of female heroism and nationalism is called upon, Confucian expectations are being restored and passed on to preserve men’s privilege, and gender equality in the public sphere does not necessarily secure equality in the domestic sphere where norms and conventions are oten more powerful than regulations. Foregrounding Butler’s concepts of iteration and foreclosure in a case study, Sato explores how the concepts of desire and femininity are salient features in late-modern Japan as one kind of representation in paternalistic socio-economic systems. he author accomplishes this by analysing an important and trend-setting advertising campaign, in which gender is constructed against a background of desire for recognition. On the basis of Butler’s concept of performativity and using Critical Discourse Analysis as methodology, the article focuses on textual

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representations as well as socio-historical and cultural contexts, to establish a basis for understanding how the advertising genre does gender in later modern consumer society. In a similar vein, yet basing her argument on a diferent set of data, Diabah argues that in spite of post-modern challenges to gender essentialism, there are still traces of patriarchy in the ways texts are produced and reproduced. In her analysis of two texts produced by the BBC, proiling two president elects in the Liberian election in 2005 (Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George Weah), Diabah discusses how the two politicians (one male, one female) are constructed in the media. She makes the claim that female politicians are not always positioned as powerless, and male politicians are not always positioned as powerful. In spite of this observation, and on the basis of her analyses, Diabah concludes that there are still gender biases in the international media, especially when it comes to presenting female political leaders, whose personal achievements tend to be downplayed, while gender tends to be foregrounded as the most important characteristic of female political leaders. In Part III, gender is viewed from the hybrid sphere of the professions where personal identities are played out in semi-public contexts. he three articles in this part of the book consider gender in professional ields such as the health sector, the inancial sector and the ield of psychotherapy. Advani examines the language practices of two participants (a man and a woman) from the communities of practice of physicians in emergency medicine departments in the Frenchspeaking province of Quebec. Using observation and narrative interviewing techniques, Advani argues that although demographics have changed in Quebec to the efect that a growing number of women become medical doctors, this does not imply a feminization of the medical profession in Quebec. Rather, her study of linguistic practices suggests that the success of women in a male dominated profession depends on their success in adapting themselves and their discourse to institutional structures established by men. Lassen explores why women are grossly underrepresented in management positions in the inancial sector in Denmark. By analysing gender perceptions expressed in data from semi-structured focus group interviews, she discusses how the two genders evaluate themselves and the other gender in their quest for constructing social identities. She inds that the interviewees frequently rely on stereotypical ideas about diferences between men and women, leading to the conclusion that the employees interviewed are inclined to reproduce and perpetuate a patriarchal management system. Gender is thus seen as important and relevant by the focus group participants when it comes to explaining why there are few women in management positions.

Introduction

he last article, by Pawelczyk and Graf, advocates for what is stereotypically recognized as feminine discourse as an agent of emancipation. he authors establish a link between self-identity in modernity, the discourse of psychotherapy and what they refer to as ‘symbolic feminine discourse’, claiming that psychotherapeutic strategies are gendered and rely on aspects of ‘symbolic feminine discourse’. Against this background they suggest that male therapists should apply (stereotypical) feminine discourses in modern therapeutic culture, to create an open-hearted atmosphere when engaging in counselling. he article argues for the potential of symbolic femininity as the type of discourse that in post-modernity facilitates social advancement. he book thus combines a plethora of methodologies and theoretical approaches, however all of them approaching the topic of gender from a critical perspective and striving for the same goal, viz. that of further exploring the nature and discourses of gender, in the hope of identifying discourses that may contest prevailing hegemonies with the purpose of gender-neutral emancipation. here is a need for deconstructing existing norm-based power relations that build on underlying, subtle value systems. here is a need for challenging discourses that distort our possibilities of having equal opportunities. True emancipation will happen only when the empowered as well as the disempowered have access to equal opportunities.

Bibliography Alvesson, M. and Billing, Y. D. 2002. “Beyond body-counting: A discussion of the social construction of gender at work”. In Gender, Identity and the Culture of Organizations, I. Aaltio and A. J. Mills (eds.), 72–91. London and New York: Routledge. Alvesson, M. and Billing, Y. D. 2009. Understanding Gender and Organizations. Second Edition. London: Sage. Baker, P. 2008. Sexed Texts. Language, Gender and Sexuality. London, Oakville: Equinox. Butler, J. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Butler, J. 2004. Undoing Gender. London: Routledge. Cameron, D. 1997. “Performing gender identity: Young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity”. In Language and Masculinity, S. Johnson and U. Meinhof (eds.). Oxford: Blackwell. Cheshire, J. 1982. “Dialect features and linguistic conlict in schools”. Educational Review 34 (1): 53–67. Coates, J. 1989. “Gossip revisited: An analysis of all-female discourse”. In Women in their Speech Communities, J. Coates and D. Cameron (eds.), 94–122. Longman. Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing Discourse. London: Routledge. Figes, E. 1970. Patriarchal Attitudes. Women in Society. London: Faber and Faber. Folbre, N. 2009.Varieties of Patriarchal Capitalism. Social Politics 16 (2): 204–209.

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Gal, S. 1978. “Pleasant men can’t get wives: Language change and sex roles in a bilingual community”. Language in Society 7: 1–16. Gatrell, C. 2008. Embodying Women’s Work. Berkshire: McGrawHill, Open University Press. Gumperz, J. 1982. “Fact and Interference in Courtroom Testimony”. In Language and Social Identity, John Gumperz (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gofman, Erving. 1959. he Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books. Haas, M. 1944. Men’s and Women’s speech in Koasati. Language, Vol. 20, nr. 3, pp. 142–149. Harrington, K., Litosseliti, L., Sauntson, H. and Sunderland, J. 2008. Gender and Language Research Methodologies. New York: Plagrave Macmillan. Holmes, J. 2006. Gendered Talk at Work – Constructing Gender Identity through Workplace Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell. Ivanič, R. 1998. Writing and Identity. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Johnson, S. and Meinhof, U. H. (eds.) 1997. Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell. Kanter, R. M. 1977. Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books. Kitzinger, C. 2005. “Doing gender. A conversation analytic perspective”. Gender and Society 23 (1): 94–98. Koller, V. 2004. “Business women and war metaphors: Possessive, jealous and pugnacious?” Journal of Sociolinguistics 8 (1): 3–22. Kotthof, H. and Wodak, R. (eds.) 1997. Communicating Gender in Context. Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 42. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins. Labov, W. 1966. he Social Stratiication of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Labov, W. 1990. “he intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change”. Language Variation and Change 2: 205–254. Lakof, R. T. 1975. Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper and Row. Lazar, M. 2005. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Macmillan. Lerner, G. 1986. he Creation of Patriarchy. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Litosseliti, L. and Sunderland, J. (eds.) 2002. Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam/Philadeaphia: Benjamins. McIlvenny, P. 2002. “Four critical relections on performativity and the ‘un/doing’ and gender and sexuality in talk”. In Talking Gender and Sexuality, P. McIlvenny (ed.), 111–149. Martin, J. 1989. “Motherhood and power. he production of a women’s culture of politics in a Mexican society”. American Ethnologist 470–490. Milroy, L. 1980. Language and Social Networks. London; Baltimore: Basil Blackwell; University Park Press. Morgan, S. (eds.). 2006. he Feminist History Reader. London and New York: Routledge. Mullany, L. 2007. Gendered Discourse in the Professional Workplace. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Nettleton, S. 2006. he Sociology of Health and Illness. Cambridge: Polity Press. Rosener, J. B. 1990. “Ways women lead”. Harvard Business Review, November–December, 119–125. Stacey, J. 1993. “Untangling feminist theory”. In Introducing Women’s Studies, D. Richardson and V. Robinson (eds.). London: Macmillan. Swann, J. 2002. “Yes, but is it Gender?” In Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis, L. Litosseliti and J. Sunderland (eds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.

Introduction

Tannen, D. 1990. You Just Don’t Understand; Women and Men in conversation. New York: William Morrow. Trudgill, P. 1972. “Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich”. Language in Society 1 (2): 175–195. Walby, S. 1986. Patriarchy at Work. Cambridge: Polity Press. Walby, S. 1990. heorizing Patriarchy. Oxford: Blackwell.

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part i

Patriarchy and emancipation in private spaces

“He beat her so hard she fell head over heels” Normalising wife abuse in Colombia Laura Tolton University of Canberra, Australia

his chapter focuses on the discursive strategy of normalisation as one way wife abuse is legitimated in Colombia, exploring speciic cultural aspects of this strategy and relating them to a more universal patriarchal ideology about violence against women. his study lies at the intersection of research concerning violence against women, discourse analysis, and Colombian culture. Critical discourse analysis (van Dijk 1993, 2001) and grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss 2008) are brought together to form a methodology for examining the legitimation (Pardo Abril 2007; van Leeuwen 2007) of violence against women in newspaper internet forums. he data set consists of internet forum discussions in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo about a case of wife abuse. Drawing on sayings, metaphors, euphemisms, and jokes, this chapter shows how wife abuse is normalised in these El Tiempo forums. he postings employ discourses which suggest that violence is an acceptable and even important part of intimate partner relationships. he data analysed in this chapter elucidates part of an ideology in which masculinity is linked to authority, abuse is related to love, and sufering is part of femininity, in this way illustrating the connection between a centuries-old patriarchal ideology (Fernández Poncela 2002) and the normalisation of wife abuse in contemporary Colombian society. Keywords: normalisation, violence against women, wife abuse, Colombian culture, newspaper internet forums, feminist critical discourse analysis, ideology

In late July 2006, photographs of Lizzeth Ochoa’s battered face and shoulders appeared on the front pages of the Colombian daily newspaper, El Tiempo, bringing into public view the physical efects of the battering from her husband a couple nights earlier. Eltiempo.com internet forums exploded with outrage and support for Lizzeth. Several months later, when her husband was released from jail and they got back together, comments in the forums condemned Lizzeth harshly, and

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discourses more openly legitimating wife abuse lourished there. he present study examines elements of an ideology used to legitimate violence against women in the eltiempo.com forums about this case. Violence against women (hereater, VAW) is deined as a continuum of acts perpetrated against women on the basis of gender, including such things as: street harassment, the threat of violence, sexual harassment at work, the pressure to have sex, sexual assault, obscene phone calls, coercive sex, domestic violence, lashing, rape, and incest (Kelly 1988). Such acts can traumatise victims psychologically and physically (Kelly 1996; United Nations 2007). Wife abuse, the type of VAW this chapter is concerned with, is deined as domestic violence enacted against adult women by current or former intimate partners. Legitimation, another key term for this study, is deined as a social action in discourse with the goal of setting and reinforcing a certain social order (Pardo Abril 2007; van Leeuwen and Wodak 1999). Legitimation can be realised through a variety of persuasive discursive strategies and linguistic structures (Martín Rojo and van Dijk 1997). his general deinition of legitimation is adopted for the present research because there are no studies which examine legitimation across a data set about VAW. Furthermore, preliminary analysis in the present study found that the speciic types of legitimation described in the literature (Pardo Abril 2007; van Leeuwen 2007; van Leeuwen and Wodak 1999) were not useful for characterising the data in this study. he present chapter examines internet forums about an incident of VAW in order to discover propositions, discursive strategies and linguistic structures, all of which point toward an ideology supporting VAW as manifested in Colombia. Moreover, to analyse contextual information, I compare these propositions to academic literature about language concerning VAW and Colombian culture. In this way I outline the discursive construction of men, women, and abuse as it exists within this dominant ideology. In order to achieve these objectives, this chapter will examine the theoretical background, explore the signiicance of carrying out this study in the Colombian context, review literature about femininity in Colombia, describe the data set, and inally, explain the methodology developed for and used in this study. his chapter will proceed through sections on these topics before going on to analyse and discuss how women, abuse and men are constructed in the Colombian ideology used to legitimate abuse as it appears in this data set.

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

heoretical background he theoretical background for the present study comes from a combination of the ields of critical discourse analysis (hereater, CDA) and VAW. Over the years, many studies concerned with discourse about VAW have examined blaming and excusing. CDA approaches social inequality from a perspective tied to language and power, that is, by examining “what structures, strategies or other properties of text, talk, verbal interaction or communicative events” participate in the reproduction of dominance (van Dijk 1993: 250). he present study examines the legitimation of VAW from a feminist critical discourse analytic (FCDA) perspective (Lazar 2005; Wodak 2005, 2008b). Combining feminism and CDA works well, because there is actually much overlap in terms of social emancipatory goals [in these two areas]. Indeed, unlike feminist approaches that apply descriptive discourse analytic methods, feminist CDA has the advantage of operating, at the outset, within a politically invested, explanatory program of discourse analysis. (Lazar 2007: 144)

Moreover, the choice of feminist CDA is consistent with the CDA recommendation that researchers take a moral and political stance supporting disadvantaged groups and questioning dominant groups’ discourse. FCDA aims to “[critique] discourses which sustain a patriarchal social order: that is, relations of power that systematically privilege men as a social group and disadvantage, exclude and disempower women as a social group” (Lazar 2005: 5). A researcher’s academic background also oten inluences the ield in which a study is carried out. As I come from a background of second-wave feminist women’s studies and linguistics, it is itting that this research be carried out within the framework of FCDA (Kroløkke and Sørensen 2006). he existing literature from the broader ield of discourse analysis about VAW provides an inadequate background for the present study. First, the body of studies concerning linguistic structures and discursive strategies in discourse about VAW is relatively small. Second, these studies are far more likely to be located within the ield of discursive psychology than CDA. Discursive psychology and CDA are divided by a diference in underlying presumptions. In van Dijk’s (1998, 2003) and Wodak’s (2008a) conceptions of CDA, there is an assumed connection between discourse and representations in the minds of the individuals who produce it. Discursive psychology, however, explicitly asserts that discourse analysis only examines discourse, “not as the product or expression of thoughts or mental states lying behind or beneath it” (Edwards 2006). he present study seeks

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to examine an ideology and assumes that this ideology resides in the minds of individuals, as van Dijk postulates (1998, 2003; see also Bolívar 2008). For this reason, CDA research about VAW would be the most appropriate background literature for this study. Due to a lack of research about VAW from a CDA perspective and no research combining VAW, CDA and Colombian culture, it is especially important to keep in mind Wodak’s (2008b) recommendation that FCDA research build on a foundation of work from other disciplines. For these reasons, the present study developed a composite literature review, supplementing the research from discourse analysis about VAW with studies more generally about VAW and Colombian studies about gender. his study proposes to analyse a data set for ‘structures’ and ‘strategies’ which indicate aspects of the ideology used to legitimate VAW, including in the analysis the extensive literature written from a VAW studies point of view yet minimally inluenced by discourse studies. For this purpose, it is irst necessary to compare analyses from VAW and CDA to see if there is a way to bring these together, perhaps with a size and type of unit of analysis shared by the two ields. CDA has established that a number of ‘structures’ and ‘strategies’ are used as part of dominant discourse as a way to enforce the ‘natural’ order of things (Fairclough 2003; van Dijk 1991; Wodak 2008a). Studies about VAW oten use phrases such as ‘victim blaming’ (Burt 1980; Dobash and Dobash 1998; Mahoney, Williams and West 2001; Maybrey 2004; Meyers 1997), ‘sexualisation’ (Benedict 1992; Gardner 1995; Jones 1994; West 1987), and ‘trivialisation’ (Clair 1994; Hume 2008; MacKinnon 1992; West 1987) to describe talk about VAW, choosing words that seem to echo those used in discourse analysis to describe strategies. he size of the units described in VAW studies is somewhat larger than the structures and strategies which CDA commonly uses in analysis; however, this ‘slightly larger sized unit’ could be described using the CDA terms ‘macropropositions’ and ‘strategies’ (further explained in the analysis section of this chapter). his match between the two ields, although imperfect, points to possibilities for analysis which could include contributions from CDA as well as studies about VAW.

Context: Colombian culture and VAW he relationship between discourse and context is fundamental in discourse analysis (van Dijk 1998). Context can be deined as the “properties of a social situation that are possibly relevant for the production, structures, interpretation, and functions of text and talk” (van Dijk 1998: 211). In the present study, discourse is analysed with relation to two contextual factors: Colombian culture in terms of

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

history and social beliefs, and the phenomenon of VAW as seen in beliefs about gender and abuse. (In the latter phrase, ‘belief ’ is a word used in the texts referenced from disciplines other than discourse studies.) In the following two sections, I will explore these two elements of context.

Signiicance It is important to examine the legitimation of wife abuse in Colombia for both academic and social reasons. Few CDA studies have examined talk and text about VAW in Spanish. Only a handful of authors have used CDA to look at VAW in the Spanish media (Fagoaga 1999; Fernández Díaz 2003; and Vallejo 2005 are three notable examples), and there are no other studies about Colombian discourse which occupy this disciplinary intersection. Although Colombia is the sociocultural context for this study, it is important to bear in mind that (1) wife abuse is virtually universal to all cultures (Brown 1999), and (2) many aspects of its legitimation are similar in diferent cultural contexts, as is suggested by this study and others (Ellsberg, Peña, Herrera, Liljestrand and Winkvist 2000: 1595). Also, references to a cultural context in this study do not mean that Colombian VAW or the legitimation of VAW in Colombia is in any way ‘worse’ than in other places. To further clarify, this study is in no way a complete characterisation of discourse in Colombia. It is the characterisation of one part of a discourse phenomenon within the Colombian cultural context and traces connections between the propositions and strategies examined and related elements of Colombian culture. Keeping this in mind, it is important to research the normalisation of VAW in societies with high levels of violence (McWilliams 1998), as it appears that such conditions may intensify VAW as well as its normalisation. In a national context with historically high levels of violence, Hume (2008) inds that he normalization of violence in the El Salvador context afects individuals’ ability to recognise this harmful force, particularly its gendered expressions, which have become embedded in the construction of both men’s and women’s gendered (63) identities.

Colombia has been characterised by high levels of violence, especially over the last sixty years, sufering through evolving stages of ongoing conlict. To summarise briely, this period has included violent conlict between major political groups, including guerrilla, self-defence groups and the military, as well as high levels of street crime. In 2002, former president Álvaro Uribe was elected with a campaign to ‘crack down’ on the guerrilla. Although some note that extrajudicial violence

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decreased through Uribe’s programs (Hanratty and Meditz 2004), the government-sanctioned violence they produced was described by the United Nations as “‘systematic and widespread’ extrajudicial executions of innocent civilians”, the scale of which “could constitute a ‘crime against humanity’ under international humanitarian law” (“U.N. says Colombian military executing civilians” 2008). here is a complex relationship between militarised masculinity, violence and gender relations (Enloe 1987). One part of this relationship manifests itself in VAW which occurs as part of national and international conlicts. In Colombia, VAW as part of the armed conlict has begun to be documented over the last decade in reports by Mujer y Conlicto Armado (2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2006–2007, 2007–2008, 2009). Wife abuse illustrates another connection between violent national contexts and VAW. Studies about violence in Colombia trace the relationship between generalised political and criminal violence and domestic violence (Estrada, Ibarra and Sarmiento 2003; Ojeda, Ordóñez and Ochoa 2005). Supporting this relationship, studies show that “the battleield and home are not separate as ideology suggests they are”, and domestic violence intensiies during times of national conlict (Kelly 2000: 59). Despite that war may intensify wife abuse, during wartime domestic violence is at its most invisible, as family issues are subordinated to the ‘war efort’ (Boric and Desnica 1996). A historically violent national context such as Colombia’s can make “violence [appear] so enmeshed in the everyday that this afects the capacity of individuals and communities to recognize certain acts as violent”, particularly sexual and domestic violence, as well as wife abuse (Hume 2004: 64). VAW effectively becomes normalised against the background of the more commonlydiscussed violence which is part of the political conlict (Hume 2004; McWilliams 1998; Tolton forthcoming).

Femininity in Colombia he normalisation of VAW in Colombia is not only related to political violence but also to gender roles, especially the roles of women (Rondon 2003). here are two main stereotypes which are commonly used to deine women in Colombia: they can either be una virgen (a virgin), like Mary, mother of Jesus, or a sexual being, una puta (a whore; Paternostro 1998; homas 2006). Until recent decades, these roles were physically manifested in most Colombian men’s lives, beginning in their teens, when boys’ fathers took them to brothels for sexual initiation and, around the same time, they began to have girlfriends, the ‘good girls’ who were supposed to be models of chastity (Paternostro 1998; Viveros 2001). his

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dichotomy of stereotypes for women, although losing momentum, continues to cause diiculties for women, who embody a myriad of possibilities. For many years, the model for ‘good women’ in Colombia has been communicated using “traditional religious culture, which poses the Virgin Mary igure as role model” (Rondon 2003: 157). An important element of this model is Mary’s virginity, which is seen as an example for women’s sexuality. As Mary is portrayed as chaste, ‘good women’ are expected to repress their sexuality and be modest (tener pudor). Consequently, physically developing into an adult woman is associated with guilt, pain, and sufering (Barreto 1995; Garcés 2008; Paternostro 1998). Motherhood is another element of femininity emphasised using the Virgin Mary. When talking about motherhood, this model is expanded to include not only bearing and raising children, but also marriage and housework. A Colombian manual on family life from the early 1900s illustrates this religious ideal: “In Mary one inds a model for women, a perfect paragon of domestic virtue: pious, loving, humble, hardworking, sweet and obedient” (Muñoz and Pachón 1991 as quoted by Barreto 1995: 372). Similar values continue to exist in Colombia today, where women are expected to be tender mothers, dedicated to the home, and attentive to others’ needs (Fitch 1989). hrough this religious ideal and real life, motherhood is linked with sufering, self-sacriice and self-denial (Barreto 1995; Paternostro 1998; Rondon 2003). he importance placed on motherhood as an element of femininity is evident throughout women’s lives in Colombia. From the time they are born, girls are referred to as mamita (diminutive of mamá), emphasising their reproductive capacity. While growing up, girls learn that housework rests more heavily on their shoulders, while their brothers are allotted more free time to play. As adults, women are expected to do housework for their husbands and children as a ‘labour of love’ (Barreto 1995). Although traditional values change slowly, there is progress towards equality for women. In the last decades, gender values have undergone a secularisation, and a new ‘social ethics’ is being created. Women now study and work outside the home more oten and have fewer children, while men are helping more with housework and childcare (Barreto 1995; homas 2006). Although this indicates progress, it also means that women in Colombia today are saddled with the doble jornada (double shit), striving to fulil the full-time roles of motherhood/ housework and remunerated work outside the home (Barreto and Puyana 1996; homas 2006). In recent decades marriage has become less than mandatory in young Colombian women’s lives; however it does continue to be strongly expected and longed for (Paternostro 1998; homas 2006). During the second half of the 20th

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century there was a rapid increase in the number of single mothers in Colombia, and this phenomenon became more openly accepted (Pachón 2007). Today it is common for a woman to speak about ‘the father of my children’ if she does not have a continued intimate partnership with the man. Civil marriage, which can be ended with divorce, became available in 1974; however divorce only became legal for Catholic marriages in 1992 (homas 2006). Divorce in this sense is only the cessation of civil efects, because Catholic annulments are practically unheard of in Colombia.

Data set he current study explores VAW by analysing comments in newspaper internet forums about an example of VAW in Colombia: the Dangond-Ochoa case of wife abuse. On the evening of 29 July 2006, Rafael Dangond and his wife, Lizzeth Ochoa, were at a wedding reception in Barranquilla. Lizzeth was asked by a group of friends to dance. While they danced, Rafael became jealous, and aterwards, he pushed her outside and began to beat her in the parking lot. He continued to beat her for over an hour in the car on the way home. Once home, he beat her even more. Eventually Lizzeth was able to shut herself in the bathroom and used her mobile phone to call her father to rescue her. hen Rafael broke down the bathroom door, threatening to kill her, and shot at her. he bullet grazed her armpit. Lizzeth managed to get to her father outside the apartment. Her family took her to the police and then to the hospital, where she spent several days in recovery. Meanwhile, Lizzeth’s family circulated pictures of her bruised and swollen face and arms on the internet, in an attempt to force the police to act. On 3 August, the pictures of Lizzeth were published in El Tiempo, and the next day Rafael gave himself up to the authorities. He was put in jail for attempted murder, assault and battery, and possession of a gun. Ater three months in jail, Rafael was released because the charge of attempted murder was discarded, and the other two are non-jailable ofenses. A couple of weeks ater his release, Rafael apologised publicly to Lizzeth and her family. Lizzeth withdrew charges against her husband and returned to him. he data for this analysis consists of two internet forums in Colombia’s major daily newspaper, El Tiempo. he irst forum was posted the same day as the pictures of Lizzeth and the original articles about the beating: 3 August 2006. he newspaper asked the following question to stimulate discussion: “Do you agree with reports of domestic violence being made public?” (“¿Está de acuerdo en que se hagan públicas las denuncias de violencia intrafamiliar?”). here were 753

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comments in this forum. he second forum began on 1 December 2006, the day on which articles were published about Lizzeth withdrawing charges. he question asked as a prompt was: “What do you think about Liz[z]eth Ochoa’s decision to withdraw charges against her husband who hit her violently?” (“¿Qué opina de la decisión de Liz[z]eth Ochoa de retirar la demanda contra su esposo que la golpeó violentamente?”). here were 1110 comments in the second forum. his case was chosen for analysis because it drew an extraordinary number of reactions from the Colombian public in internet forums as well as newspaper articles, editorials, and magazines. he families involved are upper class and well known, and the fact that pictures of Lizzeth were circulated on the internet and appeared on the irst page of the national newspaper made it diicult to avoid hearing about this piece of news. Newspaper websites with interactive media can be a rich data source for research which seeks to examine ideology related to a particular topic. Newspaper forums, as part of the public sphere, contain public discourse, which is more inluential in the reproduction of systems of domination than private discourse (Wodak 2008a). Although some authors suggest that the internet provides an equal ground for participation through virtuality, Jones (2008) argues that “racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination are not let behind with our bodies” (432). Internet forums appear to be a particularly conlictive space, in which people oten deine themselves using political stances (Jones 2008). hese texts are sites of struggle, “in that they show traces of difering ideologies contending and struggling for dominance” (Wodak 2008b: 298–299). It is possible to characterise forum participants approximately based on information about Colombians who use the internet. One estimate shows that around 15.9% of Colombians were using the internet with some regularity in 2006 (Colombia Internet Usage and Market Reports n.d.). Forum users were very likely to be urban; approximately 49% of Colombians in the ive major cities were using the internet in 2006. his included substantial representation from each of the six socioeconomic strata. he upper classes were more likely to have access from home, whereas the middle and lower classes were more likely to use the internet at internet cafes, workplaces, and libraries (Comisión de Regulación de Telecomunicaciones 2006). It is also estimated that one tenth of Colombians live outside the country (Hanratty and Meditz 2004), and one might surmise that people with the economic ability to leave Colombia would not only have internet access but might also use it to keep in touch with current events using the major Colombian newspaper website. his is also supported by information routinely supplied by forum participants on the El Tiempo webpage in early 2006.

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Two forums: Lizzeth and the image of a ‘proper victim’ Before analysing the normalisation of domestic violence, it is important to paint a picture of the two forums analysed for this study to give a more complete idea of how wife abuse is seen in Colombia. In accordance with more universally conceived theories about the perception of victims in VAW (Barry 1984; Benedict 1992), readers are much more sympathetic to Lizzeth’s plight when the irst news of Rafael beating her is published than when she withdraws charges. In the irst forum, most users suggest a spirit of support for Lizzeth, who has just received a brutal beating and is recovering in hospital. Comments explore the issues surrounding this case, such as socioeconomic class, prestigious last names, regions and mental illness, as explanations of how and where wife abuse happens, and to indicate who they suppose the perpetrators usually are. Many comments also discuss answers to the forum question and suggest that the State should strengthen laws to punish abusers in order to resolve the issue of domestic violence. In the infrequent cases where someone is critical of Lizzeth or justiies wife beating, others quickly disagree. In the second forum, when Lizzeth withdraws charges against her husband, the victim blaming and justifying of abuse are blatant and confronting. While in the irst forum most comments fought against the few which openly justiied the violence or said negative things about Lizzeth, in the second there is well-developed expression of and support for those same ideas. One could assume that it is more or less the same group of participants in both forums; however, with the events that happened between one forum and the next, the majority is no longer trying to voice support for Lizzeth. Instead she is loudly blamed for the abuse. Since Lizzeth and Rafael are the same people, and the forum users are apparently similar groups from one forum to the next, why do the messages and attitudes change so dramatically? his can be explained with theories concerning society’s beliefs about and feelings for victims. Firstly, it is not explained in the Colombian news reports that Lizzeth’s return to Rafael was “not only unsurprising, but [to be] expected … part of the pattern of ighting and making up that characterizes violent relationships – the ‘cycle of violence’” (Benedict 1992: 74). As the media oten presents domestic violence without adequate contextualisation, this is a common misunderstanding (Benedict 1992). Secondly, an abused woman “oten inds she can only be understood if she takes on the role of victim” (Barry 1984: 44). Initially, Lizzeth was a proper victim, the object of abuse, apparently a completely passive, inactive recipient and thus blameless. She was known “not as a person but as a victim, someone to whom

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violence was done” (Barry 1984: 45). Colombian society appeared to be quite understanding of Lizzeth in her victim capacity, in the earlier forum. Forum users wrote messages to support her and recommended solutions for her problem. In contrast, the second forum is prompted by an act which shows Lizzeth’s agency. he forum asks what the readers think of Lizzeth withdrawing charges. Now that Lizzeth is portrayed as active, and not just the ‘proper victim’ she appeared to be previously, comments imply that she is complicit in the crime and violence. he standards used to deine the experience of a woman who is abused “dismiss any question of will, and deny that the woman even while enduring sexual violence is a living, changing, growing, interactive person” (Barry 1984: 45). Although Lizzeth is a victim in particular episodes of violence, she is also “an active participant in the interactions with her partner, in the development of strategies to halt, change, or cope with the violence” (Lempert 1994: 414). However, the public does not expect Lizzeth, as a victim of Rafael’s violence, to be an agent, someone who can act as well as being abused. his lack of sympathy and understanding for Lizzeth can be seen particularly in the data grouping which this chapter analyses: the normalisation of domestic violence.

Analysis: Models and methodology One aim of this study was to identify parts of an ideology used to legitimate VAW. “Ideologies are [deined as] the basic social beliefs of speciic groups” (van Dijk 1998: 314). As social beliefs, ideologies are shared; however, they are individual in their uses by each social member. Discourse is a key element in the expression of ideology, yet ideologies cannot be merely reduced to discourse. “Various properties of text and talk allow social members to actually express or formulate abstract ideological beliefs” (van Dijk 1998: 192). he analysis in this study needed to include not only results similar to those from CDA studies but also to be able to examine the results in relation to studies about VAW and gender in Colombia. As discussed at the end of the theoretical background, this multidisciplinarity led to a particular interest in examining data at the level of ‘macropropositions’ and ‘strategies’. he understanding of these terms used for the present study comes from van Dijk’s hierarchies of ideology (1998) and discourse (1988). First I will explain these terms, as understood by van Dijk, with a brief review of his hierarchies of text (1988) and ideology (1998) as they relate to this study. hen I will describe how grounded theory was combined with CDA to analyse ideology in these internet forums.

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Possibly many more levels of macropropositions

Higher-level macropropositions

Individual propositions in text

Lower-level macropropositions

Figure 1. Hierarchy of macropropositions and propositions in a text

Van Dijk’s hierarchy of discourse (1988) provides a useful model for CDA analysis. Van Dijk (1988) suggests that a text can be analysed in terms of a hierarchy of propositions. A proposition consists of concepts joined together, constituting the “smallest, independent meaning constructs of language and thought” (van Dijk 1988: 31). At the lowest level of this hierarchy one inds the individual propositions written in a text. Each of those propositions can be grouped under a macroproposition which summarises several of them. hose macropropositions can be further subsumed under a smaller number of macropropositions, and so on, until reaching the one macroproposition which summarises the whole text (see Figure 1). In 1998 van Dijk proposed another hierarchy which describes an ideology. As a visual representation it looks very similar to the discourse hierarchy (1988); however the propositions in the ideology hierarchy are not found in texts but instead exist as representations held in the minds of individuals in a society (van Dijk 1998). Similar to texts, these mental representations can be described in terms of propositions. In turn, an ideology can be analysed in discourse and described in a hierarchy of macropropositions and propositions (van Dijk 1998). Unfortunately van Dijk’s (1988, 1998) methodology for analysis cannot be applied directly here due to the diferences between the internet forums and the newspaper articles van Dijk (1988) refers to. he texts van Dijk (1988) analyses difer from the internet forums in the present study in several ways. An internet forum typically contains a mixture of voices (Wodak and Wright 2006), whereas a news article is written by one person. A news article is part of a genre with clear conventions of organisation (van Dijk 1988); however, in these eltiempo. com forums there is no structural convention in postings, and conversational exchanges are rare. As a result of these diferences in genre, it would not be useful to summarise portions of text to analyse these internet forums by determining

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

macropropositions, as van Dijk (1988) recommends for news articles. Instead, a methodology for analysis was developed speciically for the present study, incorporating van Dijk’s (1988, 1998) models, and methods from grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss 2008). An ideology is assumed to be coherent to some extent across diferent social members and in diferent situations (van Dijk 1998). he coherence between the expressed opinions of many diferent members of a society (here, eltiempo.com internet forum users) makes it possible to organise the forums based on repetition of topics, models and propositions. hrough the use of grounded theory to pull together texts from many internet forum participants, it becomes possible to approximate some of the major elements of an ideology legitimating wife abuse. Grounded theory provided a method for dividing the data into small pieces and then organising it in such a way so as to bring it back together into a coherent whole (Charmaz 2006). First, grounded theory recommends allowing concepts to emerge from the data. hrough systematic comparisons of concepts, the researcher develops a set of codes. hen, further systematic comparisons reveal the relationships between codes, making it possible to identify categories (Charmaz 2008). Codes were arranged and rearranged based on commonalities, following the principle of constant comparison (Strauss and Corbin 1994). hen I began the process of relating subcategories to categories, which resulted in a hierarchical coniguration (Corbin and Strauss 2008). Higher level concepts, called categories in grounded theory, “tell us what a group of lower-level concepts are pointing to or are indicating” (Corbin and Strauss 2008: 160). In the present study, the ‘lower-level concepts’ were codes, and the ‘higher-level concepts’, or ‘categories’ constituted macropropositions. I analysed both forums about the wife-beating and integrated the analysis of these two forums, as a few macropropositions from the diferent forums had elements in common and consequently could be understood as spanning both. his integration equates to the process of axial coding in grounded theory, the purposes of which are “to sort, synthesize, and organize large amounts of data and reassemble them in new ways” (Charmaz 2006: 60). As part of this integration, some macropropositions were combined; others were created; and others were moved down in the hierarchy. he resulting analysis of these two forums included the macropropositions in Figure 2 (see also Tolton 2009 for more information). Due to space limitations, this chapter focuses on only the third macroproposition: ‘Domestic violence is normal and even valuable in marriage’. his macroproposition was chosen for the present chapter as it has clear links to aspects of Colombian culture in terms of the construction of gender and love, as visible in the discussion section.

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Macroproposition: Macroproposition: Macroproposition: This cannot be Wife beating is a Domestic violence is related to me private issue normal and even valuable in marriage

Macroproposition: Macroproposition: It is the victim’s The victim deserves responsibility to this violence change

Figure 2. Macropropositions in this data set

It was determined that each macropropositional grouping of forum comments included a ‘major strategy’ which described the function of the macroproposition. A strategy consists of several functional ‘moves’ used together toward a purpose (van Dijk 1991). I call these ‘major’ strategies because they are described at the macropropositional level, rather than in the individual propositions in the text. In the macroproposition ‘Domestic violence is normal and even valuable in marriage’, the major strategy was normalisation. Ater summarising the ‘higher level’ of a text, the next step in CDA is the examination of the ‘local level’. he local level can include, for example, “the meaning of words … the structure of propositions, and coherence and other relations between propositions” (van Dijk 2001: 103). In the present study, in order to analyse the comments at the local level, it was necessary to organise the internet forum postings themselves (rather than just the codes) based on the six macropropositions. he postings which formed part of ‘Domestic violence is normal and even valuable in marriage’ were examined for lower-level propositions, structures, strategies, and social beliefs; the latter was possible as grounded theory provided an opportunity to examine repeatedly expressed models.

Major strategy: Normalising violence he comments in this macropropositional group employ discourses which mix love and violence and suggest that violence is a normal part of intimate partner relationships. Mixing love and violence is not uncommon in discourse surrounding wife abuse and within abusive relationships (Evans 2001; Jones 1994). For example, when talking about abuse, Colombians explain that “punishment is

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

Macroproposition: Domestic violence is normal and even valuable in marriage

Proposition: Violence and abuse have a useful purpose

Proposition: Beating causes love; love causes beating

Proposition: Sex resolves ‘these problems’

Proposition: Victims want and enjoy physical violence

Figure 3. Ideology hierarchy for the macroproposition analysed in this chapter

done with love” (Jimeno, Góngora, Martínez and Suárez 2007: 71); and “the rapist/batterer says to [his victim]: ‘I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t love you so much’” (Jones 1994: 122). It is not surprising that talk concerning abuse would mix these elements, because abuse does occur within a contradictory interpersonal context which includes both love and violence. Abused women’s partners are “their sole sources of love and afection and, simultaneously … the most dangerous persons in their lives” (Lempert 1996: 270). he problematic part of the discourses relating love and violence in the forums under study is that they ind violence an acceptable and even important part of a loving relationship. he comments in this macropropositional grouping divide into four groups, each of which can be described in terms of a proposition (see Figure 3). hese propositions represent social beliefs, part of a shared mental representation (van Dijk 1998) of wife abuse. It is important to distinguish between texts, such as the forum comments, and representations held in the minds of individuals in a society (van Dijk 1998). It is not possible to determine for certain what is in someone’s mind; however it is possible to characterise ideas which have been produced and reproduced, apparent mental representations, in terms of propositions. he irst propositional grouping I will talk about is that violence functions to keep things in order within a family. he second explains that beating creates, maintains, and signiies love. A third propositional grouping suggests that sex resolves violent conlicts. Fourth, comments assert that abuse is desired and enjoyed by the victim. In the following sections, I will give a brief description of each of these propositional groupings and use a few examples to illustrate the ways

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forum users express that proposition. he discussion then explains more fully the connections between these propositions, VAW and Colombian culture.

Proposition: Violence and abuse have a useful purpose his proposition, ‘violence and abuse have a useful purpose’, subsumes a number of comments which suggest that abusive violence is a functional part of an intimate partner relationship. Societal recognition for this idea (Hume 2008; Jimeno, Góngora, Martínez and Suárez 2007) is apparent in the following two examples, both of which use the verb funcionar (to work, to function) in their explanations of physical abuse. (1) FRI 01 DEC 2006 07:47 AM.1 […] que le sigan pegando que así funciona. […] keep hitting her because that’s what works.2

Similarly, the next comment states that some couples actually “work that way”, that is, with violence mixed into a loving relationship. his comment also includes the recourse of quoting another person as a way to rescind responsibility for one’s words. (2) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:24 AM. […] escuché a un bárbaro decir “pa¿tene¿ a una mujé contenta hay que darle poquita comi¿a, bastante sexo y bastante patá” y lo peor es que hay parejas que así funcionan. […] I heard a barbarian say “to keep a woman happy you have to give her little food, lots of sex and lots of kicking” and the worst thing is that there are couples that work that way.

If there is a premise that wife abuse works, then what could its functions be? he following paragraphs examine how forum users express the ideas that abuse can: 1. In this chapter internet forum comments are referenced using dates and times. Usernames have been removed to protect forum users’ privacy, given that these comments are only examples to characterise an ideology present throughout the forums about this case. he author would not want to suggest that these particular individuals are unique in their expression of these ideas, when in fact they are only examples taken from larger groups. 2. Comments from the forums have been reproduced with all infelicities and mistakes which were in the original in order to maintain the message as accurately as possible. Although readers may ind this somewhat uncomfortable, it is standard practice in writing about internet forums. Translations have been carried out in such a way as to faithfully represent the writing style in these forums.

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

(1) punish and teach the victim not to act outside of her husband’s expectations, and (2) make her return to her husband quickly. hese functions of abuse are used to legitimate violence in slightly diferent ways. First, violence is commonly enacted as punishment for women who transgress their societally accepted boundaries (Hume 2008; Jimeno 2004; Maldonado 1995). Based on media reports, it seems that Rafael was punishing Lizzeth for dancing with others, for stepping over what he considered the boundary of faithfulness. he following comments legitimate the beating by implying that it had justiied cause, referring to Rafael’s razones (reasons) for doing it. (3) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:55 AM. Creo que el GBON es el señor Dangon que va a volver con esa esa Vieja MANTENIDA que lo unico que demuestra con esa desicion de volver es que no vale nada y agreguele la razon por la que le dieron esa paliza. vieja SINVERGUENZA I think the DMBASS is Mr Dangon who is going back to that that FREELOADING Hussy who with her decision to return demonstrates she’s worthless then add to that the reason she was given that beating. SHAMELESS hussy (4) THURS 03 AUG 2006 06:51 PM. […] no sabemos las circunstancias y las razones que condujeron a este tipo de reacciones. […] […] we don’t know the circumstances and the reasons that led to this type of reactions. […]

Comment 4 also calls on a discourse of privacy to legitimate the abuse. By suggesting that there are factors that the public is unaware of, the comment implies that the public should not judge the abuser. Second, it is understood that wife beating not only ‘corrects’ a woman and teaches her to stay within certain boundaries; it also keeps her in the relationship. his idea is expressed through a saying which uses a sports metaphor to explain the efectiveness of wife beating. he metaphor of woman as ball is used to show that beating a woman harder makes her return even faster. (5) FRI 01 DEC 2006 07:58 AM. la ley del Squash: entre más duro le pegues … más rapido vuelte a ti!! the Squash law: the harder you hit [her/the ball] … the faster [it/she] returns to you!!

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(6) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:55 AM. “las mujeres son como las pelotas de tenis, entre mas duro se les pega mas rapido regresan”, … aunque no soy partidario de este dicho, … estoy empezando a creerlo … “women are like tennis balls, the harder you hit them the faster they return”, … although I am not a supporter of this saying, … I am beginning to believe it …

his squash/tennis metaphor “transform[s] a human relations issue into a problem of strategy” (Segrave 1994: 105), suggesting a similar cause-and-efect relationship in squash, tennis and intimate partner relationships which a male intimate partner can use to plan his actions strategically. his metaphor objectiies the woman by making her into the ball, which is thrown and hit, manipulated and controlled by the man. hese two functions of abuse – punishment and making a woman return – are cultural explanations for violence within an intimate relationship. he fact that Lizzeth has returned seems to remind people of this set of beliefs supporting the idea that wife abuse works. One forum user even professes to see the beneits of beating so clearly as a result of this story that he plans to try it himself. (7) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:23 AM. Hoy he descubierto mi desdicha con las mujeres. He agotado mi tiempo siendo un caballero amoroso y dedicado a hacer sentir a mis novias y esposa como reinas. Simplemente nunca le pegado a ninguna, razón por la cual una vez consiga otra mujer se va a mamar su muñequera y antes que tocarle las nalgas le daré una “tronco e patá” para que no se siente en varios días. […] Today I have discovered my misfortune with women. I have used up my time being a loving gentleman and I have dedicated myself to making my girlfriends and wife feel like queens. It’s just that I have never hit any of them, so when I get another woman she’s going to suck up her beating and instead of touching her bottom I will give her a “lot of kickin’” so that she won’t sit down for several days. […]

Proposition: Beating causes love; love causes beating he comments in this group assume a causal connection between love and physical abuse. Some forum users suggest that Rafael’s violence might be seen as a demonstration of love, an idea which they express in a variety of ways. One comment suggests that this is, in fact, Lizzeth’s perspective on the matter, emphasising this by using capital letters for her name.

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

(8) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:41 AM. Lamentablemente el esposo tendra que volverle a pegar o si no LISETH, va a pensar que ya no la quiere. Unfortunately her husband is going to have to hit her again or if not LISETH, will think that he doesn’t love her anymore.

In another example, a forum user quotes a popular saying “porque te quiero te aporrio”3 (because I love you I beat you; Ramírez Santos and González 2004: 58) to remind the reader of the common knowledge that love is what brings a man to beat his wife (Ellsberg, Peña, Herrera, Liljestrand and Winkvist 2000). his comment also includes written-in laughter, which suggests a joking criticism of the abused woman for believing this saying which works to her detriment. (9) SAT 02 DEC 2006 08:26 PM. SIGALA CASCANDO UN POQUITO MAS DURITO, PORQUE VEO QUE ES DELAS QUE DICEN Y CREEN QUE PORQUE TE QUIERO TE APORRIO. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAAJAJ KEEP BEATING HER A LITTLE BIT HARDER, BECAUSE I SEE THAT SHE’S ONE OF THE ONES THAT SAY AND BELIEVE THAT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU I BEAT YOU. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH

Other comments assume a slightly diferent connection between love and physical abuse. While the previous group suggested that love causes beating; these say that beating causes a woman to fall and stay in love. hey suggest the presence of another saying, but give several diferent versions of it, including how a male intimate partner might say this to his wife or girlfriend: (10) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:37 AM. Esto conirma las sabias palabras “NO TE PEGO PORQUE TE ENAMORAS” […] his conirms the wise words “I DON’T HIT YOU BECAUSE YOU’D FALL IN LOVE” […]

and recommendations for men about how much to hit their intimate partners: (11) FRI 01 DEC 2006 07:34 AM. deinitivamente el dicho de peguele de vez en cuando para que se mantenga enamorada es cierto! deinitely the saying hit her every once in a while so that she stays in love is true! 3. his version of the saying is antioqueño (from the Antioquia region of Colombia) as evidenced by the spelling of the word ‘aporrio’; in other areas this saying uses the more standard version of the word: ‘aporreo’.

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(12) FRI 01 DEC 2006 09:01 AM. ese dicho si es muy veridico, segun lo dijo julio hace nucho tiempo: A LAS MUJERES HAY QUE CASCARLAS NO MUY DURO PORQUE O SI NO SE ENAMORAN DE UNO . y a esta señora esto fue lo que le paso, ekl marido le dio una muenda tan dura tan dura, que quedo tragada. his saying is very true, according to what julio said a long time ago: WOMEN HAVE TO BE BEATEN NOT TOO HARD BECAUSE OTHERWISE THEY FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU . and this woman, that was what happened to her, her husband beat her so hard she fell head over heels.

hese three examples (10)–(12) also commend the validity of this saying by describing it with vocabulary including: “wise words”, “true” and “very true”. hey refer to the example of Lizzeth to prove this saying true, thus legitimating the abuse.

Proposition: Sex resolves ‘these problems’ In a somewhat diferent combination of love and violence, comments in both forums suggest that sex is a resolution to violent conlicts such as this beating. he repetition of two similar euphemistic phrases combined in multiple postings suggests the presence of a saying to back up this popular knowledge. hese comments replace ‘sex’ with words like ‘under the covers’ and ‘in bed’, and ‘abuse’ becomes the more mutualising ‘ights’ (Coates 1997; Coates and Wade 2004), or, even less directly, ‘these problems’. In the irst forum, this saying is used to suggest that no one should pay attention to the case, because Lizzeth and Rafael will soon be back together, ‘making up’ in bed. he following comment begins by answering the forum question about making reports public, and then proceeds to ind that path of action useless. (13) THURS 03 AUG 2006 06:17 PM. Por supuesto que sí, desafortunadamente esto, generalmente no sirve de nada ya que las peleas entre parejas se arreglan debajo de las cobijas. Se acordarán de mí, este caso, dentro de una semana, será olvidado totalmente. Of course, unfortunately this generally doesn’t help at all because ights between couples are ixed under the covers. You will remember me, within a week, this case will be completely forgotten.

Indeed, in the second forum Lizzeth and Rafael are back together (albeit nearly four months later when he was released from jail), and the same saying is used to explain that the public should not have paid attention to this case:

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

(14) FRI 01 DEC 2006 07:24 AM. […] la sabiduria popular sabe que estos problemas conyugales terminan arreglados en la cama. […] […] popular knowledge knows that these marital problems end up being ixed in bed. […] (15) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:09 AM. […] sabemos de sobra que esos problemas se arreglan debajo de las cobijas, […] […] we know full well that those problems are ixed under the covers, […]

his saying denies that abuse is a problem ater couples make up. Abuse oten occurs in a cycle, with (1) rising tension, (2) violence, (3) and then contrition in the ‘honeymoon period’. he cycle is usually repeated over and over within an abusive relationship (Walker 1979). It seems that the saying refers to this pattern of abuse, with sex as part of the honeymoon period. he statement that sex will resolve ‘these problems’ suggests that the victim’s plight actually stops with sex, rendering her experience of continued abuse invisible. his saying is used to efectively recommend that the general public abandon abused women to their partners’ violence.

Proposition: Victims want and enjoy physical violence his group of comments normalises the violence of wife abuse by saying that the victim wants and enjoys it. his idea is part of the traditional argument which says that women must enjoy abuse; otherwise they would not stay with their abusive husbands (Caplan 1993). In this case, Lizzeth has returned to her husband, so the forum users conclude resoundingly that she must want to be abused. Interestingly, these comments seem to recognise the cycle of abuse, yet they interpret it in a way that pathologises Lizzeth, while at the same time eliding the reasons abused women generally have for returning to their partners. Forum users show their reasoning in comments like the following: (16) FRI 01 DEC 2006 07:45 AM. Querra que le vuelvan a dar otra paliza … […] She must want to be given another beating … […] (17) FRI 01 DEC 2006 09:24 AM. Pues yo creo que lo penso bien y quiere que la casque de nuevo … Ayyy Dios mio … !!!! I believe that she thought it out and she wants him to beat her again … Ohhh my God … !!!!

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Comment 17 ignores the temporal connections between Rafael leaving jail and Lizzeth returning to him, creating an account in which Lizzeth uses the four months they were apart solely to consider whether she wants to be beaten. Other comments do not explain how they came to their conclusions. Instead they just express their view that Lizzeth is a masochist and that she likes abuse. (18) FRI 01 DEC 2006 07:45 AM. […] Masoquista!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! […] Masochist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (19) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:16 AM. […] A Lizeth le gusta que le den por todos lados! […] […] Lizeth likes to be hit all over! […] (20) FRI 01 DEC 2006 09:21 AM. […] … le gusta que la casquen …. […] […] … she likes to be beaten up … […]

his idea has a very strong presence in the second forum. In only the irst 100 comments (and responses to them), there are 9 references to masochism and 6 forum users say directly that Lizzeth likes the violence perpetrated against her. Many more comments allude to this idea. One of the more indirect references can be seen in the following comment, where the participant uses a humorous analogy as a minimising strategy to say that Lizzeth likes to be hit with shoes and to be ‘nailed’ (a reference to sex). (21) FRI 01 DEC 2006 08:15 AM. a esa mujer le gusta que le den la vida del zapatero: zapato y clavo that woman likes to be given the life of a shoemaker: shoe and nail

he belief that ‘women like abuse’ results in a pathologisation of women; “for is it not sick to enjoy misery?” (Caplan 1993: 10). In the forum, users insult Lizzeth for what they see as her psychopathology. he following examples suggest that Lizzeth’s supposed masochism is disgusting and vulgar, with comment 22 bringing in a clear reference to sexual arousal as a result of beating. (22) FRI 01 DEC 2006 09:11 AM. […] O sos masoquistas … te exitas cuando te golpean … GUARRA […] Or you’re a masochists … you get aroused when they hit you … PIG (23) FRI 01 DEC 2006 09:15 AM. […] O QUE TE VOLVISTE UNA VULGAR MASOQUISTA […] OR YOU’VE BECOME A VULGAR MASOCHIST

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

his belief that women want and enjoy abuse implies that they are responsible for the violence enacted against them and for the pain they feel as a result. hroughout history women have sufered, “but that is worlds away from wanting to sufer” (Caplan 1993: 9) or enjoying sufering. here are clear external reasons for Lizzeth’s sufering and for much of the sufering of women in society more generally.

Connections to Colombian culture and more universal legitimation of VAW In this discussion, I review the social beliefs, structures, and strategies evidenced in this data set and consider how they relate to social reasoning surrounding wife abuse on a larger scale. he diferent elements of ideology taking part in the normalisation of VAW in this data set as laid out in the previous sections are related to certain beliefs about gender and violence in Colombian culture, as well as to a more universal legitimation of VAW. First, this discussion will explore ideas of masculinity and authority. Second, it will look at conceptions of abuse as part of love. Finally, it will examine beliefs about femininity and sufering. In each of these sections, I will refer to speciic parts of the results and examine how they relate to literature about VAW and Colombian culture. Most of these ideas are related to fairly universal ideology about VAW, and the connections to Colombian culture specify the way this ideology is manifested in a particular cultural context.

Masculinity and authority Several beliefs illustrate the Colombian idea that authority should be maintained through the use of force and that this is a responsibility which falls to men. To begin with, the functional justiication of wife abuse, that is, the propositional grouping ‘violence and abuse have a useful purpose’, relates to a Colombian belief in a need for forceful control, contributing to a conirmation of the connection between the battleield and home which was suggested in the signiicance section of this chapter. In Colombia violence is oten justiied with the reasoning “that any breakdown in authoritarian control would lead to chaos. Colombia’s history suggests ample precedent for this perception” (Fitch 1998: 83). Much-loved former President Álvaro Uribe provides a clear example of this belief, irst with his election slogan of “irm hand, big heart”, and later through his use of military force to bring down the guerrilla (see the signiicance section). he idea of using ‘irmness’ to elicit respect and enact control is also a common justiication for physical abuse within the family. Violence is considered

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necessary in order to keep a wife or child from ‘getting out of control’ (Jimeno, Góngora, Martínez and Suárez 2007), as justiied with the idea that beating teaches a woman not to act outside of her husband’s expectations. Accordingly, Rafael’s violence can be understood as part of how he acts out his authority and control over Lizzeth, as seen through the comments about his ‘reasons’ for beating her. According to the media, the beating was prompted by jealousy, sparked when Lizzeth danced with friends. his reason for wife beating, supposed inidelity, is not unique to Colombian culture. A number of studies show that inidelity is considered a justiied reason for wife abuse or murder in diferent cultures (Hume 2008; Stewart 2002), and the usual motivation for wife murder is a man’s loss of control over his wife’s sexuality either through the woman leaving or her (suspected or actual) adultery (Wilson and Daly 1998). his justiication for abuse and murder seems to indicate the view that a women’s sexuality is her husband’s possession. Within the Colombian model of the family, it is generally expected that a man will exercise control over his wife and children to obtain and maintain respect (hacerse respetar) and to correct undesirable behaviour (Jimeno 1998; Jimeno, Góngora, Martínez and Suárez 2007). ‘Correction’ is punishment meant to teach the subordinate family members values and virtues (Jimeno, Góngora, Martínez and Suárez 2007; Maldonado 1995). he popular notion of ‘correction’ “proclaims that [abuse] is necessary and legitimate” (López Díaz 2002: 26) and also allows for an efective exculpation of the aggression (Jimeno 1998). he violence of abuse is justiied as part of the abuser’s love and desire to do good for others (Jimeno, Góngora, Martínez and Suárez 2007; López Díaz 2002; consider the saying “porque te quiero te aporrio” [because I love you I beat you]). hrough this set of reasons for violence, the perpetrator of domestic violence is not held guilty; instead he can be seen as responsibly fulilling his role as husband and father. he idea that men are responsible for ‘correction’ and control of their wives is present in the tennis/squash metaphors, which remind men that wife beating is strategic and efective. hese metaphors are also related to more widely-accepted ideals of masculinity. Sport is a male-dominated area, which “ritualiz[es] and celebrat[es] culturally approved ways of being male (Messner and Sabo 1990; Sabo and Runfola 1980)” (Segrave 1994: 98). he language of sport “reafirms male power and privilege” (Segrave 1997: 212) as well as “normaliz[ing] masculine domination in male-female relationships, a domination constructed in part from the connections between manliness and the body (Whitson 1990)” (Segrave 1994: 108).

Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

Abuse as love Another element of normalisation in this data focuses on the concept of abuse, present in the idea of a causal love-violence connection (in the results section, see Proposition: Beating causes love; love causes beating; Hurtado, Puyana and Bernal 2001; homas 2006). A useful way to approach this belief is through the concept of crimen pasional. ‘Crimes of passion’, a phrase also used in English, refers to intimate partner abuse which is so violent that the victim is killed. Colombians interviewed about crimen pasional within their family explain that “[t]here are loves that kill” or, more completely: “one person kills another because he loves her so much” (Jimeno 2004: 67). Seeing passionate crime as “an act of too much love transforms it into something poetic or romantic, an idea which can be repeated until it obscures [the crime] with sentimentalism and attributes it to a feeling-related illness” (Jimeno 2004: 245). hese ideas excuse violence in an intimate relationship by textualising it as an excess of love (Jimeno 2004). he sayings about sex resolving ‘these problems’ are another culturally-supported suggestion regarding abuse. Literature in Spanish about wife abuse tells us that in fact “[t]here are many popular sayings which allude to the ‘delights’ of making up ater a beating” (Yela and Villalvilla 2007: 47), which appear to have a history dating back to the Middle Ages (Martínez Garrido 2001). hese sayings are also an element of Colombian culture apparent in this data set. As one Colombian book about domestic violence explains “there are popular sayings still used today which strongly unite love and violence” (Hurtado, Puyana and Bernal 2001: 4).

Femininity and sufering Finally, let us recall the image of femininity in these normalisations, visible in the idea that abused women are masochists. he comments suggesting that Lizzeth is a masochist are diferent from the others in that they implicitly criticise the abuse through criticising Lizzeth’s sufering. Also, by suggesting that her sufering is aberrant, they recognise wife abuse as an exception rather than the rule. Nevertheless, they do participate in the masochism myth. he myth that abused women are masochists is supported by a cultural understanding of sufering as part of femininity. One part of this idea has its roots in the religious realm, as suggested in the section about femininity in Colombia. Suffering is traditionally a feminine virtue within Catholicism and therefore in most Latin American countries. According to beliefs on this matter, sufering makes women into ‘good women’, and enough sufering can even make a woman saintly (Paternostro 1998). his understanding of sufering is also part of “a diference in

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attitude toward sufering women and men” (Caplan 1993: 9). It is suggested that there are external reasons which cause men’s sufering, whereas women are the cause of their own problems. It is the presence of sufering in women that leads people to suggest that women want and like it. In reality, the fact that women are a disadvantaged group means that there are many factors which cause sufering in women. As Paternostro (1998) explains, “sufering was a constant in the hearts of Latin American women a century ago, [and] it is not much diferent today” (83). In cases like Lizzeth’s, many people focus on only one part of the equation – a woman, sufering – as if there were no clear external cause. To explain this apparent absence of a cause for sufering, there is the suggestion “that females seek out pain and sufering, that we have an innate need for misery” (Caplan 1993: 2).

Conclusion his chapter has analysed one macropropositional grouping from the El Tiempo forums about the Dangond-Ochoa case as a way to explore the legitimation of VAW. he analysis of this data set has illustrated part of a patriarchal ideology present in Colombia in relation to wife abuse. Within this ideology, the masculine role and responsibility includes maintaining authority through force. Love and violence are entwined in multiple ways, with violence expressing, producing, and maintaining love; and with love, especially in excess, producing violence. Completing the picture of marital abuse, sufering is understood as fundamental to femininity, in this way putting the woman at fault for the abuse she sufers. he results from this study support Johnson’s (1980) classic assertion that “the locus of violence rests squarely in the middle of what … culture deines as ‘normal’ interaction between men and women” (146). his normalisation is likely to vary across diferent cultural contexts. his chapter and its counterparts that comprise this volume help to build an academic context in which we can better understand the oppression of gendered subjects in speciic cultural contexts, thus making it possible to analyse the relationship between misogynistic practices in diferent cultures in order to contest these practices.

References Barreto Gama, Juanita. 1995. “Estereotipos sobre la feminidad: mantenimiento y cambio”. In Las mujeres en la historia de Colombia, tomo 1: mujeres, historia y política, M. Velásquez Toro (ed.), 362–378. Bogotá: Consejería Presidencial para la Política Social, Editorial Norma.

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Barreto Gama, Juanita and Puyana Villamizar, Yolanda. 1996. Sentí que se me desprendía el alma: análisis de procesos y prácticas de socialización. Bogotá: Programa de Estudios de Género, Mujer y Desarrollo, Departamento de Trabajo Social, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, INDEPAZ – Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz. Barry, Kathleen. 1984. Female Sexual Slavery. London: New York University Press. Benedict, Helen. 1992. Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes. New York: Oxford University Press. Bolívar, Adriana. 2008. “‘Cachorro del imperio’ versus ‘cachorro de Fidel’: los insultos en la política latinoamericana”. Discurso & Sociedad 2 (1): 1–38. Boric, Rada and Desnica, Mica Mladineo. 1996. “Croatia: hree years ater”. In Women in a Violent World: Feminist Analyses and Resistance Across ‘Europe’, C. Corrin (ed.), 133–152. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Brown, Judith K. 1999. “Introduction: Deinitions, assumptions, themes and issues”. In To Have and to Hit: Cultural Perspectives on Wife Beating, D. A. Counts, J. Campbell and J. K. Brown (eds), 3–26. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Burt, Martha R. 1980. “Cultural myths and supports for rape”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38 (2): 217–230. Caplan, Paula J. 1993. he Myth of Women’s Masochism. 2nd pbk. ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Charmaz, Kathy. 2006. Constructing Grounded heory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. Los Angeles: SAGE. Charmaz, Kathy. 2008. “Grounded theory as an emergent method”. In Handbook of Emergent Methods, S. N. Hesse-Biber and P. Leavy (eds), 155–172. New York: Guilford Press. Clair, Robin P. 1994. “Hegemony and harassment: A discursive practice”. In Conceptualizing sexual harassment as discursive practice, S. G. Bingham (ed.), 59–70. London: Praeger. Coates, Linda. 1997. “Causal attributions in sexual assault trial judgments”. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (3): 278–296. Coates, Linda and Wade, Allan. 2004. “Telling it like it isn’t: Obscuring perpetrator responsibility for violent crime”. Discourse & Society 15 (5): 499–526. Colombia: Internet Usage and Market Reports. n.d. http://www.internetworldstats.com/sa/ co.htm (accessed 13 January 2009). Comisión de Regulación de Telecomunicaciones. 16 March 2006. Medición de factores multiplicadores para el cálculo de usuarios de internet en Colombia. http://www.crt.gov.co/ Documentos/BibliotecaVirtual/Multiplicadores/MultiplicadoresCalculoUsuarios Internet_completo.pdf (accessed 29 June 2006). Corbin, Juliet M. and Strauss, Anselm L. 2008. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded heory. 3rd ed. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Dobash, Rebecca Emerson and Dobash, Russell P. 1998. Rethinking Violence Against Women. [SAGE Series on Violence Against Women 9]. London: SAGE. Edwards, Derek. 2006. “Discourse, cognition and social practices: he rich surface of language and social interaction”. Discourse Studies 8 (1): 41–49. Ellsberg, Mary, Peña, Rodolfo, Herrera, Andres, Liljestrand, Jerker and Winkvist, Anna. 2000. “Candies in hell: Women’s experiences of violence in Nicaragua”. Social Science and Medicine 51 (11): 1595–1610.

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Enloe, Cynthia. 1987. “Feminists thinking about war, militarism and peace”. In Analyzing Gender: A Handbook of Social Science Research, B. B. Hess and M. M. Ferree (eds), 526–548. Newbury Park, CA; London: Sage. Estrada, Ángela María, Ibarra, Carolina and Sarmiento, Estefanía. 2003. “Regulación y control de la subjetividad y la vida privada en el contexto del conlicto armado colombiano”. Revista de estudios sociales 15: 133–149. Evans, Ilsa. 2001. “Desperate lovers and wanton women: Press representations of domestic violence”. Hecate 27 (2): 147–173. Fagoaga, Concha. 1999. La violencia en medios de comunicación: maltrato en la pareja y agresión sexuada. Madrid: Dirección General de la Mujer. Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge. Fernández Díaz, Natalia. 2003. La violencia sexual y su representación en la prensa [Cultura y diferencia: teoría feminista y cultura contemporánea]. Rubí (Barcelona): Anthropos. Fernández Poncela, Anna M. 2002. Estereotipos y roles de género en el refranero popular [Biblioteca A. Sociedad 46]. Rubí (Barcelona): Anthropos. Fitch, Kristine Louise. 1989. Communicative Enactment of Interpersonal Ideology: Personal Address in Urban Colombian Society. PhD thesis, Department of Speech Communication, University of Washington. Fitch, Kristine Louise. 1998. Speaking Relationally: Culture, Communication and Interpersonal Connection. New York: he Guilford Press. Garcés, Elena. 2008. Colombian Women: he Struggle out of Silence. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Gardner, Carol Brooks. 1995. Passing by: Gender and Public Harassment. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hanratty, Dennis M. and Meditz, Sandra W. 2004. “Country proile: Colombia”. In Country Studies. Federal Research Division: Library of Congress. Hume, Mo. 2004. “‘It’s as if you don’t know, because you don’t do anything about it’: Gender and violence in El Salvador”. Environment and Urbanization 16 (2): 63–72. Hume, Mo. 2008. “he myths of violence: Gender, conlict, and community in El Salvador”. Latin American Perspectives 35 (5): 59–76. Hurtado Sáenz, María Cristina, Puyana Villamizar, Yolanda and Bernal Vélez, Margarita. 2001. Relexiones sobre violencia de pareja y relaciones de género. Colombia: Cargraphics S.A. Jimeno, Myriam. 1998. “Identidad y experiencias cotidianas de violencia”. Análisis político 33: 32–46. Jimeno, Myriam. 2004. “Reprimand and respect, love and fear, in experiences of violence in Colombia”. In Cultural Shaping of Violence: Victimization, Escalation, Response, M. Anderson (ed.), 110–118. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. Jimeno, Myriam, Góngora, Andrés, Martínez, Marco and Suárez, Carlos José, eds. 2007. Manes, mancitos y manazos: una metodología de trabajo sobre violencia intrafamiliar y sexual, conlicto, violencia y sociedad. Bogotá: Centro de Estudios Sociales – CES; Facultad de Ciencias Humanas; Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Johnson, Allan Griswold. 1980. “On the prevalence of rape in the United States”. Signs 6 (1): 136–146. Jones, Ann. 1994. Next Time, She’ll be Dead: Battering and How to Stop it. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press.

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Jones, Rodney H. 2008. “Technology, democracy and participation in space”. In Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere, R. Wodak and V. Koller (eds), 429–446. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Kelly, Liz. 1988. Surviving Sexual Violence. Cambridge: Polity Press. Kelly, Liz. 1996. “‘It’s everywhere’: Sexual violence as a continuum”. In Feminism and Sexuality: A Reader, S. Jackson and S. Scott (eds), 191–206. Edinburgh, England: Edinburgh University Press. Kelly, Liz. 2000. “Wars against women: Sexual violence, sexual politics and the militarised state”. In States of Conlict: Gender, Violence, and Resistance, S. M. Jacobs, R. Jacobson and J. Marchbank (eds), 45–65. London; New York: Zed Books. Kroløkke, Charlotte and Sørensen, Anne Scott. 2006. Gender Communication heories & Analyses: From Silence to Performance. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Lazar, Michelle M. (ed.). 2005. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Lazar, Michelle M. 2007. “Feminist critical discourse analysis: Articulating a feminist discourse praxis”. Critical Discourse Studies 4 (2): 141–164. Lempert, Lora Bex. 1994. “A narrative analysis of abuse: Connecting the personal, the rhetorical, and the structural”. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22 (4): 411–441. Lempert, Lora Bex. 1996. “Women’s strategies for survival: Developing agency in abusive relationships”. Journal of Family Violence 11 (3): 269–289. López Díaz, Yolanda. 2002. “Castigo, maltrato y agresividad: una confusión a despejar”. En otras palabras: mujeres, familias y conlictos sociales 10: 25–46. MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1992. “Sexual harassment as sex discrimination”. In Sexual Harassment: Confrontations and Decisions, E. Wall (ed.), 139–150. Bufalo, NY: Prometheus Books. Mahoney, Patricia, Williams, Linda M. and West, Carolyn M. 2001. “Violence against women by intimate relationship partners”. In he Sourcebook on Violence Against Women, C. M. Renzetti, J. L. Edleson and R. K. Bergen (eds), 143–178. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Maldonado, María Cristina. 1995. Conlicto, poder y violencia en la familia [Serie Familia y Población]. Santiago de Cali, Colombia: Editorial Facultad de Humanidades, Escuela de Trabajo Social y Desarrollo Humano. Martínez Garrido, Elisa. 2001. “Palos, animales y mujeres. Expresiones misóginas, paremias y textos persuasivos”. Cuadernos de Filología Italiana 8: 79–98. Martín Rojo, Luisa and van Dijk, Teun A. 1997. “‘here was a problem, and it was solved!’: Legitimating the expulsion of ‘illegal’ migrants in Spanish parliamentary discourse”. Discourse & Society 8 (4): 523–566. Maybrey, Catherine. 2004. “‘Blaming the victim’ syndrome”. In Encyclopedia of rape, M. D. Smith (ed.), 26–28. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. McWilliams, Monica. 1998. “Violence against women in societies under stress”. In Rethinking Violence Against Women, R. E. Dobash and R. P. Dobash (eds), 111–140. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Meyers, Marian. 1997. News Coverage of Violence Against Women: Engendering Blame. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2001a. Primer avance del informe sobre violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas en el conlicto armado colombiano. Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2001b. Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres y niñas en Colombia. Segundo avance, M. J. Díaz Granados (ed.). Bogotá.

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Mujer y conlicto armado. 2003. Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia. Tercer informe, M. I. Casas Herrera (ed). Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2004. Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia. Cuarto informe, M. I. Casas Herrera and C. Vergel Tovar (eds). Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2005. Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia. Quinto informe, M. I. Casas Herrera, A. M. González Valencia, M. Muñoz and M. E. Ramírez Brizneda (eds). Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2006. VI Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia, A. M. Díaz, P. Figueroa Cancino and B. Pardo Herrero (eds). Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2006–2007. VII Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia, A. M. Díaz, M. E. Ramírez, C. H. Cardona, A. Benjumea and L. D. Mabesoy (eds). Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2007–2008. VIII Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia, A. M. Díaz, C. H. Cardona, M. E. Ramírez, A. Restrepo and L. D. Mabesoy (eds). Bogotá. Mujer y conlicto armado. 2009. IX Informe sobre violencia sociopolítica contra mujeres, jóvenes y niñas en Colombia, A. M. Díaz, M. E. Ramírez, M. I. Casas, A. Benjumea, L. P. Caicedo, C. E. Cardona and A. Restrepo (eds). Bogotá. Ojeda, Gabriel, Ordóñez, Myriam and Ochoa, Luis Hernando. 2005. “Violencia contra las mujeres y los niños”. In Salud sexual y reproductiva en Colombia: resultados encuesta nacional de demografía y salud, Profamilia: Asociación Probienestar de la Familia Colombiana. Pachón, Ximena. 2007. “La familia en Colombia a lo largo del siglo XX”. In Familias, cambios y estrategias, Y. Puyana and M. H. Ramírez (eds), 145–159. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia Facultad de Ciencias Humanas Centro de Estudios Sociales. Pardo Abril, Neyla Graciela. 2007. Cómo hacer análisis crítico del discurso: una perspectiva latinoamericana. Santiago de Chile: Frasis. Paternostro, Silvana. 1998. In the Land of God and Man: A Latin Woman’s Journey. New York: Plume. Ramírez Santos, Alberto and González, Catalina R. 2004. Refranes y dichos. Bogotá: Intermedio Editores. Rondon, Marta B. 2003. “From Marianism to terrorism: he many faces of violence against women in Latin America”. Archives of Women’s Mental Health 6 (3): 157–173. Segrave, Jefrey O. 1994. “he perfect 10: ‘Sportspeak’ in the language of sexual relations”. Sociology of Sport Journal 11: 95–113. Segrave, Jefrey O. 1997. “A matter of life and death: Some thoughts on the language of sport”. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 21 (2): 211–220. Stewart, Mary White. 2002. Ordinary Violence: Everyday Assaults Against Women. Westport, Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey. Strauss, Anselm L. and Corbin, Juliet M. 1994. “Grounded theory methodology: An overview”. In Handbook of Qualitative Research, N. K. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds), 273–285. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE. homas, Florence. 2006. Conversaciones con Violeta: historia de una revolución inacabada. Bogotá: Aguilar, Altea, Taurus, Alfaguara, S.A.

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Tolton, Laura. 2009. Legitimation of Violence Against Women in Colombia: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analytic Study. PhD thesis, School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, he University of Queensland, Brisbane. Tolton, Laura. Forthcoming. “El contraste como estrategia discursiva para minimizar la violencia contra la mujer en el contexto colombiano”. Los estudios del discurso: usos interdisciplinares. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. “U.N. says Colombian military executing civilians”. 2008. CNN.com International http://edition. cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/11/01/colombia.UN/index.html (accessed 1 Nov 2008). United Nations. 2007. Declaración sobre la eliminación de la violencia contra la mujer: Resolución de la Asamblea General 48/104 del 20 de diciembre de 1993 http://www.unhchr. ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/A.RES.48.104.Sp?Opendocument (accessed 1 June 2007). Vallejo Rubinstein, Claudia. 2005. Representación de la violencia contra las mujeres en la prensa española (El País/El Mundo) desde una perspectiva crítica de género. Un análisis crítico del discurso androcéntrico de los medios. Departamento de Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. van Dijk, Teun A. 1988. News as discourse. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. van Dijk, Teun A. 1991. Racism and the press. London: Routledge. van Dijk, Teun A. 1993. “Principles of critical discourse analysis”. Discourse & Society 4 (2): 249–283. van Dijk, Teun A. 1998. Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. London; housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. van Dijk, Teun A. 2001. “Multidisciplinary CDA: A plea for diversity”. In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, R. Wodak and M. Meyer (eds), 95–120. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. van Dijk, Teun A. 2003. Ideología y discurso. Barcelona: Ariel. van Leeuwen, heo. 2007. “Legitimation in discourse and communication”. Discourse & Communication, 1 (1): 91–112. van Leeuwen, heo and Wodak, Ruth. 1999. Legitimizing immigration control: A discoursehistorical analysis. Discourse Studies 1 (1): 83–118. Viveros Vigoya, Mara. 2001. “Masculinidades: diversidades regionales y cambios generacionales en Colombia”. In Hombres e identidades de género: investigaciones desde América Latina, M. Viveros, J. Olavarría and N. Fuller (eds), 35–143. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Centro de Estudios Sociales. Walker, Lenore E. 1979. he Battered Woman. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row. West, Robin L. 1987. “he diference in women’s hedonic lives: A phenomenological critique of feminist legal theory”. Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal 3: 81–145. Wilson, Margo and Daly, Martin. 1998. “Lethal and nonlethal violence against wives and the evolutionary psychology of male sexual proprietariness”. In Rethinking Violence Against Women, R. E. Dobash and R. P. Dobash (eds), 199–230. housand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Wodak, Ruth. 2005. “Feminist critical discourse analysis: New perspectives for interdisciplinary gender studies”. In Symposium on CDA: Feminist CDA and Interdisciplinarity; Rightwing Populism – Local Answers to Global Issues. Athens. Wodak, Ruth. 2008a. “he contribution of critical linguistics to the analysis of discriminatory prejudices and stereotypes in the language of politics”. In Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere, R. Wodak and V. Koller (eds), 291–315. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Wodak, Ruth. 2008b. “Controversial issues in feminist critical discourse analysis”. In Gender and Language Research Methodologies, K. Harrington (ed.), 193–210. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Wodak, Ruth and Wright, Scott. 2006. “he European Union in cyberspace: Multilingual democratic participation in a virtual public sphere?” Journal of Language and Politics 5 (2): 251–276. Yela Blazquiz, Dolores and Villalvilla Soria, Diego J. 2007. “Miedo a saber … la relación de ayuda ante la violencia de pareja hacia la mujer”. Enfermería comunitaria 3 (1): 45–52.

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya Michael Abudi, Felicia Yieke and Catherine Kitetu Egerton University, Kenya

his paper is based on a study carried out among the Dholuo speakers of Kenya who belong to the Luo community living in the country. he paper sought to identify and describe sexist Dholuo honoriic expressions and idioms used in speciic contexts of the private domain in order to show how gender is discursively constructed. An interview schedule was prepared using examples of sexist Dholuo honoriic expressions and idioms obtained from both a pilot study and Dholuo folklore to help the respondents build the corpus. his interview schedule was subsequently used to administer oral interviews individually to a total of thirty two respondents in the private domain. he interviews were audio-tape recorded and ield notes taken during and ater each interview. Data collected was subsequently transcribed, coded and analysed using the discourse historical approach of Critical Discourse Analysis. It was found that the Luo tradition and patriarchal society, as discursively expressed in everyday living, reduced women’s self worth and also helped perpetuate the status quo whereby women were regarded as objects and subordinates rather than subjects. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), gender, patriarchy, honoriic expressions, idioms

Introduction he cultural values and meanings attributed to gender identity are encoded, preserved and transmitted in public symbols that are shared by members of a particular society. At the most basic level, these symbols are the vocabulary and conventions of language. Language is thus seen as one of the most observable expressions of the cultural principles of social order and system of belief. Dholuo, one of the over forty native languages in Kenya, is not an exception in this regard. Dholuo is spoken by the Luo community, a Nilotic group which inhabits Nyanza

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province in Western Kenya. It is considered the third largest language community in Kenya ater Kikuyu and Luhya languages. Clan traditions of the Luo give four distinct waves of their migration from Uganda to settle in diferent parts of Nyanza province between the late 15th and early 19th centuries (Wanyande et al. 1996: 7). However, the Luo language spoken among the groups remains homogeneous, particularly with regard to honoriic expressions and idioms. Many communities in Africa have, for a long time, strongly held to patriarchy. Kapiyo and Owino (1996: 62) observe that the social organization of the Luo took a patriarchal pattern, which is a social system that deines and assigns unequal social statuses and positions to femininity and masculinity. In the traditional Luo community, the male spouse is regarded as the supreme head of the family, the provider of food and security. He also ensures the continuity of the community through marriage, siring children and passing to the children history and heritage of the community. Under this patriarchal system, the women are regarded as subservient to the male. A woman’s chief role is that of child bearer. She can hardly participate directly in major decision making sessions involving the community. She is seen as powerless in so far as family and clan matters are concerned and is not allowed to inherit property especially when this property is family land. In such a setting, many practices, including the patterns of communication are likely to express this male oriented world view and social order and thus typify men as dominant and women as subservient. Generally, the inluence of traditional culture was very strong in this setting and the patriarchal value systems accorded overwhelming socio-cultural, economic and political importance to both the male children and adults (Amuka 1992). Social relations among the community members were governed by rules of kinship, gender and age. he families’ major occupations were subsistence crop, animal farming and ishing. his paper therefore takes into consideration the Luo culture as a lived experience of the speakers of Dholuo since it foregrounds and enables a better understanding of how gendered inequalities are continuously discursively reproduced and even challenged in the community through language use mainly as a result of the great inluence of tradition and patriarchy. he paper sought to point out gender biased linguistic items of Dholuo and their use, and to explain their implications in the promotion of one gender and denigration of the other. his should prove quite revealing and awakening to the users of the language who may always use or oblige to such biased items and behaviour unconsciously, probably because sexism is ‘deeply rooted’ in the communication system. he Luo have a rich and diverse oral culture which includes folktales, oral poetry, riddles, proverbs, honoriic expressions and idioms. Orality is a useful tool for socialization and commenting on the expectations and behaviour of members of the community. he more one was able to articulate societal issues, the better

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

placed one was in society. he study preferred to investigate honoriic and idiomatic expressions because they are regularly used in Dholuo ordinary conversations and are more prevalent in the interactive contexts of the private domain as compared to the public domain. his study therefore sought to identify Dholuo honoriic expressions and idioms as used by the Luo in their everyday situations, particularly in the private domain. his was with the intention of analysing and describing the gender biases that existed within the community. hese gender biased linguistic items are expressed in very subtle ways in the everyday discursive practices of the community, and it is through a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of these items that the whole spectre of sexism and structured unequal power relations between males and females in their every day interaction is uncovered. In order to gather enough honoriic expressions and idioms to demonstrate how they express gender inequality among the Luo speakers, data was collected in speciic settings of the private domain that involved everyday situations of the community. hese settings included the home, the playing grounds and other leisure grounds, and ish landing beaches. he researchers went out to these different situations of the private domain and observed and interacted with Luo speakers as they went about their daily lives and recorded the everyday language in the lives of these speakers. From these recordings of talk in natural occurring settings, honoriic expressions and idioms especially those that hinged on gender and gender biases were isolated. his data was eventually categorised and prepared as part of the interviews that were given to respondents who would assist in the interpretations. In all, a total of three weeks were spent in the ield observing and recording the natural occurring talk of Luo speakers in speciic contexts within the private domain. he sample population of respondents for the interviews for the study comprised 32 native speakers of Dholuo. his was possible by using a stratiied random sampling procedure, where gender and age were considered to be important factors. 16 male and 16 female residents of Bondo district in Nyanza province in Kenya were sampled. he respondents were of diferent age groups. From a sociocultural viewpoint, they were categorised as children who were between the ages of ten and iteen, youth and adults. Of these 32 respondents, it was ensured that there was representation of each age set from home setting, the playing grounds and other leisure activities, and ish landing beaches. However, no children were categorised under the ish landing beaches. his is because traditionally, this was not an activity meant for children. his categorisation was mainly because the study intended to capture the rural Luo community represented in its various age groups. In addition, certain honoriic expressions were more prevalent with particular sex and age groups than the others. However, idiomatic expressions were mainly associated with adults. he target population in this study lives in a

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traditional rural setting and the people are greatly inluenced by the traditional culture with regard to social institutions, beliefs, values and heritage.1 An interview schedule in the form of a structured interview was used to administer an oral interview individually to the respondents. hese interviews took approximately forty minutes each. he interview schedule was prepared using examples of sexist Dholuo honoriic expressions and idioms obtained when the researchers visited the diferent settings to capture talk that was naturally occurring. he interview items sought the interpretation and views of respondents on the Dholuo honoriic expressions and idioms and what concepts and attitudes the use of these expressions generated about a particular gender in the community. he concepts and attitudes were very signiicant in the analysis and interpretation of the power relations between females and males in the speech community. he interviews were conducted as informally as possible with the respondents prompted and encouraged to digress into areas they felt to be of particular importance. hese interviews were audio-tape recorded for purposes of transcription and going through the data for clariication and veriication. he recordings that were done during observation generated a corpus of honoriic expressions and idioms that relect the everyday lives of the Luo which were interrogated and discussed. Analysis was subsequently done using context as propounded in the Discourse Historical approach (Wodak and Meyer 2001) under a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework. he analysis helped to uncover the subtle and unequal power and gender relations that exist in the community.

Honoriic expressions usage among Dholuo speakers Because sociolinguistic researchers have concluded that language relects social structures and patterns in the society, such linguistic discrimination relects the injustice in our society. However, it is true that what the society lays down can and does change if enough members of the society feel that it is desirable that this should happen. One way of doing this is to focus on the sexist language and language use in order to raise consciousness. Since honoriic expressions are regularly used in conversation in the private domains among the Luo, they are

1. Due to rural urban migration and other factors, many communities in Kenya have adopted western culture to a large extent. he rural communities in most cases still have a reasonably intact traditional culture and cultural practices. In as far as honoriic expressions and idioms are concerned, these are still used to a large extent by the Luo rural community. hey may not be as rich as they used to be in the past, but are still used quite a bit in the day to day activities of the rural people.

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

more likely to reveal the diferent power relations between the genders in Dholuo speech community. Honoriic expressions are regularly used in conversation and are more prevalent in the interactive contexts of the private domain. his is because of the informality that allows for the free expression of heightened emotions; an important prerequisite for honouring or insulting. he formality in the public domains, where expression of strong emotions is controlled, limits this. Buyonge (1995: 5) describes honoriic expressions as structures in some languages that signify the relationship between speakers in interaction in terms of respect. He notes that in Ekegusii (a language in Kenya), honoriic expressions may be drawn from status markers, kinship and address terms. Another feature of honoriic expressions is their cultural speciicity. In discussions by Fasold (1990), he makes reference to American English address forms, universals of Western society and address in Asian languages, which are unique to the speciic language and cultural contexts in which they emanate from. his then means that honoriic expressions would be best understood within their cultural contexts. In Luo however, honoriic expressions are in most instances never used in isolation. Honoriic expressions in most cases embed idioms. Most of the examples of honoriic expressions collected in the ield were also expressed idiomatically so that it was not possible to do a clear demarcation between honoriic and idioms, although a few of the honoriic could be identiied as wholly honoriic. However, in as far as idioms were concerned, it was possible to identify them not necessarily with honoriic expressions as a part of them.

Idiom usage among Dholuo speakers An idiom is generally a colloquial metaphor, which requires some foundational knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture where conversational parties must possess common cultural references. In fact, according to Adegbija (2003), the meaning of an idiom can not be guessed or deduced from the meaning of the component parts. In this sense then, idioms may not be considered as part of the language, but part of the culture and would oten not make sense beyond their local context. he phenomenon of idioms, though universal has its peculiarities in diferent sociolinguistics environments. In other words, it varies from one society to another, owing to factors of culture, inluence of the mother tongue and peculiarity of usage (Adegbija 2003). As noted earlier, it was possible to gather a number of idioms which stood on their own as complete idioms. his was however seldom the case for honoriic expressions. In the Luo language context, the everyday use of both honoriic and idiomatic expressions is

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therefore oten conlated and more oten than not, one is oten subsumed within the other. For this reason, both honoriic expressions and idiom usage in this paper have been handled together even though they are diferent, and explanations for each suggest an entirely diferent genre.

Power and social relations from a Discourse Historical perspective Discourse and language in everyday life functions ideologically. Ideology articulates a view of reality, which maintains and supports the interests of dominant groups and suppresses those of subordinate groups. Ideology in this sense reiies dominant meaning formations as the natural, sensible order of things. It universalises sectional interests and obscures inherent contradictions in the structure of social systems so that they are no longer perceived as humanely constructed. hrough ideology therefore, discourse may be used to make asymmetrical relations of power and particular textual portrayals of social and biological worlds appear ‘a given’, commonsensical and ‘natural’ or ‘reiied’ (see Lukács 1971; Giddens 1979). Accordingly, the task of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is both deconstructive and constructive. In its deconstructive moment, it aims to disrupt and render problematic the themes and power relations of everyday talk and writing. As a social practice, discourse may function in constructing, reproducing or transforming society. Since it is always historically situated, it can only be understood in relation to context (Wodak et al. 2000: 180–181). he Discourse-Historical method (Fairclough and Wodak 1997: 267; Wodak and Meyer 2001; Wodak et al. 2000; Wodak and Reisigl 2001), which is an approach of CDA is characterised by its assumptions that texts, rather than sentences, are the primary units of communication, and that the meaning of texts cannot be properly explained without consideration of social context, and that power relations are central in determining the form of the texts (Wodak 1996). Texts are almost irrelevant if taken individually. It is only their interconnection that makes discourse analysis valuable. Discursive activity does not occur in a vacuum, and discourse in itself does not hold a meaning. Accordingly, if we are to understand discourse, we must also understand the context, in which it arises (Wodak 2000). Utterances are therefore only meaningful if we consider their use in a speciic situation, if we understand their underlying conventions and rules, if we recognise the embedding in a certain culture and ideology, and most importantly, if we know what the discourse relates to, in the past (Fairclough 1992: 18). What this implies is that discourses are always connected to other discourses, which were produced earlier, as well as those, which are produced synchronically and/or subsequently. hus discourse is always historical (Wodak and Ludwig

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

1999). Its concept of context which is central in this paper therefore includes both intertextuality, as well as sociocultural knowledge. he Discourse-Historical method addresses social problems (Wodak 1996), and issues of gender and gender discrimination addressed in this paper are examples of social problems. his approach intends to interpret and explain the discursive nature of social relations and the constitutive function of discourse in society. It does this through systematic and thorough investigation of a speciic range of discourses that oten communicate more than one would notice at irst glance. Context plays a key role in the interpretation of texts presented. he approach consequently aims to make transparent, the ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ rules and power structures in socially important domains. Discursive practices may have major ideological efects; that is; they can help produce and reproduce unequal power relations between for instance social classes, women and men, and ethnic/cultural majorities and minorities through the ways in which they represent things and position people … Both the ideological loading of particular ways of using language and the relations of power which underlie them are oten unclear to people. CDA aims to make more visible (Fairclough and Wodak 1997: 258) these opaque aspects of discourse.

his study uses the Discourse-Historical approach where historical context is taken into account to look at how gender is discursively constructed among Dholuo speakers. Issues of social and power relations are interrogated extensively using honoriic expressions and idioms that are discursively presented within the community. his takes cognisance of the various ways in which power is viewed in social relations. Wrong (1979) presents a familiar sense of power which is also relational: the ability to inluence or control the actions of others, to get them to do what we want them to do, and what they would otherwise not have done. He suggests that power is not something that a person possesses, but rather a relation among people. Looking at power as it is used to characterise social relationship is to see how the concept is best exempliied in terms of its mediatory and regulatory role in the interaction between individuals or social groups (Yieke 2002: 31). he source of this power is the social structure. It is possible that power may be exercised by shaping the needs of others so that there is no need to identify conlict as a prerequisite for both exercising and examination of power: thus A does not simply get B to do what she would not otherwise do, but rather makes B acquire desires and actively pursue ends that are in A’s interest, and not necessarily in B’s interest. his existence of consensus does not therefore eliminate the possibility that power is somehow being exercised. (Yieke 2002: 32)

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homas et al. (2004: 10) suggest that by such interaction, and hence negotiation, the powerful transforms their power into right and the obedience of the subordinates into duty. his happens when the subordinate group comes to accept the values and beliefs of the dominant group as ‘normal’ and ‘common sense’. hey note that language has a key role in this transformation. hey observe that ‘language is the arena where the concepts of right (both in the sense of entitlement and in the sense of what is morally accepted) and duty are created and shared’ (homas et al. 2004: 11). Language, thus serves to create power as well as being the site where power is performed. In the next sections, we examine how dominant and subordinate roles are discursively constructed by Dholuo speakers. We also see how discursively, females are further objectiied and domesticated into ‘their rightful positions’ within their community. All these are done using honoriic expressions and idioms that were collected, described and subsequently analysed.

he discursive construction of dominant versus subordinate roles among Dholuo speakers here were Dholuo honoriic expressions, especially kinship terms, and idioms that generally portrayed male members of the community as shouldering greater socio-cultural, economic and political responsibilities than their female counterparts. Conceived as performers of such roles in the community, men were therefore believed to hold higher social status than women. Women have largely been denied roles associated with masculinity in this setting as a result of ideology of the family and kinship, which identiied paternal roles with authority. he children in their conversations, it was reported, referred to their father politely as wuonwa (literally, ‘the one who owns me/us’ – my/our father) in the following conversation: Excerpt 1 Wuonwa okwerowa ni kikwaleo e siro (Our father has asked us not to be late at the market place)

he children, in this context, referred to their father politely as wuonwa (literally, ‘the one who owns me/us’ – my/our father) in the statement. he Discourse-Historical approach inds context a very important concept in the interpretation of both texts and intertextuality. Historically, because of the extended family system in this patriarchal setting, each of the brothers and male cousins of the father, and even stepfathers passed to be referred to by the children as wuonwa and the term evoked a paternalistic attitude. he father was the head of the family and his name

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

was therefore the family name. His stereotypical duties included providing inancial support, making decisions on weighty issues and giving direction on family activities and the use of its resources. He was also the main disciplinarian of the family. In this respect, he ‘owned’ the family. he children referred to their mother politely as minwa (my/our mother). In this context, it referred to the fact that she had given birth to the children and tenderly took care of them in a ‘motherly’, compassionate and all-embracing way. In the Luo traditional society, a woman’s power is derived from the fact of her motherhood and maternal status in the community. Maternal authority is prominent in domestic relations, owing to the woman joining the husband’s family, which is socially supported by the extended family. he use of these honoriic items by the children for their parents evoke the superior social status that the culture, hence the language, accorded the male spouse as the head of the family in addition to being a parent, and the subordinate status for the female parent in the same family. Probably, the diference in social statuses between the spouses, it was reported, was more explicitly expressed in the spouses own use of honoriic expressions for each other. he wife politely referred to her husband as wuon nyithinda (the ‘owner’/father of my children), whereas the husband referred to his wife as Min nyithinda (the mother of my children). In the following excerpt, the woman introduces her husband to a group of people: Excerpt 2 Ma en wuon nythinda. En emorita ngima na. (his is the father of my children. He is the one who looks ater my life).

By referring to her husband in this manner, the woman seemed to acknowledge the superiority accorded to him by the patriarchal social structure as the head of the family in addition to being the one who sired her children. he man, in the use of the expression min nyithinda (the mother of my children), however, implied that the children were hers just to the extent that she bore them and kept taking care of them (probably for him). his alluded to the Luo traditional conception of the woman’s womb as a garden where a man planted his seed and it just grew into a child. he woman was thus believed to play a passive role in the ‘creation’ of the children as was evident in Dholuo words that alluded to the process: ikende (He has married her) and imiye ich (He has given her a stomach; meaning he has made her to conceive). A wife further recognized the supreme and ultimate authority of the husband at home when she referred to him politely as wuon korwa or wuon parwa (the owner of our homestead). In such a patriarchal setting, a homestead was recognized and identiied as a man’s, even long ater he had died because the children

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and wife or wives remained his. In contrast, the husband, in consideration of gender roles, politely referred to his wife as Min oda (‘the mother of my house’). his distinction expressed the prevailing patriarchal traditions, which portrayed a wife as subordinate to the husband at home and thus had a limited degree of autonomy or capacity to make decisions. he use of these honoriic expressions reveals the asymmetrical power relations between the spouses at home. It expresses the implicit subordinate role of the female spouse in home management and family afairs and the dominance of the male spouse. he terms bring to mind the cultural ideals that deine the appropriate roles, values and expectations for and of men and women as members of patriarchal families. Leach (1994) asserts that conceptions of identity such as ‘breadwinner’ or ‘sole provider’ or ‘housewife’ that the terms invoke in the minds of members of the community about the males and females, operate to support and legitimize structures of social inequality, such as the sexual division of labour between men (mainly in the public/productive spheres) and women (in the private/domestic spheres). He argues that the primary ideological function of these deinitions is that of naturalizing unequal power relations. He further says that the ideological strength of gender identity is that masculinity is easily (and deliberately) confused with biological maleness. In this way, ideologically loaded assumptions are thereby bestowed the uncontestable status of ‘the natural’. In relation to the issues of power and interests, he believes that the ‘breadwinner’ notion not only legitimizes the sexual division of labour, but also operates to limit resistance to this organisation of work by transforming social expectations into issues of responsibility and self-esteem. It relects men’s interests (and advantages) in sustaining the economic subordination and dependence of women. Most probably in the Luo culture, it was the male spouse’s considered higher social and political position at home and in the community that made children and their mother(s) join other community members in according him honour by referring to him as Jaduong (the man of honour; the high ranking person/patriarch). It was, however, noted that there was no such equivalent term to refer to women in this patriarchal setting. he lexical gap implied exclusion of women not only from such a title, but also from conscious thought of them ever occupying such a position. his invisibility of women was thus a manifestation of their low status and position in the society and the traditional politics. he elders, who were in almost all cases the patriarchs, made important decisions for the community and therefore women like the children just followed predetermined courses. his honoriic expression alluded to the traditional concept of patriarchy where men were expected to take primary responsibility for the welfare of the whole community.

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

he kinship terms omera (my brother) and nyamera (my sister) were used among siblings and also extended to refer to cousins given the extended family system. However, when respondents introduced their siblings and cousins as; Ma omera/nyamera (this is my brother/sister), it was revealed that these terms implied other meanings in addition to the family ties, closeness and equality in the context. he term omera expressed strong masculinity and had a connotation of a person who would stand up strongly for his sibling or cousin in times of aggression or dificulty. But in contrast, nyamera which was its corresponding term for the female had connotation of fondness. It emerged that in such an introduction, the speaker apart from expressing close family relations, great expectation of protection and security from the brother or male cousin, also portrayed a feeling of fondness for the sister or female cousin. his greater expectation attached to masculinity in this setting portrayed the male as more active and more depended upon. hese are qualities that have been associated with their dominance in society. In the Luo traditional setting, a man was typically expected to lead a heroic life; an achieving or an excellent performance-centred life. Featherstone (1992: 164) says that heroic life is the sphere of danger and violence and entails the deliberate courting of risk, whereas the everyday life is the sphere of women which entails reproduction and care. In pursuit of heroic life, both the quest and one’s life are driven by forces outside oneself which one needs to tame for the recipe of success: luck, sense of destiny and extraordinary protection in the fragile world in which one is vulnerable to malevolent fate and death. In the Luo tradition, there was great reliance on magic to overcome the greatest dangers and misfortunes on the path to heroic life, and in efect, the belief that one could make his own fate through magic was strongly held. he honoriic expression Jayadha, (literally, my ‘medicine man’ – my dear friend or comrade), was traced to this belief. Due to the fact that the world of magic was predominantly a man’s world in the setting, the term was almost exclusively for the male. Females rarely ventured into magic and if they did, it was seen as strange. Close male friends, especially age mates or playmates therefore fondly referred to each other as jayadha (my dear friend or comrade) mainly in the leisure grounds. he speaker, in using this honoriic item, seems to suggest that his close friend is ‘creative’ in a way that his company (addressee’s) helps work out diicult tasks and situations like magic and he thus associates him with qualities of courage and aggression, competitiveness, determination and control. Even though some female speakers could sometimes use the honoriic expression jayadha (my dear friend or comrade) for each other when they wished to sound tough, they largely used the alternative term owada (my fellow female) in the course of interaction, play or gossip. It was realized that owada (my fellow female) mainly served them to explicitly express fondness, closeness and equality among themselves. It also

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either evoked sympathy and cooperation from the speaker’s partners or expressed the speaker’s sympathy for and willingness to cooperate with them. Generally, it was used for mobilizing collective strength among the females and also enhancing strong ailiation, cooperation and solidarity among them; a fact also attested to by Tannen (1998). Jayadha (my dear friend or comrade and Owada (my fellow female) were therefore supposed to be corresponding Dholuo honoriic items used in similar circumstances, but they portrayed the male as assertive and practical while the female as unassertive and emotional. In fact the male associated the use of the term owada with weakness and consequently, lower status. In the leisure grounds, playmates and close friends appreciated themselves or each other’s personality, achievement and potential by using praise names (pakruok). hese were mainly ‘heroic’ images used to idolize someone. Amuka (1992: 77) describes pakruok (praise names) as part of a whole story (or sets of stories) that predate or succeed it. It is a terse expression that relates to the life story (or part of it) of a Luo individual in a communal setting. All the respondents interviewed gave varied praise names for themselves and for their friends. It emerged that men mainly engaged in competitive activities in the leisure grounds and aspired to outdo their opponents. In the various pakruok (praise names) by men, the admirable and valuable qualities that were likely to ensure achievement were toughness, bravery, resilience and aggressiveness. Names of dangerous and therefore dreaded animals like sibuor (the lion), omuga (the rhino), rwath (the bull) and rachier (the deadly python) were used a great deal in the metaphors. Destructive or dreaded natural phenomena like auka (the storm), polo (thunder) and mudho mandiwa (the great darkness) also featured in the names. It was reported, for example, that a young man who had caused commotion at a night party in his village when he descended on unruly young men from a neighbouring village with a whip, was praised for his bravery and consequently urged on by his friends, who were usually men, in the following way: Excerpt 3 Ondiek mang’ang’a, chuny min oa e, wuod nya karuoth, gidhiyo!’ (he dangerous beast whose mother has forgotten about, son of the woman from the clan of chiefs, send them away!).

Conversely, females neither used images of toughness in their praise names nor had such images used for them by others in a positive light. It was realized that it was only when speakers wished to be ridiculous about a woman that they would use such images in what would not be praise names anymore, but derision, sarcasm and scorn. hese expressions were never uttered by women, but their male counterparts. If a woman was referred to as ondiek mang’ang’a (the dangerous beast), for example, she would be portrayed as a grabber of other women’s

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

husbands. If one was referred to as jowi (the bufalo), then it would be suggested that she was a domineering, violent and insubordinate woman. Women, instead, on many occasions praised themselves or were praised in relation to their relatives who were known for particular ‘achievements’. When asked about pakruok, (praise names), a young girl reported that she was praised by her playmates as nyathi gi Milly (a sibling to Milly); Milly being her elder sister; Excerpt 4 An nyathi gi Milly! Onge ngama tugo koda kata chiel! (I am a sibling to Milly! here is no one at all who can joke around with me!)

At the same time, and in response to being asked about pakruok, an adult female respondent (Lina) praised herself as: Excerpt 5 Lina nyar Kogelo, nyar gi yawuoyi (Lina, a girl from Kogelo, a sister of many boys).

To her, the fact that she was born in a polygamous family which had eleven boys was worth the pride. his was understood in the traditional patriarchal context where male children were highly valued for their supposedly more demanding social roles. Even though it is noteworthy that men also derived praises from such relations, this usually came ater their own metaphorical ‘tough’ ones which were found to be conspicuously lacking in the females’. Fairclough (1992: 312) says that the words we choose reveal a great deal about our own positions. he fact that females in the Luo context neither talked tough in their praise names nor were portrayed as so by others, but rather took pride in associating mainly with the male (achiever) relatives was therefore interpreted to cast them in subordinate positions where they only played the supporting role to the males. Descriptions of physical appearance also featured in the praise names. Some of the descriptions for the male included: ratila (the stout and physically strong one), ratego (the strong one), rateng’ (the dreaded black one) and ragwanda (the rough and unreined one). hose used for the female included: jaber / obera (the beautiful one), nyadundo (the beautifully short one), rapudo (the beautifully slender one), ragwel (the beautifully bow-legged one), rambanya (the one with a gap on her teeth), ng’ute ong’olo (the one with beautiful reels on her neck), dichol (the beautifully smooth black one), lando (the beautifully brown one), pino iye ong’ado (the wasp with a slender waist), okok rachar (the white egret), lera (the neat one), odusa (the one who elaborately beautiies herself) and atwech (one who always dresses elegantly).

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In the above asymmetrical naming practices, inequality in status was implied. In these honoriic physical descriptions, the words used for the males focused on the body features that expressed physical strength and aggressive personality. hese were the attributes associated with power and its ‘performance’ in the community; the attributes that signiied the men’s capacity to dominate, control and elicit deference. However, for the females, the words were those that extolled beauty and were concerned with establishing a degree of sexual attractiveness. he words expressed admiration of their beautiful physique, complexion, neatness, elegance and immaculate dressing. hese were mainly features and characteristics that were supposed to attract men. It was common to ind such praises and honour of women printed on ishing and transport boats at the beach and even on bicycles which were mainly owned by men. he overall picture painted by the images in the praise names and expressions was that while the male igure was a symbol of power in the society, the female igure was an embodiment of the eternal allure of love and sexual attraction. his was an important strategy employed in reproducing and perpetuating stereotyped views of the female as subordinate to the male. he place and obligation of males in the community was underscored by the idiom wuoyi siro (a boy is a pillar of support). he following, it was reported, was uttered by one man to his friend as they were discussing how unlucky one of their friends was because he had no sons: Excerpt 6 Ng’ama onyuolo wuoyi ni gi hawi. Wuoyi siro (Whoever has begotten a son is lucky. A boy is a pillar of support).

he analogy of a boy and a pillar was drawn from the traditional Luo hut that has a supporting pole erected from the centre of the loor touching the centre of the roof. Being a patriarchal community, the males were regarded as permanent residents at their natal homes and were thus the pillars and security agents of the community. Women who either had no children or had only daughters were oten considered worthless and undeserving of property since it was only male children who had the opportunity to inherit the family wealth which included land. he idiom implied that the primary duty of a married woman, and virtually her only means of improving her position in the hierarchy of her husband’s household, was to bear sons. On the contrary, it was reported that the following idiomatic expression about women was oten uttered amongst both males and females (which was surprising):

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

Excerpt 7 Nyako ogwang’ thurgi bor (A girl is a wild cat whose home is very far).

he above sentence was used to draw attention to the place and obligation of the female in the community, which was quite distinct from that of the male. It suggested that girls did not ‘belong’ at their natal homes since they would marry and leave the homestead. hey were therefore only bred and socialized for life in their matrimonial homes which remained largely unknown when they were still young. Based on the same premise that they did not ‘belong’ in their natal home, scornful idioms like odhi oduogo (one who goes and comes back) and orego mogo okano (one who has prepared lour and kept) were used to ridicule those who were viewed to have gone back to their natal homes ater ‘failing’ to sustain their marriage relationships. hese expressions were associated with loss of social status of such women and their natal families, and served to discourage what was viewed as rebellion to male dominance. However, such ridiculous idioms were not as explicit for a man whose wife had let, probably because he ‘belonged’ at his home. his attitudinal disparity expressed just one of the many biases in marriage and married life that were commonly expressed idiomatically.

Objectiication and domestication of women among Dholuo speakers Some of the honoriic expressions and idioms gathered have underlined the intimation that women were seen as objects of various kinds and for various purposes. For this reason, these expressions implied the great efort that men could make to get and keep women in their ‘possession’ and ‘domesticate’ them by striving to provide for them and even moralize them. he expressions also presented females as more dependent on their male spouses and male community members for recognition, status and provision. Married women were considered to have relinquished their independence to their husbands In courtship that was expected to lead to marriage, it was idiomatically said of a man: osemako bad nyako (he has held the hand of a lady) and of the woman: osemak bade (her hand has been held). hese two expressions relected the stereotyped attitudes in relation to the use of the verb ‘to marry’; active for the male and passive for the female. Even though the idioms suggested that the two partners were old enough to marry, it was the man portrayed as the dominant partner playing the active part towards marrying the lady. He was expected to be shaping the direction the relationship took, having proposed to marry the woman, negotiated with his intended in-laws and was paying bride price for the marriage.

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However, the woman was depicted as a passive and subordinate ‘object’ in the arrangement. She was being married and the idioms implied her only contribution in the process as her availability. Kimenyi (1992) concurs that in Kinyarwanda, as in many African cultures, there are a lot of verbs especially the ones which refer to marriage which don’t allow females as candidates to subjecthood because women are neither seen as agents nor partners but rather as patients, which is sign of a patriarchal society. Similar unrealistic biases that suggested unequal power of the couple were also relected by idioms related to sex (Kimenyi 1992) in their married life. It was euphemistically said onindo kode (he slept with her) to mean that they had sex. he order of mention was strictly in this way and if the reverse (she slept with him) was used, then it would only be understood in her passive role context. When she conceived, it was politely said, oturo tiende (literally, he has broken her leg) to mean that he had made her pregnant. Her passive role is here accentuated. he following, it was reported, was uttered by young men who were upset that their sister was pregnant. Excerpt 8 Wuodgi oturo tiend nyaminwa. Omiyo dwaher ni mondo ochulwa (heir son has made our sister pregnant, and so we would like to be paid).

he idiomatic joking insult for women: dhako wat ang’iewa (a wife is one’s relative as a result of buying) was used by men to refer to their wives or married women in general. It stemmed from the social expectation that a man paid bride price for his wife. his was an expectation that carried with it dignity both for the man and his wife. However, the bride price that a man paid for his wife was, in this idiom, loosely seen as the cost incurred by the husband for the wife. It was noted that the idiom was not only used jocularly in conversations, but could also feature during serious conlicts between spouses. In such a context as in excerpt 9, it could also be used by the man to threaten his wife of a possible family break up or comment on lack of familial commitment on her part. Excerpt 9 Dhako adhaka ma en wat ang’iewa ni to ng’isa ang’o? (What is a woman who is just a relative as a result of being bought telling me?).

Apart from portraying the wife as an ‘outsider’ who has been ‘bought’ into the family, the idiom also implied that she was the husband’s property. he idiom, particularly if used in a serious context, was largely seen as a way of legitimizing the husband’s authority and control over his wife. It painted a ‘commodiied’

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

picture of the wife; she had been turned into a tradable, saleable being that could be literally owned and thus controlled by the husband. It was also an example of how women were noted to be victims of evil intentioned and deprecating jokes. he implied ‘possession’ of a woman by her husband ater he had paid bride price stuck even when he had died. his was quite evident in the honoriic expression used for a widow. She was politely and with sympathy referred to as chi liel (literally, the wife of a grave). However, there was no such similar expression that closely related a widower to his late wife. he image of a woman as ‘possessed’ created by this honoriic expression and the lexical gap for a widower noted above portrayed the unequal gender relations between the spouses in the community with the female subjected to a secondary status of domestication. he following, it was reported, was oten uttered by men when they were together: Excerpt 10 Dhako chogo mar diere gir libamba (A woman is the meat around the fore-arm bone meant for all the clan members).

he idiom depicted a married woman as a communal ‘property’. It generally commented on each male community member’s responsibility to provide for and take care of a woman married in the community, but speciically, it was more applicable in the traditional permissive society where a woman could get children with her husband’s brothers and male cousins if he had failed to do so for any reason. In the event of her husband’s death, the woman could also be inherited in order to help continue his lineage. Another idiom with a similar connotation was as follows: Excerpt 11 Dhako ndiga ma kiriembo ooli to iweyo ni owadu (A woman is a bicycle which you leave for your brother if you are tired of riding).

However jocular the idiom was when the male in-laws referred to a woman as ndikwa (our bicycle), it presented the ideology of domestication of women which was prevalent in the setting. hese idioms generally depicted a woman as a member of a dependent group that needed care and provision from the autonomous male members of the community. hey also portrayed men as providers and safekeepers of women, hence more powerful and higher status.

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Conclusions his paper has provided data that proves that some Dholuo honoriic and idiomatic expressions were sexist. hey expressed diferent beliefs and attitudes about each gender in the community. Some of them expressed these beliefs and attitudes in a subtle manner and thus required critical analysis to discern the gender biases that they expressed. he beliefs and attitudes conveyed by the expressions were either associated with power or lack of it for each gender in the family and community. hey generally depicted the male as extremely powerful, while the female were portrayed as comparatively weak and meek. Although some of the expressions attached utmost value and dignity to the women’s biological and social roles, the females were generally presented in subordinate positions. he expressions conveyed strong feelings of both masculinity and femininity each of which seemed to operate as a form of identity and a means of self-understanding. he feelings structured personal attitudes and behaviour of the members of each gender in relation to the issues of power and interest. In this regard, they imposed a limited and/or false notion of masculinity on the male and a limited and/or false notion of femininity on the female. It also involved the construction of masculinity and femininity as polar opposites and the essentials of the resulting diferences; the diferent power relations between members of each gender. In the expressions was a strategic use of gender-typed qualities that gave men a status and image boost but relected and reinforced subordination of women. In the critical analysis of the expressions, the members of the Luo community seemed to understand masculinity as deined by competitiveness, aggression, independence and suppression of emotions. It seemed these were the traits and social practices that rendered forms of male dominance acceptable and helped maintain it. hey, on the other hand, seemed to think of femininity as intimated by passivity, complicity, dependence and sentimentality; social practices that were felt to depict their ‘weakness’, subordination and lower status. Negative stereotyping is an efective way of silencing women and leads to the creation of an image of a powerless, submissive and inferior group. In denying women a strong identity, the Luo tradition and patriarchal society, as discursively expressed, reduced their women’s self worth and also helped perpetuate the status quo whereby women were regarded as objects and subordinates rather than subjects who were equally dominant. In this regard, women in the traditional Luo community must have found their lives restricted in an artiicial way and the opportunities to be active participants in the society denied. his ascribed lower social status would deprive them of authority and highly constrain their autonomy in decision-making in their families and community. Few of them would be free from threat and violence at the hands of their husbands. hey would also

he discursive construction of gender among Dholuo speakers in Kenya

have little access to, and exercise limited control over resources and other means of production. In this way, they would cyclically lose their economic base and oten descend into poverty, remain economically dependent on the male and preserve their inequality.

References Adegbija, E. 2003. Idiomatic variation in Nigerian English. Studies in African Varieties of English 41–56. Amuka, P. 1992. he role of Pakruok. In Relections on heories and Methods in Oral Literature, O. Okombo and J. Nandwa (eds). Nairobi: KOLA. Buyonge, C. 1995. Presupposition and Implicature in the Use of Modal Constructions, Conditionals and Honoriic in Ekegusii. Unpublished MSc. hesis: Egerton University, Kenya. Fasold, R. 1990. Sociolinguistics of Language. Oxford: Blackwell. Fairclough, N. (ed.). 1992. Critical Language Analysis. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. and Wodak, R. 1997. Critical Discourse Analysis. In Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, T. A. van Dijk (ed.), 258–284. London: Sage. Featherstone, M. 1992. Cultural heory and Cultural Change. London: Sage Publications. Giddens, A. 1979. Central Problems in Social heory. Berkley: University of California. Kapiyo, J. and Owino, A. 1996. he Evolving World: A History and Government Course, Form One. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. Kimenyi, A. 1992. Why is it that Women in Rwanda cannot marry? Paper presented at the 2nd Berkley Women and Language Conference. Berkley. Also at http://www.kimenyi.com/ language-women.php [last accessed August 1, 2010]. Leach, M. 1994. he politics of masculinity: An overview of contemporary theory. Social Alternatives 12 (4): 36–37. Lukács, G. 1971. History and Class Consciousness. Cambridge: MIT Press. Tannen, D. 1998. Do Kannst Mich Einfach Nicht Verstehen: Warum Männer und Frauen Aneinander Vorbeireden. München: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag. homas, L., Singh, I. and Wareing, S. 2004. Language, Society and Power. London: Routledge. Wanyande, P., Kivuitu, P. and Ondieki, C. 1996. Gateway Secondary Revision. History and Government. Nairobi: Longhorn Publishers. Wodak, R. 1996. Disorders of Discourse. London: Longman. Wodak, R. 2000. Does sociolinguistics need a social theory? New perspectives on Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and Society 2 (3): 123–147. Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (eds). 2001. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage. Wodak, R. and Ludwig, C. (ed.). 1999. Challenges in a Changing World. Issues in Critical Discourse Analysis. Wien: Passagen. Wodak, R., Titscher, S., Meyer, M. and Vetter, E. 2000. Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis. London: Sage. Wodak, R. and Reisigl, M. 2001. Discourse and Discrimination: he Rhetorics of Racism and Anti-Semitism. London: Routledge. Wrong, D. 1979. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. Oxford: Blackwell. Yieke, F. 2002. Language and Discrimination: A Study of Gender and Discourse in Work Places in Kenya. Unpublished PhD hesis: University of Vienna.

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Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish Gender-neutral or patriarchal? Karin Milles Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

In standard Swedish there has been no neutral, colloquial word for the female genitalia. his problem attracted considerable attention in the 1990s. Diferent words were proposed, with the word snippa soon emerging as the most popular alternative. he word now seems to be one of the most common words to denote girls’ genitals and is included in dictionaries and children’s books. his article uses various methodological approaches within the framework of language planning theory to make a critical analysis and evaluation of the reform. hree primary explanations are given for the success of the reform: irst, the time and place of the reform were favourable – Sweden at the end of the 20th century was one of the world’s most gender-equal countries; second, the strategies adopted by agents of the change gave the initiative momentum; and third, on a formal level, the word is in line with the cultural understanding of gender. his calls into questions whether the word snippa contributes to the struggle for gender equality. he article ends with a discussion of what this language planning project can tell us about the function of feminist language planning in the ongoing work to end patriarchy in Sweden and around the world. Keywords: feminist language planning, language cultivation, sexist language, derogatory terms, female genitalia, gender, patriarchy, gender-equality, feminism

Introduction Second-wave feminist linguistics has oten turned the spotlight on sexist language practices such as the generic he, the value-laden labelling of women with words like bitch and lexical gaps. Some argue that sexist language practices leave women

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without words to describe their social and personal situation (Mills 2003). his extreme position may lack empirical support; it is perhaps suicient to claim that sexist practices pose problems for women and girls. Linguistic sexism and the steps to counter it are now being documented (e.g. Pauwels 2003). he intensity and scope of both activism and the academic study of the subject vary across the globe. An early description of the Anglo-American context is given in Cooper (1989), and cross-linguistic studies can be found in Hellinger & Busssman (2001–2003). To further the knowledge about feminist language planning and its outcome, this article gives a presentation and discussion of a Swedish feminist language reform, which was aimed at illing a lexical gap in Swedish, the absence of a neutral, colloquial word for the female genitals. he article describes the project and its main agents and evaluates its outcome. he article ends with a discussion of what this language planning project suggests about the function of feminist language planning in the ongoing feminist work to end patriarchy. Eforts to counter sexist language practices in Sweden have been described elsewhere (for example Hornscheidt 2003; Milles 2011a). he reform to choose and implement a neutral word for the female genitalia, which was carried out in Sweden at the turn of the millennium, has been presented in Milles (2006, 2011b). his article uses diferent methodological approaches to make a critical analysis of the reform within the framework of language planning theory (Cooper 1989). he methods range from text analysis to surveys of language use to formal morphology.

A lexical gap A well-known and central thought in Freud’s work on sexuality is that girls are envious of the penis: hey notice the penis of a brother or playmate, strikingly visible and of large proportions, at once recognize it as the superior counterpart of their own small and inconspicuous organ, and from that time forward fall a victim to envy for the (Freud 1961: 252) penis.

his is not the place to discuss the validity of Freud’s theory. he quote is chosen to illustrate the linguistic equivalence of penis envy: the view that language lacks a term for the female sexual organs and that this is harmful to girls and women. In the quote, Freud labels the male sexual organ penis, but the female organ is labelled only with the hypernym organ. Organ could connote any bodily organ

Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish

such as the liver or heart, and only the context tells us that the organ, in this case, is a girl’s sexual organ. Is there a link between this inequality in words and Freud’s thoughts about the biological inequality between the sexes? As early as the 1970s, Anglo-American and Swedish feminists called attention to the fact that women oten did not know any word for their sexual organs. Books and courses encouraged women to learn the correct anatomical terms (for example, Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective 1976). In Swedish, the neutral, colloquial word for the penis is snopp (‘willie’), and this word has been used at least since the 1960s. But there has been no female counterpart, at least not in the standard variety of Swedish. his means that in the Swedish context, there has not only been a lack of knowledge about the correct term but a lack of words. he lack of words is not to be taken as a deiciency of the language system itself. On the contrary – it is likely that all languages have many words, most of them slang, denoting the female sexual organ. Taboo subjects, for instance sex or death, require a large number of temporary lexical items, euphemisms, dysphemisms and slang (Allan & Burridge 2006). he Swedish language is no exception. One contemporary dictionary of slang lists more than 1,700 lexical items for the female genitalia (Dagrin 2008). he problem lies in the connotations of the words. Some are considered too “clinical”, to be used only in a medical setting (e.g. vagina – ‘vagina’). Many have more or less derogatory usages (e.g. itta – ‘cunt’). Still others are metaphorical expressions, comparing the female genitalia with living creatures, places in nature and food items, and these metaphors oten have strong erotic and sexual connotations (Milles 2010: 21–77). So even though Swedish has many words for the female genitalia, it lacked a proper word that language users found colloquial and neutral. Faced with the same problem, Denmark saw the introduction of tissekone, a compound consisting of the words ‘peeing’ and ‘woman’), parallel to the existing tissemand (‘peeing’ and ‘man’), as early as the 1970s. But in Sweden, nothing really happened until the 1990s. hen suddenly, the problem attracted considerable media attention.

he reform In the 1990s many Swedish newspapers started publishing articles debating the lack of a suitable word. he argument underlying the debate was that there is a more or less explicit connection between language as it is spoken and used and the world view and cognition of language users. If there is no word for female

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genitalia, both men and women will have diiculty conceptualising that there are female genitalia, which may cause problems. hese include women and girls developing a poor sense of self-esteem and of their bodies, as well as having dificulty enjoying their sexuality. his in turn can make it harder to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. In addition to these rather serious problems, the lack of a word can also make it harder to communicate everyday information about hygiene to little girls in lavatory situations and the like. hese thoughts are deeply linked to the strong interpretation of the SapirWhorf hypothesis, which is well known in linguistic theory. he theory states that the grammar and lexicon of the mother-tongue of a person deeply inluences his or her view of the world, and that the language of a speech community determines what can be thought in that community: “Not until we own the symbol do we feel that we hold a key to the immediate knowledge or understanding of the concept” (Sapir 1921: 17). hus, a word for the female genitalia would make girls and women aware of their bodies and sexuality in an empowering sense. hat this strategy might work is supported in the writings of Sapir: “As soon as the word is at hand, we instinctively feel, with something of a sigh of relief, that the concept is ours for the handling” (ibid.: 16–17). Many diferent words were proposed to ill the gap. Two strategies were used in choosing these words – either recommending an existing word, e.g. vulva (‘vulva’) or itta (‘cunt’), or a seemingly new word, e.g. snippa or snäppa. When it comes to recommending an existing word with derogatory uses, like itta, the strategy has been to reclaim the word, in the same way that the gay movement has reclaimed a number of labels (“we’re here, we’re queer – get used to it” – see Cameron & Kulick 2003: 28). he word snippa quickly emerged as the most popular proposal, and the campaign was soon no longer just a matter for the newspapers, but now involved sexual health organisations, pre-schools, people interested in feminist pedagogy and dictionary editors. Early in the new millennium, RFSU, the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, which is the leading organisation in the ield of sexual and reproductive health and rights, supported a project to promote discussing children’s sexuality in pre-schools in southern Sweden. One aim of the project was to get pre-school teachers to start using the word snippa in their interaction with children. In 2002, the association took a formal decision to use the word snippa for girls’ genitals. he Language Council of Sweden (Svenska språknämnden), the oicial language cultivation body in Sweden, also promoted the word by giving it positive assessments. It also included it in lists of newly coined words.

Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish

A children’s book published in 2003 titled Flickans lilla (‘he girl’s little one’) discusses the various names that existed for girls’ genitals. he book ends: So many names for the girl’s little one, hat is really something! Most of them start with an M, But we think SNIPPA is the best!

(Scholtz 2003, my translation)

In 2006, the Swedish Academy published the thirteenth edition of Svenska akademiens ordlista (‘the Swedish Academy Dictionary’) and included the word snippa. By doing this, the dictionary made an exception to the lexicographic rule of descriptivism – to describe the language as it is – in favor of prescriptivism – to give recommendations. In other words, the dictionary included a word that had not yet gained full acceptance through usage. his is not an altogether unusual strategy for the dictionary, as it has frequently recommended Swedish equivalents of English loanwords in use. he word is also included in the 2006 edition of the highly regarded second language learners’ dictionary Natur och Kulturs Svenska Ordbok (‘Natur and Kultur’s Swedish Dictionary’). In 2007, the graphic designer Hanna Närding launched a campaign to introduce snippa by means of postcards and balloons (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Postcard with photo of balloon, made by Hanna Närding

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Outcome of the campaign In a sociolinguistic approach to describing language planning, the planning process is divided into four stages: fact-inding, planning, implementation and evaluation/feedback (see Pauwels 2003). he fact-inding stage – documenting the lack of a word – started in the 1970s but only had a real breakthrough in the media in the 1990s. he planning and implementation stages overlapped somewhat chronologically. he articles in the 1990s can be considered to have both planned and implemented the reform by calling attention to the problem and urging people to choose or start using a word. he implementation stage intensiied when the RFSU began its campaign and can be said to have culminated in the introduction of the word in dictionaries. As for the evaluation/feedback stage, this can be considered to have started, among other things, with my own research, conducted in 2004 and 2005, which was aimed at determining to what extent pre-school teachers and students experienced a lack of words for the female genitals and which words were used by them. Surveys indicate that snippa is, in fact, being used as the neutral, colloquial word for the female genitalia, especially when used with or about children. he word is one of the most commonly used alternatives among pre-school teachers (Milles 2006) and is also common among pre-school children and parents who are explicitly involved in the feminist struggle (Milles 2011b). he word is also becoming known and accepted among adolescents. he word is likewise used in children’s iction, children’s encyclopaedias and informative books about childbirth.

Explanations for its success hree major explanations are given for the success of the reform. First, a large part of the success is due to the unique time and place of the reform. Both the time, the 1990s, and the place, Sweden, facilitated the campaign. Sweden has a strong tradition of working against patriarchy. As a result, Sweden has a relatively high level of gender equality – economic, educational and representational. In 2007, Sweden had closed over 80% of the gender gap and was ranked the most gender-equal country in the world (Hausmann et al. 2007). he ideology of gender equality had quite a high status in society as a whole, especially in oicial policies, institutions and organisations. Of course there were sexists and misogynists in Sweden, but in public life, their opinions were not considered very valid. In fact, many political parties called themselves “feminist” or were positive to gender equality, and 2005 saw the founding of a thoroughly feminist party, Feministiskt initiativ (‘Feminist

Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish

Initiative’). here was also growing interest in gender pedagogy, especially in a pre-school context. Second, the strategies adopted by the main agents for change gave the initiative momentum and made implementation a success. he reform has had many diferent agents implementing the change – ranging from the individual preschool teacher telling a girl she has a snippa to the lexicographer including the word snippa in the dictionary. On an abstract level, the reform can be described as having been implemented by individuals, working through important and inluential organisations, with power to regulate texts and discourses – which is, of course, one of the main reasons for its success. For example, the reform has been driven in part by and extensively covered in the media. Many of the articles were published in the two main evening papers in Sweden, Expressen and Atonbladet, and the biggest daily, Dagens Nyheter. he media attention is certainly partly due to the fact that “sex always sells”, but it has nevertheless helped in spreading the idea and the word. RFSU made a smart move in choosing a pre-school context for implementation, by inspiring pre-school teachers to start using the word. Pre-school children develop their language and expand their vocabulary on a daily basis, which makes it relatively easy for them to adopt a new word. It is also a common activity to discuss the body, bodily functions and the names of body parts in pre-school. And if children adopt the word, chances are that they will spread the word to their family and friends outside pre-school. his strategy made the launch easy, efective and self-sustaining, with children serving as new ambassadors for the subsequent and ongoing spread of the word. hose are two contextual factors inluencing the spread of the word. Being a linguist, I would also like to think that language features have an impact. hat the word snippa was chosen is hardly a coincidence. his choice most likely also helped make the reform a success. he reason for this is that the linguistic features of the word are well in line with the cultural understanding of the gender system in Swedish society. he formal features of the word give it distinct female connotations. he word snippa is a disyllabic word with initial stress and the vowels i and a. here are many words in Swedish with these features, but among them are quite a few with obvious female meaning. First, many of them denote females. he most central and common ones are kvinna (‘woman’) and licka (‘girl’), but there are many others. Most importantly, it shares these features with a few central synonyms for the female genitalia: slida (‘vagina’), springa (‘slit’) and the derogatory itta (‘cunt’). he word also has formal features that are linked to those for the male genitals, since snippa, literally, its well with the colloquial word snopp (‘willie’). he

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two words contain the same consonants: sn and pp. In fact, snippa is oten thought of as a female form of snopp, created by putting a inal a at the end, like making svenska (‘female Swede’) out of svensk (‘male Swede’). All this makes snippa a word that corresponds well with the hegemonic and heteronormative cultural understanding of gender and sex. Together with the word for the male genitals, we have a word pair. Snopp and snippa seem like a metaphor for male and female, like two sides of a coin – strongly linked concepts that are similar, but not completely alike. his accords with the idea of male and female as two distinct but complementary concepts. Here too, the female is the marked case, since the female word seems to be constructed from the male word, just as Eve was constructed from Adam’s rib. his is, of course, rather sad. Pauwels (2003: 553f.) writes that a great deal of research on the representation of women and men in language has shown the same tendencies across languages and speech communities: the asymmetrical treatment of women and men. he man is the “prototype for human representation”, which oten makes women and the female invisible. In this case, it was, paradoxically, one of the impetuses for feminist language reform – that the female reproductive organ had no name. It is ironic that snippa, while making the female visible, still echoes the logic of the marked female. It is still deeply entrenched in our culture that the female is seen as the “second sex” (de Beauvoir 1997 [1949]). his formal correspondence with patriarchal, hegemonic and heterosexist cultural beliefs about gender and sex, strongly embraced by society as a whole, probably made it appealing to a large majority of language users and is one of the main factors behind the success of this feminist language reform. he word symbolises the strong oicial ideology in Sweden of jämställdhet (‘gender equality’): the striving for a society where women and men can live as equals, with equal opportunities to have a good life, but where the male-female dichotomy is unquestioned. his conirms Cameron’s claim that the language reforms that succeed are those that conirm moral, rather than linguistic standards: “he reforms that ‘stick’ are not the most ‘natural’, ‘eicient’ or ‘rational’ in linguistic terms, but those which are found to be congruent with widely and deeply held beliefs about ‘the way things ought to be’” (2004: 319). So if the result of the reform is in one sense a clear success, more radical feminists, who are still not content with the way society thinks gender ought to be, may call its outcome into question.

Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish

A failure ater all? his, of course, casts doubt on whether the word snippa actually contributes to the struggle for gender equality. Is the word in fact just another sign of patriarchy? here have been numerous feminist initiatives to highlight and challenge sexism in language since the 1970s, at least in English-language communities, Norway, France and Spain (Pauwels 2003: 553). he debate in each country relects the unique properties of the standard language spoken, the language planning organisation and the political climate with respect to feminism in the society as a whole. Despite Sweden’s long, strong tradition of feminism and high level of equality between the sexes, there has not been much debate on the issue since the 1970s. Compared to the at times heated debate on sexist language in Germanand English-language communities, the Swedish debate is quite low-key (Edlund 2004: 273). he reasons for this have yet to be determined, although some preliminary explanations and interesting points are provided in Hornscheidt (2003: 362). She links the lack of academic interest in sexist language and the relatively low level of media attention compared to other countries to the relatively high level of gender equality in Sweden. It is the opinion of scholars as well as the general public that there is no longer a problem. However, the debate about the lack of words for the female genitalia has certainly attracted considerable media attention. Yet, as with other debates, it has been low-key, in the sense that it has not met any serious resistance. he debate has focussed on which word should be chosen, not on the notion that a word was needed. Since the word snippa was chosen, the norm-makers as exempliied by sexuality education organisations and language policy makers have helped in launching it. hus, the reform has not met any strong resistance from norm-makers, as Cameron (1995) and Pauwels (2003) report from the English-speaking world. Pauwels stresses that feminist language planning has largely been grassrootsdriven, since linguistic authorities have frequently been negative about or opposed to the idea of changing language in the name of feminism (Pauwels 2003: 560). But in this case, many linguistic authorities have been active agents in adopting and implementing the word. he reform started at the grassroots level and worked its way up to the norm-makers, who have been active in implementing the word in their spoken interactions, books and dictionaries. Compared to other debates about language in Sweden, this one was quite consensus-driven. Unlike the public debate about bilingual education that took place in 2006 and is described in Milani (2007: VI), the debate was not centred on individuals with difering opinions, so there were no heated arguments or personal attacks. As noted above, the debate did not focus on whether Swedish needed a

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new word, but rather on which word to choose, and took place in a pro-genderequality discourse. Nevertheless, has the reform helped the feminist cause or cemented the patriarchal ideology? he goal of any language reform is ultimately not to change language, but society. Has it changed society, or more speciically, the ideology of sex and gender in Sweden, so as to ultimately change the situation of girls and women in contemporary Sweden? Cooper (1989: 18) identiies three major reasons for feminist language reform: First, there is the belief that language inluences society, which makes language reform a social reform – non-sexist language reduces sexism in society. Second, there is the belief that language reform may not change society directly but is a means of consciousness-raising, making the subordination of women publicly visible and the subject of debate. he third reason for a language campaign, according to Cooper, is to stop the use of language that is ofensive to women. All these reasons can be said to have sparked this feminist language reform. Many promoters of the word snippa thought the word conveyed the right message – as an equal counterpart to the male word and without negative connotations. he reason for this language planning was not simply to promote feminist ideas and change, but also to discuss and negotiate what those meanings are, and what change we should strive for. Cooper writes: “In the struggle to promote interests one uses whatever ammunition is at hand” (1989: 183). In Cooper’s words, this debate ofered a lot of ammunition in the ongoing battle against patriarchy. he debate has also served as a tool in eforts under way to raise feminist consciousness about sexuality, autonomy and the right of females to take control of their body and sexuality. In this debate, we see the contours of a much wider debate – the debate on gender and sexual diference, one that has continued through the ages and intensiied with the birth of modern feminism. But what about the linguistic features of snippa? Will the symbolic compliance with patriarchal ideas of gender diference and hierarchy work against the original feminist purpose? Probably not. he introduction of a neutral, colloquial word at least almost on par with the male snopp serves as a great contribution in making the female visible in symbolic terms. he debate has also put the general problem – women’s subordination – on the agenda once again. I want to end this article with a personal anecdote that suggests that the word can really help change little girls’ sense of self-esteem and identity. he anecdote was recounted by a female friend, who was talking with her three-yearold daughter:

Snippa – a new word for girls’ genitals in Swedish

“Mom, I feel sorry for dad.” “Why is that?” asked my friend. Her daughter replied: “Because he doesn’t have a snippa!”

One cannot help but wonder what Freud would think of that.

References Allan, Keith and Burridge, Kate. 2006. Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beauvoir, Simone de. 1997. he Second Sex. London: Vintage (French original 1949). Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. 1976. Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women. New York: Simon and Schuster. Cameron, Deborah and Kulick, D. 2003. Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cameron, Deborah. 2004. Out of the bottle: he social life of metalanguage. In Metalanguage. Social and Ideological Perspectives, A. Jaworski, N. Coupland and Deborah Galasiński (eds), 311–321. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Cameron, Deborah. 1995. Verbal Hygiene. London & New York: Routledge. Cooper, Robert L. 1989. Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge, New York & Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Dagrin, Bengt G. 2008. Stora fula ordboken [‘he big dictionary of swearwords’]. Stockholm: Carlsson. Edlund, Ann-Catrine. 2004. Kan män vara sjuksköterskor och kvinnor brandmän? Om sambandet mellan yrkesbeteckningar och kön. [‘Is it possible for men to be nurses and women to be ireighters?’] In Den könsuppdelade arbetsmarknaden [SOU 2004: 43], 263–280. Stockholm: Fritzes. Freud, Sigmund. 1961. he Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. XIX. London: Hogarth Press. Hausmann, Ricardo, Tyson, Laura D. and Zahidi, Saadia. 2007. he Global Gender Gap Report. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Retrieved on 28 November 2008 from http://www. weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2007.pdf. Hellinger, Marlis and Bussmann, Hadumod (eds). 2001–2003. Gender Across Languages. he Linguistic Representation of Women and Men. Volume 1–3. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. Hornscheidt, Antje. 2003. Linguistic and public attitudes towards gender in Swedish. In Gender Across Languages. he Linguistic Representation of Women and Men, Volume 1–3, Marlis Hellinger and Hadumod Bussmann (eds), 339–368. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. Milles, Karin. 2006. “En jämställd kroppsdel? Om lanseringen av ett neutralt ord för lickors könsorgan.” [‘A gender-equal part of the body? he introduction of a neutral word for girls’ genitals.’] Språk & stil 16: 149–177. Milles, Karin. 2010. Kung Karl och kärleksgrottan [King Karl and the Cave of Love]. Norstedts akademiska förlag: Stockholm. Milles, Karin. 2011a. Feminist language planning in Sweden. Current Issues in Language Planning. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. Milles, Karin. 2011b. Snippa – a success story of feminist language reform. Gender & Language Vol. 5, No. 1.

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Milani, Tommaso. M. 2007. Debating Swedish. Language Politics and Ideology in Contemporary Sweden. Stockholm: Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University. Mills, Sara. 2003. hird Wave Feminist Linguistics and the Analysis of Sexism. Discourse Analysis Online. Retrieved on 19 November 2008 from http://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/ open/2003/001/mills2003001-paper.html. Pauwels, Anne. 2003. Linguistic Sexism and Feminist Linguistic Activism. In he Handbook of Language and Gender, J. Holmes and M. Meyerhof (eds), 550–570. Oxford: Blackwell. Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Scholtz, Anna. 2003. Flickans lilla [‘he girl’s little one’]. Malmö: Egmont Richter.

What it means to be a Bosnian woman Analyzing women’s talk between patriarchy and emancipation Danijela Majstorović and Maja Mandić University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Presuming discourse to be both socially determined and socially determinative when it comes to attitudes, opinions and perceptions about the world, we wanted to explore to what extent the ways in which women in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) speak about themselves are determined by the patriarchal Balkan tradition, post-WWII modernity, and/or the current postwar and transitional context. his paper is based on a small sample of a large discourse and body of gender research in BiH including six diferent focus groups of women assembled on the basis of social class. In order to provide some indications and guidance for the entire project, this pilot study was meant to isolate relevant discursive elements of the speech of women belonging to two diferent classes: the working class (boutique workers) and the professional class (doctors, lawyers, journalists), some with children and some without. In the analysis, we critically examined the obtained transcripts by looking into recurrent argumentative and rhetoric strategies, topoi and lexical and syntactic structures. Most speciically, we wanted to ind out why feminism appeared to be unpopular among Bosnian women and how a successful woman was constructed with respect to patriarchal and non-patriarchal social values. We did this by looking at what discursive elements the relations of patriarchy (status quo) rested upon and what emancipatory potentials (resistance) were used to challenge it. Keywords: femininity, discourse, patriarchy, critical discourse analysis, emancipation

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1.

Introduction

It is indeed diicult to speak about the spaces women inhabit (private, public, emotional, mental, cognitive and imaginative) without ‘typical stereotyping and a surplus of unnecessary and recycled meanings … hot debates, nervousness and unease’ (Kašić and Šinko 2004: 11).1 he challenge is even greater in the speciic context of Bosnia and Herzegovina (henceforth BiH), which in less than a hundred years experienced two world wars, transitioned from feudalism into socialism, and, in the early 1990s sufered terrible devastation, bloodshed, ethnic cleansing and genocide resulting in a tremendous change of female roles for the worse and a strong rise of patriarchal attitudes. In postwar BiH, women, who make up one half of the population, still remain largely absent in the Bosnian public sphere. Research on the print media’s representation of women shows that women are almost never mentioned in the irst few pages of the two most read Bosnian dailies, Dnevni Avaz and Glas Srpske, and they are almost only mentioned in the latter pages reserved for cooking and entertainment (Majstorović and Turjačanin 2006). At the Banja Luka Faculty of Philosophy in 2008, only 6 out of 50 professors were women and, although changing, the number still marks a low increase.2 Local public television editors have only recently started using feminine gender for formerly typical ‘male’ jobs (e.g. rediteljka instead of reditelj for a director) in titles and credits but only at the request of their gender sensitive (female) news program director. In the transitional society we live in, repatriarchalization, retraditionalization (Leinert Novosel 1999: 18) and ethnic divisions secure the role of men as guardians of identity and nation, and it is no wonder that local media ‘mirroring’ such a society represent women either as housewives, caregivers, brides-to-be, victims, superwomen or leave them completely out when it comes to positions of power. his dominant rhetoric and activity seems to ‘belong exclusively to a men’s club, which either subtly excludes women or allows them to hold marginal positions’ (Majstorović and Turjačanin 2006). BiH women’s self-imposed and structural restriction to private sphere, their token participation in public life when it comes to highbrow positions, their antipathy to feminism, and socially institutionalized misogyny have been diicult 1. In Serbo-Croat, greater visibility of women can be and is achieved by marking the feminine gender through inlection and this practice that is getting more and more widespread has been recognized as feminist. In English, where morphological rules are diferent, i.e. the gender suixes are fewer and rarer, the practice has been to keep the unmarked form (i.e. the generic doctor is used instead of woman doctor) and thus challenge its belonging to only male gender. 2. he oicial statistics were not available at the time of writing of this chapter.

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

to explain and identify. It might be a combination of all of these factors that, paradoxically, has led to a perpetuation of patriarchy, for in this perpetuation of patriarchal patterns, BiH women felt they held some symbolic and social power (Yuval-Davis 1997). ‘he self-hatred of the marginalized’ (Blagojević 2002c: 480; Papić 1997), as an efect of long discrimination, is dangerous in the sense that it can preclude any serious women’s solidarity, which can have severe consequences for generations of young women to come. We do, however, believe that reality is socially constructed and that our present context can change for the better by more women achieving greater social mobility through education and inancial independence and by having their voices heard.

2. Feminism and patriarchy in the Balkans In the South Slavic countries, the irst women’s organization appeared in the XIX century,3 along with the emerging capitalism and national integrations. While this irst women’s organization was mostly philanthropic in nature, socializing traditional female roles such as work in caring professions, the beginning of the XX century marked a shit. Women’s activity became more political: they demanded the right to vote and equal protection under the law. During the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes4 and in the wake of the two world wars, women’s civic societies became more advanced with the Yugoslav women’s union established in 1921 and Alliance of Women’s Movement, which was active between 1927–1939. he Antifascist Front of Women (AFŽ) was established in 1942 as ‘legitimate heiress to this (mostly civic prim.aut.) tradition’ although it was deeply grounded in socialism as its goal was to unite all women in a common struggle against the fascist enemy (Sklevicky 1996: 80–82). Given that the ex-Yugoslav, and especially Bosnian, society, prior to WWII was predominantly rural and feudal, the indings indicating the position of women and oicial misogyny in Bosnia between the two World Wars are nevertheless striking: in Orthodox villages in Bosnia husbands beat their wives very oten in 10% and oten in 59% of the cases (Erlich 1964: 217), a brother commanded his sister in 80% of the cases, and kidnapping, oten preceded by rapes, was more regular than incidental (ibid.: 165). Erlich also mentions that ‘if the wife is guilty, 3. Gospojinski odbor za održavanje pjestovališta (Ladies’ Committee for Supporting of Foundling Hospitals) was established in 1855 in Croatia. 4. Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was oicially established on 1 December1918. In 1929, the title changed into Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia was proclaimed a republic ater World War II, on 29 November 1945.

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she sufers in silence because the husband is entitled to beat her since she is in his house eating his bread and her work is not recognized’ (ibid.: 220). Sklevicky (1996: 25) further suggests that larger scale emancipation of women from the patriarchal culture in the area of the former Yugoslavia started during the National Liberation Struggle (NOB) in World War II and ‘became one of the most important tasks of the Antifascist Women’s Front’. Although the Front itself was terminated in 1945, the emancipatory legacy of socialism was not to be neglected as that was the time when most women got education and started working. he ‘modernization process could not have happened without a serious disturbance of the patriarchal culture’ (Sklevicky 1996: 135) and modernization meant more women entering the labor world. Prior to WWII, women in BiH only did unpaid housework and few women, if any, earned an income. Ater WWII, along with industrialization, there was a need for a larger labour force which was eventually met by women. Taking over paid out-of-house work led to their emancipation in the political sphere and this was largely a legacy of socialism (Kašić and Šinko 2004: 35). Women entering the world of labor, however emancipatory, has been the cause of the double (work, house) and, during the 1990s wars, even triple (work, house, gray economy) burden presupposing a dangerous premise that women are ‘naturally’ preordained to be in the private sphere (Tomić-Koludrović and Kunac 2000: 9; Kašić and Šinko 2004: 31). Although there are many feminist theories which can be used as platforms to account for and problematize women’s diverse situations (Olesen 2006: 236), current feminist theory/politics, which has had its ‘third wave’ in the West, seems to meet a lot of resistance in the Balkans even though the irst feminist organization Woman and Society was established more than thirty years ago. In Bosnia and Herzegovina an important step toward changing this trend are the MA program in Gender Studies at the Center for Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies of the University of Sarajevo; the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s gender centres working with the governments of both BiH entities; diferent agencies for gender equality as well as the work of numerous scholars and nongovernmental organizations. With a few exceptions (Ramet 1999; Helms 2003a, 2003b), there is but little literature documenting the postwar social condition of BiH women with respect to their discourses and identity construction and our goal is to start illing this gap. Patriarchy, in this context, might require some clariication. It is diicult to talk about a universal patriarchy and many feminists reject the term because it comes across as a timeless and ahistorical construct (Pateman 1988), suggesting a fatalist notion of biology as ‘our destiny’. We also do not see patriarchy as a mere premodernist rule of the father due to kinship and economic reasons, since we

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

argue that socialism did bring emancipation and paid out-of-house labor for the majority of women in the former Yugoslavia. Despite these changes, Balkan patriarchy has been undisputed in most rural areas and preserved in many of urban families to a signiicant degree, both on a symbolic and on a more concrete level. Social repatriarchalization that ensued ater the 1991–1995 wars in this region resulted in an expansion of various types of patriarchal oppression such as misogyny, discrimination, exploitation and violence (Blagojević 1999: 17–20). Yet the symbolic working of patriarchy, perhaps not just in the Balkans but the world over, is maintained on the basis of women’s roles as the sole providers of childcare. In this context, ‘self-sacriicing micromatriarchy’ presupposes escape into the private sphere and motherhood as the main female strategies in the Balkans’ economy of survival (Blagojević 1997). his is, unfortunately, one of the few continuous elements in the Balkan discontinuity because women are only granted power through sacriicing, which is in correlation with the rural, collectivist ideologies supportive of the patriarchal order (Blagojević 1997, 2002a, 2002c). he importance of motherhood was relected in our research as well. Taking care of children was identiied as a top priority by almost all of our interviewees. Protecting the so-called ‘family values’, women will sacriice anything to keep the family together- especially if it is for the children’s sake. For these reasons it makes sense to claim that division of parental burden (Balbus 1982; Chodorow 1978) could challenge the predominantly patriarchal attitudes in the Balkans.

3. Qualitative feminist research: Challenges of interdisciplinarity Qualitative feminist research is characterized by complexity and controversy when it comes to ‘the nature of research, the deinition of and relationship with those with whom research is done, the characteristics and location of the researcher, and the creation and presentation of knowledges’ (Olesen 2005: 238). Our research came out of a political and personal motivation – it was not only a matter of curiosity but an opportunity to give our subjects a chance to speak ‘in their own words’ and contribute to the future feminist knowledge production in South-East Europe as a transitional and postcolonial, or, as some would argue, postimperial context as the Balkans was not a colony in the traditional sense of the word but a Western Other and a periphery of many empires. Assessment of women’s lives and experiences that foreground the subjective and the production of subjectivities (Olesen 2006: 237) were also important in our research. We wanted to see how these subjectivities were realized in terms of the discourses of Bosnian women related to their sense of self, networks, cognitions and the various emancipatory and resistance strategies they employed. he

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discourse analytical approach was useful to discern more minute details of how women in BiH talked about themselves and others in order to see the extent to which the presumed patriarchal oppression worked as well as when and under what circumstances it was challenged. We were also conscious of the fact that feminism takes many diferent forms depending on the context of contemporary nationalism (Heng 1997 in Olesen 2006: 241), and that diferent theoretical and pragmatic orientations relect these national contexts with diferent feminist agendas (Evans 2002; Morawski 1997, in Olesen 2006: 236). In this sense we did a ‘standpoint research’ as we sought to study ‘situated women with experiences and knowledge speciic to their place in the material division of labor’ (Olesen 2006: 243; Harding 1987). We also wanted them to relect on the present social context (postwar times and transition) and the emancipatory potential/obstacles on their way to improving their lives. In our interpretative approach we used focus groups as a data collection method while our data analysis was inspired by Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, notably the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) (Wodak 2001), and ethnography. We sought to provide a heavy contextualization5 of the analyzed discourses and to systematize diferent methodological approaches including foregrounding/backgrounding (Van Leeuwen 1996) and dimensions of verbal meaning (Lemke 1998), such as construction and orientation. We tried to ofer thick descriptions of what being a Bosnian woman meant in a particular snapshot of time relying on their talk as the object of our discourse analysis, which at times resonated of both modernity and tradition. By looking at how they constructed, legitimized and negotiated their positions, we focused on the depth of what we thought were the most frequently occurring strategies,6 topoi (Wodak et al. 1999; Reisigl and Wodak 2001), attributions, and other lexico-grammatical choices our interviewees used to talk about themselves and their relations to others. We could not accept the rather simple assertion that Bosnian women were traditionally and still subdued, especially given the emancipatory legacy of the former socialist times, so we primarily looked into ruptures or discourses of

5. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) implies examination of a speciic socio-political context which is an indispensable element of the triangulation principle, which, again, provides iltering and combining of unclear information while estimating their validity. So, in CDA and DHA, triangulation calls for reference to other sources, sociological, political, historical, because textual analysis in isolation is insuicient. A key point of interest in CDA is power asymmetry. 6. ‘Strategy’ is a more or less accurate and more or less intentional plan of practices (including discursive practices) adopted to achieve a particular social, political, psychological or linguistic aim. As far as the discursive strategies are concerned or systematic ways of using language, we locate them at diferent levels of linguistic organization and complexity (Wodak 2005).

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

resistance to the patriarchal norm (e.g. topoi of struggle as opposed to topoi of victim employed by our respondents). We also couldn’t neglect the harsh postwar and transitional realities in which the Bosnian women were let with the double burden of paid labour at work and unpaid labour at home (Leinert Novosel 1999) facing a paradoxical new reality of tradition and emancipation (Kašić and Šinko 2004: 82). here was little previous research on the discourse-identity-knowledge regarding Bosnian-Herzegovinian women in particular.7 In our overall research we discovered it was very hard to talk about ‘Bosnian women’ in general but that a diference was to be made between diferent social classes of women in BiH or diferent lifestyles that they had. We chose focus groups because we wanted to see how partial knowledge based on the perspective of seeing (Papić and Sklevicky 2003: 9) relected our respondents’ individual subject positions in the particular Balkan context, because of its ‘synergistic approach’. his approach produces a range of opinions, ideas and experiences, generates insightful information (Litosseliti 2003) and provides interaction and stimulation both among the researchers and participants themselves (Morgan 1997 and Gibbs 1997). his stimulation is initially based on topics supplied by the researcher but soon uncovers open-ended pathways for discussion (Litosseliti 2003: 3). In our focus groups we used a semi-ixed set of questions evolving around four main themes, each of which consisted of another subset of questions although, depending on their interaction, we paid attention to what our interviewees ‘focused on’ more, i.e. what was foregrounded. he themes were broadly divided into four: a. women’s perceived identity (how they saw themselves, their roles and expectations, diferences between ‘now’ and ‘then’, and ‘here’ [Balkans] and ‘there’ [abroad]) b. division of power (labor relations, household) c. relations to men (fathers, sons, husbands, male colleagues) d. social position of women (social change, successful women, feminism). Despite the previous limited use of focus groups by feminists and the omission of the method from the feminist research literature (Wilkinson 1999), they are now, however, gaining more popularity (Litosseliti 2010, 2003) particularly when it comes to empowerment agendas and social change (Kamberelis and Dimitriadis 2005), which was relevant from a CDA perspective (Fairclough 1989). heir 7. Since there has been little feminist research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, our references are drawn from the feminist research of Croatia and Serbia given the similarity of context and the fact that these now independent states 20 years ago were former Yugoslav republics that shared similar cultural practices, historical and geopolitical legacies.

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composition is context sensitive and, as nonhierarchical research methods transforming people in object-like subjects, they are mainly used when working with minority groups and the oppressed, as well as in action research projects and consciousness raising sessions (Wilkinson 1999). ‘Collectivization of women’s experience … helps women to overcome their structural isolation in their families and to understand that their individual suferings have social causes’ (Mies 1983: 128), and women meeting one another and sharing their common experiences ‘helps them to develop a clearer sense of the social and psychological processes through which their experiences are constructed’ (Wilkinson 1999: 75).

4. Research design Due to the scope and limits of time and resources, we have chosen to present an in-depth text-oriented analysis of just two groups selected in terms of class, education, and income: the new working class which included boutique workers (in transcripts labeled as WC) and the middle class which included educated professional women (in transcripts labelled as MC). If we were capturing the intergroup dynamic, we labelled them as WC1, WC2 etc. or MC1, MC2 and so forth. Except from the sociolinguistic diferences relecting their social strata such as the working class women’s use of slang and informal language for example, the diference between the two samples were almost nonexistent when it came to discursive construction of womanhood and their experiences of being women in BiH. his study was a litmus test that presented just a segment of the qualitative part of a larger multidisciplinary and multi-method research project8 still under analysis and inclusion of other social classes would probably have to include the class component as a more prominent variable. Ethnicity, for the purposes of this research, was not a variable under consideration because we thought that female solidarity, commonality and experience extended beyond the ethno-nationalistic ideologies, discourses and identities. All the women were between 20–55 years of 8. In our overall research for which we are still analyzing the data, we combined qualitative with quantitative methodologies. he qualitative part is a critical discourse analysis of transcripts of six focus groups consisting of between 6–9 women selected to include varieties of Bosnian women and to capture their experience. hese were boutique workers, as the new working class in transition, educated women, rural women, unemployed women, female students, and those who declared themselves as feminists and/or had less typical lifestyles (e.g. the choice not to have children is considered very atypical in BiH). Aside from the six focus groups, we also included a socio-psychological survey research on a sample of 2000 women of diferent age, gender, ethnicity, income etc. answering a questionnaire of some 15 questions regarding the issues of identity, emancipation, patriarchy, feminism etc.

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

age, all lived in Banja Luka (although many did not grow up in the city), and they were either with or without families meaning husband and children. Our irst group comprised six women working in the downtown Banja Luka shopping mall Zenit. With the decline of socialism, the obliteration of factories and industry and the country recovering from the war, this group was chosen to represent a new working class. heir income was around 150 euro a month; and usually they worked for a boss who owned a boutique selling Turkish and Chinese shoes or clothing; they had to work double shits to compensate for their vacations; they sometimes worked in very diicult conditions and yet the circulation of women holding these temporary jobs was huge because the grey economy offered jobs accessible to women without a university degree. Only two of them were married with children. Our second group included educated women, consisting of three teachers, one lawyer, one journalist, two economists, and two physicians. hey all had jobs and families, one was a widow and one was a single mother. We spent approximately an hour and a half interviewing them, moderating and observing the discussion. Each participant was reimbursed for the time spent. Each of the two transcripts had between 10,000–17,000 words and represented approximately an hour and a half of talk. he analysis was done on the original corpus in Serbian which was later translated into English as we wanted to preserve their authenticity as much as possible. We included larger chunks of text which were then translated into English. Audio recordings were transcribed at the lexical level whereby we preserved the sequence of whole, meaningful words and meaningful non-lexical vocalizations, as well as overlapping. We were primarily interested in what was seen as important by looking at recurrent themes and foregrounded information, how these were constructed and with what attitude (Lemke 1998; Fairclough 2003), and then we looked at how our respondents legitimized their stance. In the texts, we looked for what was foregrounded in their interaction elicited by the questions, for attributions, common topoi and other lexico-grammatical and pragmatic realizations including deixis.

5. Analysis of transcripts 5.1

Trapped in transition

he participants mention several important characteristics of life in our era which can be used to determine the position of women nowadays. he irst important characteristic is the post-socialist, post-war period, the so-called ‘transition’, which has made life diicult for everyone, both women and men. Some participants, who are over forty or ity, clearly distinguished between the two periods – before

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and ater the war (before and ater the fall of socialism, before and ater the life as we knew it for ity years). (MC): Pa ja bih ovako razdvojila dva perioda, period prije rata i period poslije rata. Period prije rata je žena sa VSS bila što se tiče u društvu potpuno emancipovana, imala je sva prava kao i svaki muškarac, mogla je biti i direktor, mogla je napredovati, a što se tiče porodice ostao je patrijarhat, matrijarthat, jesam tako dobro rekla, žena je ta koja vodi kuću i domaćinstvo, i zajedno sa mužem brine se o djeci. Što se tiče kuće, znači, žena je ta koja brine se o kući. Međutim period poslije rata period je krize, bijede, barem što se tiče prosvjete, jer muž i ja smo u prosvjeti radili ostala je, što se tiče žene u prosvjeti, ista je emancipovana žena, ravnopravna je sa muškarcem, može da radi sve poslove, podjednako smo svi plaćeni, a sad je period krize, znači, zajedno smo nosili teret bijede i jada eto to je moje (MC): Well, this is how I would distinguish the two periods, the pre-war and post-war period. In the pre-war period, a woman with a BA degree, as far as the society (is concerned), was completely emancipated, she had all the same rights as any man, she could even be a director, she could get promoted, and when it came to family, patriarchy, matriarchy … did I say it right … (she) remained … (the one) running the household, and together with the husband took care of the children. As far as the household is concerned, a woman is the one taking care of the house. But, the post-war period has been a period of crisis, poverty, at least when it comes to teachers … because my husband and I both worked as teachers. She remained … when it came to female teachers, the same emancipated woman … equal to a man, she could do any job, we were paid the same, and now it is a period of crisis, my husband and I together carried the burden of poverty and misery, and that’s what I have to say

his observation, made by a non-specialist in the ield, is conirmed by many authors writing about women before and during the transition. he socialist society proclaimed the equality of men and women, which resulted in a larger number of women going to university, or having paid work, or even participating actively/ fully in politics (Šinko 2004: 33). hus, for our participants it was ‘normal practice’ for a woman to go to school, get a job and plan a family but taking care of the family and children was almost exclusively ‘her business’. his ‘double burden’ was the result of the socialist tendency to provide everyone with the right to education and to work and although women at the time had greater access to the public sphere by adopting political and work responsibilities, they did not lose any of the ‘old, traditional’ female duties (Leinert Novosel 1999).

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

he war marked the end of a ‘safe living,’ in terms of both inancial and personal security. here were no longer any secure jobs, and most men, normally considered pater familias, went to war. With most men drated, the woman became both the mother and the father of the family, the only parent, who was, under the new circumstances, in charge of making absolutely every decision, and making sure that the family survived. he postwar period has not brought much relief to the woman. Former soldiers returned to a society that could ofer them neither their previous jobs nor new ones and in this situation, women had to ind a way to continue supporting their families, which oten meant they had to take up additional, mostly gray-economy jobs,9 to make ends meet. he changed circumstances cannot be said to have had only bad aspects. Modernization and transition did bring some opportunities to women. As a participant observes: (WC): Meni se čini da, znači, jedino možda dobro što je ovaj glupi rat koji smo prošli i koji nam je svima oduzeo nekih 10 godina života vrlo kvalitetnog, čini mi se, za sviju nas ovde ovaj, možda je donio, bar po mom mišljenju malu promjenu odnosa kompletene sredine i muškaraca prema ženi. U tom periodu rata pokazale smo da možemo da radimo puno toga puno bolje nego to što rade muškarci i lično smatram da su žene te koje su puno sposobnije, puno više iimaju snage, istrajnosti, upornosti da izvuku sve ono na jedan normalan način u odnosu na muškarce, i taj period rata i sad poslije rata barem u branši u kojoj ja radim promijenio je puno toga. Žene su, znači, znači u poslu eh već u poziciji da puno toga odlučuju (…) (WC): It seems to me that perhaps the only good thing … about … this stupid war we all had, which took ten years of our good quality lives, it seems to me, for all of us err, it might, in my opinion, have brought a small change of attitude of the entire society and men towards women. In that period of war we showed that we could do a lot of things much better than men and I personally believe that women are a lot more capable, they have more strength, endurance, persistence to pull through in a normal way compared to men, and that period of war and now ater the war, at least in my ield, has changed a lot of things. hat means that women, err, in business, err are in a position to make a lot of decisions (…)

9. See our ‘triple burden’ reference to jobs belonging to ‘gray economy’ – small, low-paid semilegal jobs, which bring additional income to the family (Tomić-Koludrović and Kunac 2000).

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he Bosnian woman regardless of her ield seemed to be able to claim some rights she had not been entitled to before the war – it is almost as if she now had the conirmation that she did not have to depend on the man (the father, the husband, the brother) for everything, which is what women were (and still are) brought up to believe. 5.2

Lower than men?

Even though the focus group discussions were moderated and directed as there was a ixed set of questions, some themes came up spontaneously: our interviewees talked about their ‘lower’ position and the life ‘now’ and ‘then’ without having been asked a concrete question about it. hey felt they were listened to, which helped them regain a feeling of self-worth: before the irst group discussion, one of the participants (a shop assistant) commented: ‘Da i mi nešto kažemo, inače uvijek neko drugi soli pamet.’ (‘Let us say a word or two, normally there’s always someone else lecturing us.’) It does not take long for our participants to state that in our society women have a lower status than men: ‘Žena, ovaj, ipak se tretira kao niže biće u odnosu na muškarca, barem u BiH’ (…) (‘A woman, err, is still treated as a lower being, compared to a man, at least in BiH’ (…). he participant constructs a woman as a human being of the same natural status as a man, but observes that this being is inferior to men (the norm). Given that one’s identity is deined by what one is ‘not’, i.e., the diference, we wanted to look into how Bosnian women constructed themselves and other women and men. One of the general indings of this preliminary discourse analysis was a frequent use of hedging, intertextuality, noticed in the adoption of the speech of others (e.g. ‘and then they’ll, ‘oh look at her, she is …’), and the absence of the irst person I instead of which they preferred to use the impersonal pronoun ‘one’. Below there are two tables10 that give discursive evidence on the constructions of men and women in BiH. 5.3

Topos of struggle

In describing the position of a woman in the BiH society, participants unanimously and repetitively mentioned ‘struggling, ighting for something, making an efort’, which we identiied as a topos of struggle. 10. Tables 1 and 2 are based on the chart provided in Wodak et al. (1999: 36–42). We were using similar description of means and forms of realization. Here we only used the English translations due to the lack of space.

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

Table 1. Construction strategies: Positive constructions of women and men Positive construction of women

Linguistic realizations

Positive Linguistic construction of men realizations

‘A woman can think … of more than one thing … whereas a man ends up in the same place’

topos of diference, positive attributions (more, better, more capable)

‘I think men are more intelligent, if they weren’t, they wouldn’t rule.’

‘we could do a lot of things much better than men and I personally believe that women are a lot more capable, they have more strength, endurance and persistence to pull through in a normal way compared to men’

positive attributions (miranda)

PRSP:* men ‘when he goes out there (battleield), is go to war and he gonna come back women don’t to me alive or not, it’s not easy being a man, c’mon, they don’t have it easy either’

‘I think compassion is in a compassion/emowoman’s nature if women are in tions as positive the same position professional- values ly, I think there is that solidarity and that a woman will always help one another’ ‘when you are attractive, when the appearance you deck up, put some tight bits matters and gives on, there is no car that won’t women power stop, be it a 19, 25 or 40 year old guy’ * Presupposition

(WC): Kako se postaviš prema drugima, tako će te i tretirati. To je moje mišljenje, ako se izboriš na vrijeme za sebe, biće sve ono kako treba. (WC): he way you treat others, that’s how they’ll treat you. hat’s my opinion, if you ight for yourself in time, everything will be alright.

his struggle/ight is seen as a condition (or conditions) a woman has to fulil in order ‘for everything to be alright’. It is interesting to observe that this formulation does not include the irst person subject, but neither is it agentless – as if it is in a transitional phase between the two which might mean that the speaker has already achieved her goal and is in a position to give advice to other women. he phrase ‘in time’ might be interpreted as suggesting that there is a critical period for creating favorable circumstances for a woman’s life, meaning that if you do not ight in time, it might be too late to change things. his group occasionally mentioned the early stage of a relationship as the best time for a woman to change ‘her man’:

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Table 2. Construction strategies: Negative constructions of women and men Women

Linguistic realizations

Men

‘envy, jealousy, can always be found in women, women here always try to dominate one another’

negative attributions

‘As long as he doesn’t PRSP:* men beat and drink drink and beat’

‘a woman is always led by emo- topos of difertions and a man is led by reason ence (emotion/ … that’s our peril’ reason)

‘physical appearance is extremely important in women … and it’s irrelevant in men … it’s one of the ways they assert themselves … I’m not one of those women, that’s how they assert themselves’

Linguistic realizations

‘efeminate man’

feminine characteristics ‘no way I would when observed marry a typical stay- in men have a at-home husband’ negative con(pantoulard, man notation who wears slippers)

topos of diference, the appearance matters for women and not men but deictic they signalizes distance

* Presupposition

(WC): Možda treba biti uporan čim ono ne znam kad se uđe u vezu odmah mislim nivo taj postaviti, a ne ti samo ‘sjedi dragi a ja ću sve oko tebe’ ne znam … Znači to u startu treba iskorijeniti čim se bukvalno, i pri upoznavanju tog, da se zauzme stav, pa ne znam, ravnopravnost ili kod nas važi, recimo, pravilo ko šta može kad da uradi, al’ dugo je meni trebalo, recimo, da ja dođem do tog nivoa. (WC): Perhaps one should be persistent as soon as, I don’t know, as one starts a relationship, one should, I think, set up standards immediately, and not be like ‘oh, you just sit there honey and I’ll do everything for you,’ I don’t know … so, one should eradicate it as soon as, literally, as one meets the guy, to take a stand, and I don’t know, equality or in our family, for example, the rule is one does what one can do when one can do it, but it took me a long time to reach that level.

Similar opinions were also heard from the group of educated women, which brings into focus the issue of vaguely expressed agency in the irst sentence (perhaps, should) when it comes to the question of changing the status quo in BiH society and the fact that men, who are obviously not operating on the notion of

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

equality, need to (or should) be re-educated by someone – a mother, a sister, a girlfriend/wife.11 A woman’s status in our society is a constant ight/struggle for what a man is somehow entitled to or what is inherent to him, regardless of his personal or professional merit. he word struggle is further intensiied by the adjective ‘eternal’, indicating temporality without a known beginning or end. (MC): ja mislim da je naš i status posvećen upravo tome, samo jednoj borbi stalno i iznova, bilo da smo mi u sretnom ili nesretnom braku ili sretno razvedene ili ne, uvijek je isto, čini mi se, da je to … uvijek samo borba, ne za opstanak nego borba za ono normalno što mislim da muškarci daleko lakše uspijevaju nego mi, bez obzira, bili oni oženjeni, imali djecu, uvijek je ‘ja moram ovo’ … (MC): I think our status means exactly that, it’s just one eternal struggle over and over again, not just for the survival but for what is normal, for what I think men succeed in getting much more easily than us, no matter if they’re married, with kids, it’s always his ‘I have to do this’ …

his natural male entitlement is the right to be regarded as a person: (MC): Mi ovdje nekako želimo tu spontanost sve a vrlo dobro znamo sve i jedna koliko je tu napora … treba da sve to uradiš u želji da da i tebe priznaju kao ličnost, ne kao ženu nego kao ličnost. (MC): Here we all want that spontaneity, each of us, yet we know very well, all of us, how much efort is needed for us to do all that wishing to be recognized as a person, not as a woman but as a person.

he female identity is constructed here as something diferent from and inferior to the general self or ‘person status’ – a man’s ‘person status’ is recognized at birth, while a woman has to deserve it by working hard for it. A similar construction can be observed in the following statement: (MC): Ja hoću da budem član društva jedan sposoban, ravnopravan (ostale: ravnopravan) a ne to feminizam da ja budem kao žena ja žena, ne nego hoću ja da budem član društva (neko: bez obzira) (MC): I want to be a member of society, a capable and equal one (the others say: equal) and not that feminism, not to be a woman, me as a woman, I want to be a member of society (somebody: regardless).

11. Indicative is the use of a rather strong choice of phrases ‘one should eradicate it (…) take a stand (…)’ speaks for itself, ending in ‘equality’ – not domination!

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In this case being a member of society is seen as superior to being a woman and feminism and womanhood are seen as lower on the scale topped by a qualiication of a person. Even if she sees herself as a woman, our interviewee still desires her more encompassing identity of a person to be recognized instead. Although it may seem that our participants would never quit their entitlement to ‘ight’, they keep repeating how it is sometimes so much easier to ‘take the path of least resistance’. (MC): Mislim da, da nas ta borba poprilično iscrpljuje i ja ne želim više baš pretjerano i davno sam odustala od te neke borbe, dokazivanja, pa prihvatim stvari znači linijom eh ovaj manjeg otpora (MC): I think that this ight exhausts us pretty much, I don’t want to drag this thing on and I gave up that kind of ight, asserting myself, long ago, so I accept things, err, I take the path of least resistance

he topos of struggle/ight is also associated with the period of modernization and, more recently, transition, as one of its many negative aspects: (MC1): Znači, izborile smo, htele smo da budemo obrazovane, da imamo porodicu, da budemo zaposlene, uspješne, samostalne, i sve smo to stavile na svoja leđa sad kako ćemo izgurati, vidjećemo, koliko ćemo izdržati. (MC2): (odgovara) potpuno slažem s ovim vašim drugim dijelom diskusije kad ste rekli da smo se izborili za ravnopravnost da smo preuzeli veliki teret na sebe … (MC3): da je nama sad ovo vrijeme koje je vrijeme, ‘ajmo reći ovo moderno vrijeme tranzicije mislim izraz, nametnulo nama ženama velike obaveze a i nas valjda, ono što je u naravi žena, da se dokazujemo, da ne damo da ide iko ispred nas. (MC1): So we’ve fought for it, we wanted to be educated, to have families, to have jobs, to be successful, independent, and we’ve carried that burden on our backs, now we’ll see how much longer we can keep it going. (MC2): (responding) I completely agree with the second part of your discussion, when you said we’d fought for equality, that we’ve taken on this huge burden … (MC3): hat to us this time, which is a time of, let’s say, this modern time of transition, I mean, the expression, has imposed huge obligations upon us, and what is, I guess, in our women’s nature, is to assert ourselves, not to let anyone ahead of us.

It is striking that the participants believe the double burden is almost women’s fault as they have taken on too much without questioning men’s apparent absence from childcare.

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

he participants’ futile anger because of their responsibility for too many tasks inds its release in this statement although it is doubtful whether many of them would willingly waive their right to education and work and consent to their daughters being prevented from claiming this right. 5.4

Topos of victim

Another striking topos we observed is that of woman-as-victim. his construction goes back to (at least) the beginning of the Turkish rule in this region, of which we learn from the famous Kosovo epics. he woman in these epics was always either the mother of a dead hero/heroes or dead herself. ‘A faithful and patriotic Serb woman is dead … all these Serb women sacriiced themselves for something that was larger than themselves and hence they have become good Serb women. For a good Serb woman is a self-sacriiced and a self-sacriicing Serb woman, in the inal instance, this is a Serb woman who no longer exists’ (Blagojević 2002b: 281).12 he point is, it seems, in sufering but, more dangerously, in the fact that only sufering grants legitimacy and recognition. A pious suferer is another one in the repertoire of representations and constructions of Balkan women along with a sexy folk star, or a superwoman who is a great cook, has a PhD or runs her own company and is always beautiful. he society in which the woman is reduced to such is referred to by some authors as ‘self-sacriicing micro-matriarchy’ (Blagojević 1997; Papić 1997) and the sufering part is oten reiterated in our transcripts where women see themselves as victims, usually as the victim of their families: (WC): Pa mislim da žene ipak više trpe u porodici, da je to jedan od problema, sad koliko su one svjesne toga, vjerovatno u većini slučajeva jesu, samo dosta njih ne da priznati, da je sve na njima, kuća, posao, djeca, to je meni veliki problem, po mom mišljenju, što se ne daju, ovaj, same sebi dokazati da su u problemu (WC): Well I think that women still sufer more in the family, that this is one of the problems. Now it’s a question how aware of this they are, in most cases they probably are, it’s just that a lot of them wouldn’t admit that it all depends on them, the household, the job, the children. hat is a huge

12. Even though we are here discussing myths referring to the Serb women, diferent ethnic groups in the Balkans show little diference in mentality, folk culture and mythology hence we have no reason to believe that Bosnian Croats or Muslims would be less traditional and patriarchal.

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problem to me, in my opinion, that they would never, err, admit to themselves that they have a problem.

he participant here uses the verb sufer clearly indicating that the family expects the woman to take care of everything – once again the double burden is seen as the main cause of the woman’s ‘sufering’. It is also interesting that this participant believes that women would not admit, even? to themselves, that they have a hard time coping with everything. he participant herself creates a distance from such women by using the personal pronoun they instead of we, and excludes herself from the group, thus proving it is indeed diicult to admit the diicult position. his position is seen as passed on from previous generations and as such it is never questioned and is always taken for granted: (WC): Jednostavno tako je odgojena ta žena mora da nosi stub svega, žrtva familije da bude, djeca, djevojčice neće da joj pomažu, svekrva fala bogu tjera po svome (WC): he woman was simply brought up that way, she had to be the pillar of everything, the victim of the family, the kids, daughters won’t help her, the mother-in-law of course is having it her own way

he role of upbringing is described as critical in perpetuating this pattern of female sufering. he modal verb have to is used to indicate strong obligation on the part of the woman to comply with the given behavior model. he woman is constructed as ‘the pillar of the family,’ a phrase oten (mis)used by public igures, who normally use it with a favorable connotation, thus making this role look extremely signiicant. It might indeed be signiicant, but these public igures undoubtedly know that being ‘the pillar’ of anything leaves no room for any other engagement (let alone of the public kind). It is noteworthy that the participant mentions that her girls (daughters) do not want to help her (with their everyday chores, presumably), thus making it clear that boys are not even expected to help. Another diicult point is the mother-in-law, who has no other job but to make things worse for her daughter-in-law.13 herefore, when the only agents in the private sphere are female members of the family, male members are not expected to play any part in it. his role is sometimes viewed as the woman’s realm and she is at times considered to have the privilege of ruling the world of family. Ruling in the public sphere occasionally is never even an option.

13. Extended families with several generations living under the same roof is quite common in our society especially in rural areas, and the mother-in-law is always a topic of numerous jokes and is oten referred to as an ‘old hag’.

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

Given that the private sphere is the ‘guaranteed’ place for the woman in our society, it is not surprising that the role of a good mother is also recontextualized through sacriicing: (WC): Dijete kad se razboli sve to zajedno mi to skačemo ustajemo, al’ nekako ja čitavu noć držim ruku na glavi i sve to (smijeh drugih) a on spava (WC): When the child gets sick, we all see to it together, we get up and jump – but somehow it’s me who holds the hand on his forehead the whole night and all that (the others laugh) while he’s sleeping

he comment illustrates a common-sensical topos that it is a mother’s place to watch over the sick child, while the father can go to sleep; this does not make him a bad father, it just naturalizes the mother’s place to sacriice for her child and not the father’s. Here is an example of discourse that is diferent, coming from a woman who knows she has the same opportunities and the same options in life as any man. She is in fact, a single mother and a divorced woman, which makes her more likely to be someone who broke with the marriage norm, which, in the still patriarchal Bosnian context, is risking to be considered of dubious moral character:14 (MC): Meni je jasno ovaj, da mi treba da rađamo i meni je moja ćerka, ja sam rodila dijete jedno i ona je meni sav moj svijet, ali ja moram da živim, ja živim zbog nje al’ živim na neki način, možda će ispasti sad to surovo kad ja kažem, al’ živim i zbog sebe, moram ja da budem zadovoljna da bi to moje dijete raslo u nekakvom normalnom okruženju (…) ne mogu reći sad da je meni jedan jedini moj životni cilj da ja rađam mislim jest da rodim sebi dijete jedno dvoje, ne znam sada ako bog da pa nešto još bude, ok, ali ja moram da imam nekakve uslove, te životne (MC): I mean, it is quite clear to me, err, that we should give birth… and my daughter is to me … I gave birth to one child and she means the world to me, but I’ve got to live, I live for her, but I also live, in a way, maybe it will sound cruel when I say it, but I also live for myself. I’ve got to be happy in order for my child to grow up in a normal atmosphere (…) I can’t say now that my one and only goal in life is to give birth, I mean, it is, to give birth to a child or two, I don’t know, god willing there will be more children, ok, but my life conditions have to be right

14. In a personal narrative Maša (34), a woman whose mother divorced at the age of 22 when Maša was only 3 said how when her mother would say she was 22 and with a child, everyone thought of her as a ‘whore’ regardless of the fact that Maša’s father was abusive which is why she let him.

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he participant (holding a university degree and a mid-executive position in the media), although still invoking the natural tasks a woman has, is also aware of her own identity and refuses to comply with the imposed obligations, which implies she does not derive her feeling of self-worth solely from motherhood but her other roles as well. 5.5

he ‘dangers’ of feminism

It is not surprising to see that the concept of feminism is either dismissed as wrong, non-existing or misinterpreted. It is almost always identiied in terms of radical feminism and seen as the system of thought seeking to exclude/rule over men. (WC1): Pa to je jedna krajnost, ja ga ne vidim baš nešto; (WC2) Ni ja, ni ja to ne smatram, ne podržavam (WC1): Well, it’s [feminism] an extreme, I don’t think highly of it. (WC2): Me neither, I don’t think highly of it; I don’t support it (WC1): Kad žene, je l’, samo gledaju sebe nekako, uopšte, baš, muškarce u svoj priči (WC2): Muškarci su manje bitni (WC1): Da, potlačeni, da baš (WC2): Hoće da obrnu situaciju (WC1): [Feminism is] When women, right, just look ater themselves, somehow, in general, and men are out of the picture (WC2): Men are less important (WC1): Yeah, oppressed, yeah really (WC2): hey want to reverse the situation (MC1): Al’ mnoge kod nas ne kontaju uopšte riječ, mislim značenje feminizma, ovaj, znam da za mene hiljadu puta znaju reći da sam ja feministkinja, a uopšte se, mislim, zato što hoću tu ravnopravnost, uvijek ganjam kroz život, pa eto, mnoge misle, eto i to je isto (MC2): Kontaju tako (MC3): Znači, ne kontaju mnoge ovdje (MC4): 80% cura (MC5): Dobro, ljudi (?) misle da feministkinja, ako to je neka muškarača, koja je bože sačuvaj, jel’,

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

(MC1): Misle baš čim se borim, mislim, uvijek ću, ne dam na žensko(?) (MC5): za svoja prava (MC1): uvijek ću ravnopravnost i uvijek onda kažu: a, ti si tipična feministkinja , a to uopšte nije, nema pojma, eto, to je (MC2): One hoće da vladaju svijetom (smijeh) (MC1): ma da (MC2): Kao što sad muškarci vladaju, e to ja mislim (MC5): E da (MC1): iz krajnosti u krajnost (MC6): To su one kojima je dosadno kod kuće (MC1): But many women around here don’t get the word at all, I mean, the meaning of feminism, I know that they’ve said a thousand times about me that I’m a feminist, when it’s, I mean, because I want that equality, I’m always ater it, so, many women think, there, it’s the same … (MC2): hat’s how they see it (MC3): So, many of them here don’t get it (MC4): 80% of girls (MC5): OK, people think that a feminist, if that’s some sort of a tomboy, who is, god forbid, right (MC1): hey think if I ight , I mean, I’ll always take women’s side (MC5): For your rights (MC1): I’ve always been for equality and then they say, Oh, you’re a typical feminist, and that’s not the case, no way, there, that’s it (MC2): hey want to rule the world (laughing) (MC1): Yeah (MC2): Just like men rule now, that’s what I think (MC5): Right on (MC1): from one extreme to another (MC6): hose are the ones who are bored at home

We can see that feminism is usually referred to as ‘extreme’, ‘radical’, ‘oppression of men’ etc. but even in these exchanges we cannot but notice two instances in which feminists are described as ‘women wanting to reverse the situation’ and ‘ rule the world (…) just like men rule it now’, showing that our participants are well aware of who rules the world now. Even the participants whose lives and attitudes could be described as feminist, try to distance themselves from feminism:

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(MC1): Ja mislim da je moj odnos prema feminizmu jako blizak znači nisam feministkinja al’ vrlo blizu sam da postanem znači (smijeh) jer još uvijek ne znam, ja zaista osjećam znači da odudaram od nekih stereotipa žene u našem društvu trenutno i osjećam se kao vanzemaljac vjerujte znači zaista se osjećam kao da ne pripadam sredini koja ja i mentalnom sklopu ljudi koja je da kažem većinska. E sad ako je to feminizam mislim da jesam blizu, ali mislim da tu taj materijalni momenat nema veze (…) (MC1): I think I’m very close to feminism, I mean, I’m not a feminist but I’m very close to becoming one so (laughing) because I still don’t know. I really feel that I am so unlike the stereotypes about women in our society at the moment and I feel like an alien, trust me, I really feel like I don’t belong to this environment and the mentality of the majority. And if that’s feminism, I think I am close to it and I don’t think the inances have anything to do with it (MC2): Ja sam feminizam shvatila pravo da vam kažem ne’am pojma deiniciju (smijeh) ali kako sam shvatila to je upravo stav znači uopšte nisam nikad povezivala feminizam ni sa materijalnim ni sa bilo čim, znači to je stav, shvatanje, prihvatanje žene u glavi koliko je ona svjesna znači, e e ona kao žena koliko, koliko je jaka, koliko smo mi sposobni, samosvjesne same sebe otprilike najkraće rečeno ja shvatam feminizam ei koliko smo mi znači jaki da drugi ne mogu da prave na nas uticaj, znači tako shvatam feminizam i da vam kažem ja nisam blizu toga (MC2): he way I see feminism, to be honest, I don’t know the deinition (laughing) but the way I see it, it’s an attitude, I mean, I’ve never associated it with inancial matters, or anything like that, so it’s an attitude, an understanding, a woman’s perception, in her mind, of how aware she is, so it means she as a woman, how strong she is, how capable we are, aware of ourselves, to be brief, to me feminism is about how strong we are so that others can’t inluence us, so this is how I see feminism and honestly I’m not even close to it.

Feminism is sometimes seen as not only one’s attitudes but also as the way one lives: (MC1): ja uopšte više ne znam, zaista kakav bih ja imala stav oko, oko feminizma, ako je feminizam to da ja da sam ja samostalna, da super živim, da imam super platu i da ovaj me nije briga dal’ sam sama ili nisam i da me nije briga šta će reći moj komšija ‘eno je raspoštenica’ onda sam feministkinja. A ovaj ako opet loše živim, nemam dobru platu, ovo ono i zovem se nekom feministkinjom i nisam onda feministkinja, eto mislim to je tako

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

kod mene, ja bih volila da budem nekakva da kažem ovaj feministkinja al’ mislim da ni tog nema ovde kod nas ko’ što nema … (MC2): nema to u cijelom svijetu (MC1): I don’t know any more what kind of attitude I’m supposed to have toward feminism, if feminism means that I’m independent, that I’m living the high life, that I have a great paycheck and that I don’t care if I’m single or not, and that I don’t care if my neighbor will say ‘there she is, a female divorcee,’ then I am a feminist. But then, if I don’t live so well, my salary is low, this and that, and I call myself a feminist, then I’m not a feminist, that’s how things are with me, I would like to be some sort of, err, let’s say a feminist, but I don’t think this exists here, just like there is no … (MC2): hat doesn’t exist anywhere in the world

Feminism is sometimes associated with the work of various institutions – NGOs, gender centers etc., usually abroad, and is not seen as a point of view or value any individual woman can relate to. Until a context-speciic feminism gets rediscovered and developed, the current perception of feminism remains vague, abstract and threatening, further conining a Bosnian woman to the private sphere. Furthermore, the statement that feminists are ‘those who are bored at home’ is indicative of the sharp division between the two spheres of social activity (the public and the private sphere). Anthropologist Michelle Rosaldo claims that there are two types of structural possibilities to improve women’s position: for women to enter the public or for men to enter the private sphere (Rosaldo 1974 in Papić and Sklevicky 1997: 25). So far, these two spheres have been kept separated: the textual evidence on the negatively perceived ‘stay at home’ or the ‘slippers-wearing’ husband shows that men entering the private sphere has not been judged positively and doesn’t seem an option in the near future. Yet feminists claim how setting a boundary between the public and private is a political act in itself as power relations exist in both of them (Yuval-Davis 1997) and acting out ‘private needs’ may indeed resonate strongly in the public sphere. BiH women, aside from certain particular groups of women such as, for example Mothers of Srebrenica, have yet to take up this challenge. Our focus groups have shown another interesting situation. Most women are well aware of where they stand in the BiH society and that many opportunities are not available to them simply because they are women. Because of this self-awareness, it would seem logical that they could come up with possible solutions to improve their status. his, however, proved to be a wrong expectation. When asked to identify the biggest problems BiH women encounter, they remain in the private sphere and mention family violence, child support, getting married and inding

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a job. he lack of other ideas might be attributed to the participants not being involved in any social processes, their lack of knowledge or their being conditioned to think in this way. his comes as no surprise as the BiH society stands in the semi-periphery (Blagojević 2005: 47; Arrighi 1985), where inluences of both the developed countries and the third world countries overlap, causing confusion as to which of the models to adopt. Although they all agree that the position of BiH women should be improved, they have no clear ideas how this could be done. Ater quite a few pauses indicating they cannot think of a clear strategy, they agree with the moderator who mentions education as an emancipatory tool: (WC1): Ja opet svoje, da curici treba više dati (neko u pozadini: … ako je ona obrazovana) da ona završi nešto, ipak muško može naći … više poslova i bolje se snaći, a ipak bi žensko trebalo, ovaj, (WC2): Više ulagati (nejasno) (WC1): i da se više obrazuje, i više u žensko dijete ulagati … Lako će se on opet snaći (WC1): I want to say my thing again, a girl should be given more (others: … if she gets education) for her to inish school, still a guy can ind … more work and get by better, and a girl should, err (WC2): Invest more (WC1): (it is important) … for a girl to get more education and to invest more in a female child … he will get by easily

Even when they acknowledge that education might help women ind a better place in the society, it is because men are presumed to be more capable and resourceful. It remains unclear who should invest more in a girl’s education – her family or the society and who will beneit from it and how. Our participants unanimously mention better legislation as one of the fastest and easiest ways to make a change, although they realize that just passing laws, without implementing them, does not help much: (WC1): Ma taj zakon, ja uvijek, to za ženu zakon treba, ako se to riješi, sve je riješeno (WC2): Zakon isto tako treba sprovesti u djelo i treba poštovati zakon (WC1): Neće niko da ga napiše … to dok žena ne sjedne na vrh prijestola jedna (WC3): A može se to uraditi, sve se to može (WC1): hat law, I always, that’s what a woman needs, if that’s settled, everything is settled (WC2): he law should also be implemented and respected

What it means to be a Bosnian woman

(WC1): No one wants to write it … until a woman takes the throne (WC3): And it all can be done, it can all be done

Our participants realize that there is lack of willingness to pass laws giving women protection but they are not sure who the person (or persons) to write such laws would be. hey do not point their inger to anyone, which might indicate that they do not have suicient knowledge of the legislative mechanisms. One, however, notices that a solution might be a woman who would have the ultimate power in her hands (hence the ‘throne’ metaphor). he exchange ends in a reassuring tone, thus making this moment liberating and almost calling for action. Knowledge, or more precisely, raising awareness, is seen as a possible mechanism to make a woman’s position better: (MC1): S tim što ima više znanja, više ima i mogućnosti da bude, da izbori se sa nekim poteškoćama koje normalno u životu čekaju svakog, bilo muškarca, bilo ženu, nebitno, znači, osvijestiti jednostavno, muškarce i žene, ne samo ženske, ništa se neće postići. (MC2): Ništa se neće postići (MC1): If she has more knowledge, she has more opportunities to be, to deal with some diiculties everyone faces in life, men or women, regardless, so, simply to raise awareness, of men and women, not just women, nothing will be accomplished. (MC2): Nothing will be accomplished

It is not a coincidence that raising awareness includes both men and women, because any other approach to solving this problem would bring no equality, which, according to these women, is the only way the society should function. he reversed situation, where women would dominate men, does not appear to be the answer – they never want to hold power themselves, they simply want to share it: (WC): Obrnuta dominacija opet neće nas dovesti ničemu, opet će muški se organizovati, boriti se za svoja prava i sve to, ravnopravnost (WC): hen again, reversed domination will take us nowhere, men will organize, ight for their rights and all that, equality.

Given the aforementioned discourses, strategies, and contextual concerns we have developed the following model of women’s discourse in BiH. he public sphere/ private sphere circles are barely connected because we cannot deny the presence of working and educated women and women in the public sphere in general nor can we neglect women’s interest in what goes on publicly but we think that a greater degree of overlap is necessary if BiH women are to change the present situation

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106 Danijela Majstorović and Maja Mandić

Discourses producing identities (together with ruptures and contradictions)

Emancipatory potentials/ obstacles

Public sphere: feminism

Private sphere: victimhood, topos of struggle

Diagram 1. Gender discourses operating in the speciic cultural, socio-historical context of postwar, transitional BiH

in their favor. Feminist struggle perhaps needs a BiH rewording in order to be recognized as something they can claim to be their own, something that belongs to all women regardless of where they live and not just import from the West.

6. Conclusions Our intention was to see what subject positions women in BiH occupied in the speciic cultural and socio-historic context of postwar, transitional BiH. his is not to say there are no other gender and gendered discourses on the margin of this society calling for more comprehensive research. However, in the complex patchwork of diferent discourses producing identities such as academic, media, business, legal, political and other discourses, we wanted to elicit these constructions from diferent women in their own words. In this diagram, we see the problems

What it means to be a Bosnian woman 107

but also possible solutions. We have analyzed discourses of only two focus groups but hopefully, with other analyses and the quantitative element, we shall be able to drat some more general conclusions and extract where the potentials lie. Relying on the discursive constructions our respondents provided, we tried to see how their discourses relected their respective subject positions. We noticed how their subjectivities were produced and made salient on the continuum between the patriarchal/traditional values and emancipatory mechanisms as particular forms of knowledge and practice and found that diferent trajectories of womanhood in BiH were expressed in terms of patriarchal submission, victimhood, and sacriice as a correlate to macho-patriarchy. Along with the self-sacriicing micro-matriarchy, we have identiied day-to-day struggle as an emancipatory potential which, although tied to the private sphere, remains an important element in the Bosnian women’s economy of survival. Aside from several ruptures, such as compulsory education for all ater WWII, modernization and a proliferation of jobs, but also the feminist movement in the former Yugoslavia in the 1970s and the women’s anti-nationalist initiatives in the 1990s, the observed struggle in the private sphere alone has obviously not been enough to reverse the situation in BiH women’s favor. Furthermore, the misconceptions about feminism, as an organized political struggle, are certainly inhibiting women’s liberation from the institutionalized and socially acceptable misogyny of today. he prewar, socialist legacy is an important reservoir of opportunities for women in the wake of the galloping capitalist trends which further divide the social classes, the urban and the rural, thus deepening the gap between diferent women and diminishing the chances of true women’s solidarity. his study deconstructs and maps the territory, and highlights the problems in order to shed light on potential resistance mechanisms. Although education is oten seen as a powerful emancipation strategy, and is recognized by our participants as such, we have not observed signiicant diferences in attitudes between our participants. Also, formal education of BiH women on a large scale has been conined to the private sphere thus preventing any form of social organizing among women. Perhaps changes in the formal and rather conservative education in the country has not been lexible enough as to include alternative curricula and cultural/gender studies programs. Also, the NGO sector, as a novelty in our postwar social life, has sufered from the so-called ‘project-driven feminism’ and we still have but few genuine grassroots organizations ighting for social equality. Also, transition may not turn out so bad if women realized their political potential and economic opportunities. Perhaps the best way to document these changes would be interdisciplinary longitudinal studies encompassing a number of different elements that would yield richer and more grounded analyses as well as comparative studies with other similar societies.

108 Danijela Majstorović and Maja Mandić

Bibliography Arrighi, G. 1985. Semiperipheral Development: he Politics of Southern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Beverli Hills: Sage. Balbus, I. 1982. Marxism and Domination: A Neo-Hegelian, Feminist, Psychoanalytic heory of Sexual, Political and Technological Liberation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Chodorow, N. 1978. he Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkley: University of California Press. Blagojević, M. 1997. “Svakodnevica iz ženske perspektive: samožrtvovanje i beg u privatnost”. In Društvene promene i svakodnevni život. Srbija početkom devedesetih, S. Bolčić (ed.). Beograd: Institut za sociološka istraživanja. Blagojević, M. 2002a. “Mizoginija: Nevidljivi uzroci, bolne posledice”. In Mapiranje mizoginije u Srbiji: Diskursi i prakse (2nd edn.), M. Blagojević (ed.). Beograd: Asocijacija za žensku inicijativu. Blagojević, M. 2002b. “Patriotizam i mizoginija: Mit o srpskoj muškosti”. In Mapiranje mizoginije u Srbiji: Diskursi i prakse (2nd edn.), M. Blagojević (ed.). Beograd: Asocijacija za žensku inicijativu. Blagojević, M. 2002c. “Diskriminacija: Neplaćeno, potplaćeno i potcenjeno”. In Mapiranje mizoginije u Srbiji: diskursi i prakse (2nd edn.), M. Blagojević (ed.). Beograd: Asocijacija za žensku inicijativu. Blagojević, M. 2005. “Ko sme da zna? Koncentrični krugovi isključivanja znanja”. In Mapiranje mizoginije u Srbiji: Diskurski i prakse (II tom), M. Blagojević (ed.). Beograd: Asocijacija za žensku inicijativu. Erlich, V. 1964. Porodica u transformaciji: Studija u tri stotine jugoslovenskih sela. Beograd: Prosveta. Evans, S. M. 2002. “Re-viewing the Second Wave”. Feminist Studies 28. Fairclough, N. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge. Gibbs, A. 1997. “Focus groups”. Social Research Update 19. Department of Sociology, University of Surrey. http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU19.html. Harding, S. 1987. “Conclusion: Epistemological Questions”. In Feminism and Methodology, S. Harding (ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Helms, E. 2003a. “he ‘nation-ing’ of gender? Donor policies, Islam and women’s NGOs in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina”. Antrophology of East Europe Review 21 (2). Helms, E. 2003b. Gendered Visions of the Bosnian Future: Women’s Activism and Representation in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Pittsburgh. Kamberelis, G. and Dimitriadis, G. 2005. “Focus groups: Strategic articulations of pedagogy, politics, and inquiry”. In he Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd edn.), N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds). London: Sage. Kašić, B. and Šinko, M. (eds). 2004. Gyné politiké ili o političkoj građanki. Zagreb: Centar za ženske studije. Leinert Novosel, S. 1999. Žena na pragu 21.stoljeća – između majčinstva i profesije. Zagreb: Ženska grupa TOD, EDAC.

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Lemke, J. L. 1998. “Analysing verbal data: Principles, methods, and problems”. In International Handbook of Science Education, K. Tobin and B. Fraser (eds). London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Litosseliti, L. 2003. Using Focus Groups in Research. London: Continuum. Litosseliti, L. 2010. Research Methods in Linguistics. London: Continuum. Majstorović, D. and Turjačanin, V. 2006. “he representation of women in BiH Dailies: Gender and ethnic separation in society”. In Stereotyping: Representation of Women in Print Media in South East Europe, N. Moranjak-Bamburać, T. Jusić and A. Isanović (eds). Sarajevo: Mediacentar. Mies, M. 1983. “Towards a methodology for feminist research”. In heories of Women’s Studies, G. Bowles and R. D. Klein (eds). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Morawski, J. 1997. “he science behind feminist research methods”. Journal of Social Issues 53. Morgan, D. L. 1997. Focus Groups as Qualitative Research (2nd edn.). London: Sage. Olesen, V. 2005. “Early millennial feminist qualitative research: Challenges and contours”. In he Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd edn.), N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds). London: Sage. Papić, Ž. 1997. Polnost i kultura: Telo i znanje u socijalnoj antropologiji. Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek. Papić, Ž. and Sklevicky, L. (eds). 2003. Antropologija žene. Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek. Ramet, S. (ed.). 1999. Women and Society in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press. Sklevicky, L. 1996. Konji, žene, ratovi. Zagreb: Ženska infoteka. Šinko, M. 2004. “(D)evolucija političkog statusa žena: Tranzicijski kontekst”. In Gyné politiké ili o političkoj građanki, B. Kašić and M. Šinko (eds). Zagreb: Centar za ženske studije. Tomić-Koludrović, I. and Kunac, S. 2000. Rizici modernizacije: Žene u Hrvatskoj devedesetih. Split: Udruga građana Stope nade. Van Leeuwen, T. 1996. “he representation of social actors”. In Text and Practices: Readings in Critical Analysis, C. M. Caldas-Coulthard and M. Coulthard (eds). London: Routledge. Wilkinson, S. 1999. “How useful are focus groups in feminist research?” In Developing Focus Group Research, R. S. Barbour and J. Kitzinger (eds). London: Sage. Wodak, R. 2005. “Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: New perspectives for interdisciplinary gender studies”. Lecture presented at 14. Symposium on CDA in Athens on 20 May 2005. Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1997. Gender & Nation. London & NY: Sage.

part ii

Mediating gender in public spaces

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct he appropriation and hybridisation of deontic discourses Ourania Hatzidaki Hellenic Air Force Academy, Greece

his chapter reports on a data-driven contrastive study of Greek men’s and women’s lifestyle magazines.1 Integrating methodologies of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, it explores the hypothesis that, despite their apparently dichotomic gender-oriented diferentiation, these two types of publication bear fundamental discoursal and ideological similarities. he initial quantitative (n-gram-based) analysis of the two corpora reveals an equally striking prominence of the power-expressing feature of deontic modality in both men’s and women’s magazines. he in-depth qualitative (concordance-based) analysis of the instances of deonticity demonstrates that magazine texts systematically simulate and creatively rearticulate a multitude of recognizable voices of authority of the public and private spheres (e.g. oicial institutions, professional experts, educators, parents and older relatives, lovers, friends), seamlessly incorporating the relevant styles and registers (e.g. information lealet, instructions manual, self-help book, teacher scolding, parent counseling, lover’s reprimand, friend’s mock-impolite criticism, etc.) in the magazines’ proposed life scripts. he relentlessly regulative tone is invariably mitigated by the implication that the rules posed are for the beneit of the reader. It appears that the extensive appropriation of canonistic discourses and their skillful and imaginative hybridisation with other replicated non-regulative genres and registers renders deontic

1. I am grateful to Susan Hunston, Inger Lassen, Danijela Majstorović, Dionysis Goutsos, Chryssoula Lascaratou, Spiros Moschonas, Anastasia Stamou and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. I am also thankful to Ioannis Dimou for his help with the statistical calculations. All errors and inconsistencies that may remain are, of course, my own.

114 Ourania Hatzidaki

modality a powerful rhetorical instrument for efectively conveying gender-differential and other crucial (e.g. consumerist/commercial, political) messages in both types of lifestyle magazines. Keywords: critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, gender, deontic modality, Modern Greek, lifestyle magazines, media language, phraseology, prepi, na-complement, n-grams

Introduction Previous research into the discourse of men’s and women’s lifestyle periodicals has demonstrated how such publications create and promote male and female stereotypes, oten presenting men and women as irreconcilable opposites. Indeed, the very existence of the long-established, gender-determined binary division between ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ lifestyle magazines contributes to the construal and perpetuation of a bipolar, Mars and Venus stance towards gender. he reality of magazine production, however, provides evidence for hypothesising that there might exist a greater stylistic, discoursal and ideological commonality between men’s and women’s magazines than we are led to believe by such dichotomic product diversiication. More oten than not, the same publishing house produces both men’s and women’s lifestyle titles (Gough-Yates 2003), while periodicals addressing either a male or a female readership may even share the same editor (Jackson, Stevenson and Brooks (2001: 54); cf. Crew (2003: 62) on how men’s 1990s lifestyle titles were consciously modelled on existing successful women’s monthly ‘glossies’). his process could be expected to result in an extensive crosspollination of editorial policies and practices and, consequently, in end-products which, despite their supericial (or artiicial) divergence, are similar in many fundamental ways. Studies dealing separately with men’s and women’s popular publications also provide evidence for at least partial similarities between such publications, such as for instance, Andrews and Talbot (2000) and Nixon (1996) which deal with the promotion of consumerist values by women’s and men’s magazines respectively. My main aim in this chapter is to ascertain whether the polarity implied by the existence and taken-for-grantedness of these two clearly demarcated categories of publication is justiied in terms of their actual discoursal and, especially, ideological content. To this end, I carry out a directly contrastive quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis of two specially compiled comparable electronic corpora, each containing the texts of a set of women’s and men’s magazines

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

respectively.2 I adopt a research approach which combines methodologies traditionally associated with corpus linguistics (CL) and critical discourse analysis (CDA). his allows the critical examination of the selected body of texts both macroscopically and microscopically. A conscious efort is made to employ both CL and CDA methodologies in a balanced, complementary and mutually informing and enhancing manner (cf. Baker et al. 2008), implementing what could be termed Integrated Corpus and Discourse Studies (ICDS).3 he contrastive study of the two subcorpora indeed revealed that men’s and women’s periodicals bear crucial similarities, the most conspicuous being, as will be shown below, the prominence of deontic modality in the discourse of both magazine types. Deontic modality has been regarded as an archetypical linguistic means of expressing power relationships between communicative parties, especially in institutional settings (see next section). Its high frequency in the present data is taken here as an initial strong quantitative indicator of the assertion of institutional power by discoursal means on the part of gendered magazines towards their target readerships. Closer, qualitative scrutiny of the actual manifestations of deontic modality in both subcorpora reveals, as accounted below, that it functions as a highly lexible and multifaceted, one might say protean, means of creating and sustaining an asymmetrical power relationship between a magazine and its readership, be it male or female, and establishing a similarly authoritarian, ‘patriarchal’ mode of address towards both types of gender-oriented audiences. he empirically generated aim of this article is thus to investigate the textual mechanisms by which the multitudinous and diverse linguistic expressions of deonticity in gender-oriented magazine texts allow such publications to appropriate the role of policymakers determining the behaviour and modus vivendi of the members of both their respective readerships. In particular, I seek to pinpoint the precise linguistic and discoursal characteristics of deontic modality which render the message of obligation especially efective and which appear to be remarkably similar in both men’s and women’s magazines.

2. Del Teso-Craviotto (2006) is a corpus-based study of US gendered lifestyle magazines, albeit not strictly-speaking contrastive. 3. For projects drawing on both corpus linguistics and (critical) discourse analysis, the term Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS) is widely employed (Partington 2006; Duguid 2009; and elsewhere). However, as Baker et al. (2008: 274) point out, the word “assisted” implies an imbalance in the input of CL and CDA. For the purposes of the present project, which involves a systematic efort for both CL and CDA to contribute “equally and distinctly to a methodological synergy” (ibid.), I use the term Integrated Corpus and Discourse Studies (ICDS), as it seems to represent more faithfully the research framework adopted.

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his study focuses on the Greek gender-oriented magazine market. his decision was determined by my own linguistic origins and also by the desire to explore the implications of the transference and adaptation of international popular media discourse practices to a small and linguistically peripheral media market, especially in view of the predominance of the power-expressing discourse of deonticity and the resultant discoursal and ideological efects (the majority of men’s and women’s magazines published in Greece are grecophone versions of well-known international titles – Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, FHM, etc., whilst purely local publications – Diva, Status, Nitro, etc. – are closely modelled on international ones in terms of both form and content). Discourse studies of Greek gendered popular magazines are represented in works by Fragaki and Goutsos (forthcoming) and Goutsos and Fragaki (2009), which are corpus-based, and Polyzou (2008) and (2004), and Kosetzi and Polyzou (2009), which are CDAoriented.

Deontic modality, media power and gender According to Hoye (1997: 43) “deontic modality is concerned with the possibility or necessity of acts in terms of which the speaker gives permission or lays an obligation for the performance of actions at some point in the future” (cf. Palmer 1986: 121). It is associated with speaker or writer authority, namely “the power which an individual or collectivity can exert over another individual or collectivity” (Hoye 1997: 63), especially in terms of directing or modifying the behaviour of the latter. Deontic modality is thus characteristically present in directive types of discourse such as legal texts, whose primary purpose is to order and regulate society by conferring rights and imposing obligations on citizens (Diani 2001: 178; see also Garzone 2001; for deontic modality in Greek legal texts, see Panaretou 2009: 85f., and Moser and Panaretou 2009), or texts specifying the rules governing activities in particular institutional settings, such as the editor’s instructions to contributors of scholarly journals (Giannoni 2001) or library regulations (Fairclough 1989: 127). he obligatory nature of deontic statements and the unacceptability of non-compliance are determined by the status of the deontic source (state, board, scientiic committee, etc.), the communicative purpose of each text, and the exact formulation of the relevant modal expression. Deontic discourse has also been shown to be routinely present in the textual output of institutional sources not vested with the authority to impose formal sanctions for non-conformity, such as, for instance, the mass media. In such cases, deontic language serves as an instrument for constructing and maintaining a power diferential between text producer and consumer for the purposes of efective

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

persuasion associated with the commercial or political interests of the former. Particularly with respect to gendered media readerships, Fowler (1991) demonstrated how deontic modality (amongst other textual features) in the daily press contributes to locating young female readers (sexually active teenagers) at the lowest level of a hierarchy of power, below a series of social authority igures such as courts, professional organizations, experts and parents, or calling into question the competence of housewives in homemaking (their very own area of expertise). Jefries (2007: 186f.) also provides a brief account of how gendered media employ deontic modality as a means of naturalising the ideology of expert advice ofered by a selfasserted authority (a teenage or pregnancy magazine) to an ostensibly insecure and angst-ridden female readership. In the present study, based on a corpus-driven contrastive analysis of deontic modality in Greek men’s and women’s magazine texts, I demonstrate how magazines systematically appropriate various recognisable types of prescriptive discourse and how in so doing they construct themselves as deinitive sources of guidance for the behaviour of their respective gender-diferentiated readerships, and these readerships as in need of such guidance. Moreover, I argue that deonticity is an overarching, all-encompassing linguistic element, which provides the discoursal foundation for conveying gender-oriented messages efectively and persuasively. Deontic statements are skillfully and seamlessly incorporated in the magazines’ life scripts, simulating and rearticulating a multiplicity of familiar voices of authority of the public and private spheres, ranging from oicial institutions and professional experts through to parents and older siblings, and echoing a wide variety of styles and registers, ranging from the neutrality and factuality of an information lealet or instructions manual, through the didactic condescension of a teacher, to the serious or mock-aggressive scolding of a parent, friend or lover. By replicating familiar, socially-sanctioned discoursal stereotypes, deontic messages are rendered inconspicuous and thus essentially implicit in the sense of Fairclough (1989: 127). I argue that the multitudinous and diverse manifestations of deontic modality render the normative gender-oriented messages of men’s and women’s magazines both forceful and subtly pervasive.

he data he present study is based on a 764,346-word corpus of men’s and women’s monthly lifestyle magazines published in Greece. It contains the textual output of the November 2004 issue of every men’s and women’s title published that month in Greece (22 titles/issues in total), with the exception of the FHM and Maxim issues, which were published in November 2005 (the Greek versions of these two

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Table 1. Size of women’s and men’s magazine subcorpora (in bold: Greek versions of international publications) Women’s magazines Title Cosmopolitan Votre Beauté PinkWoman Elle InStyle Celebrity Diva Glamour Madame Figaro Marie Claire Gynaika Vogue Mirror Total

Men’s magazines # of tokens 66,212 48,096 42,673 37,074 32,094 31,197 30,855 28,485 27,567 26,532 22,653 19,106 11,443 423,984

Title Status Men’s Health Nitro FHM Esquire Click Maxim Men Max

Total

# of tokens 57,039 45,988 40,928 39,599 38,743 36,036 35,114 25,463 21,452

340,362

magazines were launched in 2005), and of the Click magazine issue, which was published in October 2004.4 he word (token) distribution per title is shown on Table 1. It should be noted that I have excluded all textual material found in advertisements or any other feature (e.g. advertorials) explicitly promoting a particular trademark (commercial product or service).5 he women’s magazine subcorpus is larger than the men’s subcorpus given the wider range of women’s monthly lifestyle titles in existence at the time of data collection (13 women’s and 9 men’s titles). Greek versions of international publications account for 62% of all women’s titles and 56% of all men’s titles (59% of all 22 titles). For the purposes of the direct comparison of the two subcorpora, an empirical, corpus-driven collocational/phraseological approach was adopted. Previous studies (Duguid 2009; Hatzidaki 2004; Moon 1994 and 1998) have shown how 4. here was a temporary monthly interruption in the publication of Click in November 2004. 5. My aim is, in the irst instance, to study the part of magazine discourse which does not appear to involve direct commercial editorial intervention. It should be noted, however, that distinguishing advertising from non-advertising material is not straightforward, nor is it possible to guarantee the absence of such intervention in the latter (cf. Gough-Yates 2003: 135). Advertisements in Greek men’s and women’s magazines are intended as the object of a separate contrastive corpus-based study.

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

collocational phenomena (multiword units such as ixed phrases and idioms, or patterns at the intersection of lexis and grammar) are put to use by media copywriters in order to subtly and efectively convey ideological messages. As a common automated multilexical criterion for analysing the two subcorpora contrastively, the notion of recurrent word combination (or cluster or lexical bundle) was invoked. his purely empirical linguistic measure, which involves the automatic identiication and extraction from corpora of recurrent contiguous multiword sequences of ixed length (2-word, 3-word, etc. combinations – n-grams), has been fruitfully employed in, for instance, the areas of phraseological analysis of spoken English (Altenberg 1998; Altenberg and Eeg-Olofsson 1990), contrastive analysis of speech and writing (Biber, Conrad and Cortes 2003), EAP and ESP analysis (Cortes 2004, 2006; Nesi and Basturkmen 2006) and contrastive interlanguage analysis (de Cock 2004; Hatzidaki 2006).

Deontic clusters: Structure, distribution and discourse function Distribution and structure In the context of the present study, all identical 3-word clusters (trigrams) were automatically extracted6 from each subcorpus separately, and the 30 most frequent clusters selected for further analysis. he direct comparison of the women’s and men’s top-30 trigram lists revealed a striking similarity between them: 19 out of 30 clusters (63%) were common to both women’s (henceforth W) and men’s (henceforth M) lists. Closer examination revealed that 14 clusters (7 in W and 7 in M), including the most frequent cluster on both lists, constitute lexicogrammatical manifestations of a single linguistic feature, i.e. deontic modality. Table 2 presents all trigrams involved in expressing deontic meanings. It should be noted that these (decontextualized) forms may also convey non-deontic meanings (for instance, the Greek modal verb prepi ‘must/should’, like the English must and should, can also carry epistemic meanings (cf. Palmer 1986: 37); for the distribution of combined deontic and non-deontic uses, see FREQ1 column on Table 2). In the present data, however, they are used predominantly deontically (i.e., for each cluster, in more than 50% of citations; for the distribution of deontic uses only, see FREQ2 column on Table 2). For the purposes of this analysis, only deontic uses have been taken into account: 342 citations from W and 203 citations from M, a total of 545 deontic

6. I used the ‘Clusters’ function ofered by the WordSmith Tools 3.0 corpus processing suite.

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120 Ourania Hatzidaki

Table 2. Frequency of deontic trigrams in men’s and women’s subcorpora (R: Rank on complete trigram frequency list; FREQ1: Overall token frequency of trigram; FREQ2: Token frequency of deontic uses of trigram) Women’s magazines

Men’s magazines

R Trigram

FREQ1

FREQ2

1 4 7 8 17 19 27

θa prepi na ja na mi(n) ke na mi(n) pu prepi na kalo ine na prepi na ine δen prepi na

113 94 71 53 46 43 38

90 59 37 42 44 34 36

Total

458

342

R Trigram 1 4 9 14 22 26 29

θa prepi na ja na mi(n) prepi na ine δen prepi na pu prepi na δen xriazete na oti prepi na Total

FREQ1

FREQ2

74 61 44 38 32 29 28

38 32 33 31 24 23 22

306

203

clusters in both subcorpora.7 he diference between these two frequencies in the W and M subcorpora is not statistically signiicant.8 his result is discussed from a qualitative perspective in the conclusion. In structural terms, of the multiword structures above: a. 9 trigrams (4 in W and 5 in M) involve the archetypical form of expressing deonticity in Greek, namely the modal verb prepi (‘must/should’):9 hese represent the following structures (decontextualized forms are followed by corresponding examples from the corpus): (1) θa prepi na fut-partcl must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl ‘must/should V’

Example (from Elle): (2) i adavjes θa prepi the highlights-nom fut-partcl must-prs:3sg:impers

7. I have also included the allomorphs ja na mi and ken na mi: the inal -n in mi(n) varies according to the initial phoneme of the following word. 8. For 342 out of a total 64,489 trigram tokens in W, and 203 out of a total 43,407 trigram tokens in M, χ2 = 2.03 < 3.84. 9. For arguments on the status of prepi must-prs:3sg:impers ‘must/should’ and boro canprs:1sg:pers / bori can-prs:3sg:impers ‘can’ as the only modal verbs in Modern Greek, see Tsangalidis (2004) and Iakovou (1999).

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

na epanalamvanonde kaθe eksi mines to-partcl repeat-pass:prs:3pl every six months-acc ‘highlights must/should be repeated every six months’ (3) pu prepi na that-nom/acc must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl ‘that must/should V’

Example (from Maxim): (4) ti ine ato pu prepi na what be-prs:3sg this that-acc must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl kani enas andras ja na do-pfv:non-pst:3sg a man-nom in-order to-partcl se riksi sto krevati tu? you-acc:sg throw-pfv:non-pst:3sg into-the bed-acc his ‘What is it that a man must/should do to get you into bed?’ (5) prepi na ine must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl be-prs:3sg/3pl ‘must/should be’

Example (from Cosmopolitan): (6) i kinisi prepi na the movement-nom must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl ine δiarkis, jati eksasfalizi be-prs:3sg continuous-nom because ensure-prs:3sg lipansi ke δiejersi lubrication-acc and arousal-acc ‘movement must/should be constant, as it ensures lubrication and arousal’ (7) δen prepi na not must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl ‘mustn’t/shouldn’t V’

Example (from Diva): (8) na prosexis ton eato su, alla δen to-partcl look-ater-prs:2sg the self-acc your but not prepi na pijenis ke kondra sto xrono must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl go-prs:2sg and against to-the time-acc ‘look ater yourself, but you mustn’t/shouldn’t really go against time’

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(9) oti prepi na that-conj must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl ‘that-conj must/should V’

Example (from Men’s Health): (10) δen simeni oti prepi na not mean-prs:3sg that-conj must-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl γinis o prosopikos tu sakos tu boks become-pfv:non-pst:2sg the personal-nom his bag-nom the-gen boxing ‘it doesn’t mean you have to become his personal punch bag’

Prepi is an impersonal verb followed by a inite10 complement clause introduced by the particle na whose meaning corresponds to ‘that’ in it is necessary that – cf. Palmer (1986: 37) and Holton, Mackridge and Philippaki-Warburton (1997: 200f.). he complement clause expresses the obligation to be fulilled. he negative form (δen prepi na) expresses negation of the main predication (‘mustn’t / it is not permissible’, Coates 1983: 50). According to Holton et al. (1997: 209), prepi may be preceded by the future particle θa (see θa prepi na, the most frequent trigram in both W and M), which “does not alter the basic meaning of obligation but is used to weaken the impact of the assertion and thus make it less direct and more polite” (p. 129). his is a rather complex issue, given that, in the corpus under scrutiny, θa prepi na systematically co-occurs with intensiiers, creating an interesting tension between the mild, advisory tone of the θa structure and the sense of urgency and peremptoriness conveyed by collocation. b. 2 clusters (1 in W and 1 in M) involve the structure ja na (‘so that / so as to / in order to’) in the negative: (11) ja na min in-order to-partcl not ‘so as not to’

Example (from InStyle): (12) ti na forao ja na min what to-partcl wear-prs:1sg in-order to-partcl not arostiso? fall-ill-pfv:non-pst:1sg ‘What should I wear so I don’t get sick?’

10. he verbs in clauses complementing Greek modal verbs bear the morphological features of tense, aspect, person and number.

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

Ja na min introduces clauses of purpose. In the present data, such clauses systematically accompany deontic structures and express the promised or desired result of the fulillment of a deontic statement (Iakovou 1999: 193). c. 1 cluster in W involves the structure: (13) ke na min and to-partcl not ‘and don’t’

Example (from Glamour): (14) na kitate brosta sas ke na min to-partcl look-prs:2pl in-front-of you-gen:2pl and to-partcl not sas enδiaferi ti kanun i ali you-clit:acc:2pl interest-prs:3sg what do-prs:3pl the others-nom ‘mind your own business and don’t pay attention to what others do’

In the present data, ke na min introduces negative imperative-like structures. d. 1 cluster in W represents the impersonal ixed expression: (15) kalo ine na good-nom be-prs:3sg to-partcl ‘it’s good to’

Example (from Madame Figaro): (16) oso jeri krasi ki an exis, kalo as-much strong-acc constitution-acc:sg and if have-prs:2sg good-nom ine na mi vasizese s ati be-prs:3sg to-partcl not rely-middle:prs:2sg on this-acc ‘no matter how good your constitution is, it’s good not to count on it’

Kalo ine na is a ixed phrase introducing inite clauses containing a piece of advice. It represents what Halliday (1985/1994: 365) terms interpersonal metaphor of mood, whereby a mood meaning is expressed outside a clause, by means of an independent (typically formulaic) lexicophraseological element attached to that clause. In this context, kalo ine na constitutes a type of mood annotation (hompson 2004: 235) allowing what is essentially a command (‘don’t count on it’) to explicitly function as advice. e. 1 cluster in M involves the impersonal verb xriazete (need-prs:2sg:impers ‘need’) in negative form:

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(17) δen xriazete na not need-prs:3sg:impers to-partcl ‘it is not necessary to / there is no need to’

Example (from Status): (18) θa leγa oti δen xriazete fut-partcl say-ipfv:pst:1sg that-conj not need-prs:3sg:impers na ise kan eksipnos ja na to-partcl be-prs:2sg even smart-nom in-order to-partcl ta kataferis they-clit:neut:acc achieve-pfv:non-pst:2sg ‘I’d say you don’t even have to be smart in order to make it’

his structure expresses the deontic meaning of negative obligation towards a positive course of action (‘don’t have to / needn’t’, Palmer 1986: 98).

Discourse function he use of deontic modality in men’s and women’s magazines suggests that the reader, whether a man or a woman, is a priori lawed or vulnerable to harmful factors, and that the magazine is legitimated and able to provide deinitive solutions towards correcting or camoulaging the reader’s imperfections, or protecting her/his interests. Deonticity structures are instrumental in the self-construction of magazines as sources of guidance, and the other-construction of readers as in need of such guidance. his is manifested both quantitatively, i.e. by the sheer amount and variety of deontic forms appearing in magazine texts, and qualitatively, i.e. by the functions they perform in magazine discourse. In the irst instance, deontic forms are omnipresent. his is evidenced both in the appearance of deontic clusters at the top of the trigram list of both subcorpora, and in the accumulation of other deontic structures in the context of the clusters. A study of the collocational behaviour of each cluster revealed an average of 2.9 and 2.6 collocating deontic forms per expanded11 concordance citation in W and M respectively. Aside from its ubiquity in the corpus, deontic modality is also characterized by signiicant formal variation. Attested forms range from deontic modal verbs and imperatives, through ixed verbal, nominal, adjectival, etc.

11. he present analysis is based on 370-character (3-line) concordance citations of each trigram. Extended contexts are more suitable for the study of discourse phenomena, which cannot normally be captured by the conventional 1-line concordance citation.

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

phrases expressing deonticity, to well-known Ancient Greek mottoes12 functioning as time-honoured and authoritative deinitions of correctness and appropriacy. he great diversity of deontic forms allows for the creation of a wide variety of normative efects. hus, depending on the choice of deontic form, prescriptive messages may in some cases come across as more direct and unequivocal, or, in other cases, as more subtle and inconspicuous (compare oilis ‘you are obliged to / you ought to’ with ine protimotero ‘it is preferable’ or iparxun eksipni tropi ‘there are smart ways’) (Clairis and Babiniotis (2005) and Iakovou (1999) provide extensive, mainly grammatically- and lexicogrammatically-oriented inventories of Greek deontic structures). Apart from the choice of deontic structure, the efect of a prescriptive message also crucially depends on a series of other lexicogrammatical features which are either incorporated in the morphosyntax of the deontic form, or are manifested as collocating lexicophraseology. One such (obligatory) feature, which has a strong bearing on the efect of a deontic message and is usually expressed morphologically, is the grammatical person and number of the intended recipient of that message. Most prominent forms in both subcorpora are those simulating a dialogue with the reader, i.e. the 2nd person singular-tu form (93 (27%) citations in W and 28 (14%) in M), and the 2nd person plural-vous form13 (86 (25%) citations in W and 68 (33%) in M). his is balanced out by use of the more indirect and detached 3rd person singular form (34 (10%) citations in W and 24 (12%) citations in M), and 3rd person plural form (106 (31%) citations in W and 61 (30%) in M). Two further, optional features which are highly frequent in the texts under scrutiny and interact with deonticity in complex and interesting ways, are negation/negativity and intensiication. he former is expressed either morphosyntactically (δen prepi na ‘mustn’t’) or lexically (ritiδa ‘wrinkle’, ptoxefsi ‘bankruptcy’), and performs two main functions: it either expresses negative deonticity (prohibition, negation of obligation), or describes the laws or threats which justify the need for the magazine’s intervention. Analogously, intensiication, which is mainly but not exclusively expressed collocationally, is used to either heighten 12. E.g. pan metron ariston ‘all in good measure’ (L optimus in rebus modus est), an aphorism by Ancient Greek poet Cleobulus quoted in a Madame Figaro feature, corroborating a prescriptive statement. Numerous Ancient and New Testament Greek mottoes are used in Modern Greek in their original, morphosyntactically fossilised form, and are of high proverbial currency and pragmatic value. 13. he 2nd person plural and the vous form of verbs are formally identical in Modern Greek. Here it is assumed that such forms represent the polite structure, given that magazines normally address individual readers.

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the sense of obligatoriness and emphasize its urgency (pros θeu ‘for God’s sake’, toraaa ‘nowww’), or to stress the seriousness of the relevant law or threat (to pjo … praγma ston kozmo ‘the most … thing in the world’). he features of negativity and intensiication are frequently combined producing the ubiquitous efect of intensiied negativity (e.g. katastroiko ‘catastrophic’, o meγaliteros exθros ‘the greatest enemy’, apaγorevete δja ropalu ‘it is forbidden on pain of death’ – literally ‘it is forbidden by the bat/truncheon’). here is a very high average of 5.7 and 5.6 negative forms per citation in W and M respectively, and an identical average of 2.7 intensifying forms per citation in each subcorpus. he dynamic interplay between the various features mentioned above allows magazine texts to simulate a multitude of recognisable authorised normative voices for the purposes of each speciic context. Here I have attempted to group all 545 deontic trigram citations into 3 data-driven categories depending on the type of familiar prescriptive discourse they appear to recreate. he basic criterion for establishing these categories is their position on a formality-informality / detachment-involvement continuum (Chafe 1982), which seems to correspond to the various styles of familiar deontic discourses,14 depending on their respective sources (public or private, impersonal or personal), e.g. institutions, such as state/corporate organisations; or individuals, such as educators, parents and older relatives, friends. hus: Category 1 includes citations formulated in a formal and detached style, with extensive use of formal lexicogrammar, (quasi-)specialized terminology, or lexicophraseology from the Greek diachrony. he tone is authoritative and factual, resembling that of oicial texts emanating from public and impersonal sources, such as state or corporate institutions (e.g. health organizations, banks, etc.), and addressed to the general public. Examples of such discourse are oicial information booklets/lealets, user’s manuals, instructional books/documents, etc. Category 2 includes citations formulated in a moderately informal and involved style, combining relatively formal or specialised lexicogrammar with features of spoken discourse (discourse markers, colloquial lexicophraseology, etc.). he tone is variously forthright, lighthearted or intimate, echoing public semi-formal written styles (e.g. self-help books), public semi-formal oral styles (e.g. the speech of experts on radio or TV interviews or talk-shows), or private semi-formal oral styles (e.g. doctor/patient sessions). Frequent use is made of the 14. I use the pluralised, countable form ‘(deontic) discourses’ as a concise term for ‘types/categories of (deontic) discourse’; several such types are exempliied in the course of the present chapter (for related uses of ‘discourses’ in a variety of textual/institutional contexts cf. Gee 2005: 26f. and 2008: 156/161f.; see also Dryzek 1997; Reay 2001; Adger et al. 2002; Alsup 2005; Sachs 2001; and elsewhere).

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

Table 3. Distribution of categories of appropriated deontic discourse in women’s and men’s subcorpora Women’s magazines

Men’s magazines # of citations

Total

# of citations

%

%

Category 1 Category 2 Category 3

89 155 98

26 45 29

32 99 72

16 49 35

121 254 170

Total

342

100

203

100

545

question-answer format, either as a transcribed record of the exchanges taking place in a real interview (e.g. with a celebrity) or as an imaginary dialogue between the reader and the magazine in synthesised stereotypical roles (e.g. counselor/patient). Category 3 includes citations formulated in a highly informal and involved style with extensive use of colloquial lexicogrammar or, in several cases, slang. he tone is almost invariably authoritarian, patronizing or reproachful, oten with elements of irony and (mock-)aggression, and appears to replicate personal discourses typically produced by well-acquainted interlocutors involved in hierarchical (employer/employee, teacher/student, parent/child, expert/non-expert) or non-hierarchical (close friends, siblings, lovers) relationships. he distribution of each category in W and M is shown on Table 3. With respect to the distribution of all three categories together in each subcorpus, the application of the χ2 test showed a statistically signiicant diference between W and M (χ2 = 8.26 > 5.59). With respect to the relative weight of each individual category in each subcorpus, the calculation of the mean square contingency quotient (χ2/N) indicated statistically signiicant diferences for all three categories, speciically a greater diference between W and M for category 1 (0.011), which is more prominent in W; a smaller diference for category 3 (0.003), which is more prominent in M; and an even smaller diference for category 2 (0.001), which is more prominent in W. hese results are discussed from a qualitative perspective in the conclusion. In what follows, I present characteristic examples of each category from both W and M, analyse their formal features, and discuss their discoursal and ideological efect. his process will hopefully bring to the fore the multivoiced and thus robust and pervasive character of prescriptivism in men’s and women’s lifestyle magazines.

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Category 1 Example A. he following excerpt from Marie Claire women’s magazine furnishes health-related advice to female readers (the translation equivalent of the concordanced trigram is shown in italics; the Greek versions of each excerpt in approximate phonetic transliteration are shown in the appendix): (19) Moreover, women of reproductive age should avoid stringent diets which may have as a consequence the subsequent malnutrition of the foetus.

his text fragment recreates the neutral and strictly factual style of an oicial leaflet/booklet issued by a health organization, or a medical book destined for the general public. he recommendation on nutrition and prenatal care is expressed by means of the deontic modal verb prepi ‘must/should’, followed by a na-complement clause which states the prescribed action. he verb of the clause (apofevγun ‘avoid’) is in the present tense 3rd person plural, which conveys the meaning of timelessness and general validity, whilst its pluralized generic subject (women of reproductive age) refers to a clearly speciied segment of the female population, with which every relevant member of the Marie Claire readership may identify. hus, although formulated in the detached and non-interactive 3rd person, the recommendation is efectively directed to the individual reader. he deontic statement per se is followed by a relative clause which provides a logical justiication for the advice and acts as a warning: it explicates the adverse consequences of ignoring the advice. he high density of formal negative lexis (stringent,15 avoid, consequence, malnutrition) highlights the seriousness of the issue. his excerpt seems to ofer sensible health-related advice to young female readers. Its medical content and factual tone, corroborated by scientiic-sounding terminology (cf. Jefries 2007: 49) and formal lexicophraseology (δe, ‘moreover’, os sinepia ‘as a consequence’, metepita16 ‘subsequent’), serve to establish the usefulness and informational value of the advice and contribute to the legitimation of the speciic gendered magazine as a source of prescription on serious (e.g. gynaecological) issues. By incorporating the subject matter and simulating the style of a familiar normative text of universally acknowledged institutional status (e.g. the lealet of a public health service), the lifestyle magazine essentially claims this status for itself.

15. he Greek word for stringent (eksandlitikes) is unambiguously negative and literally means ‘exhausting’. 16. Although translated as an adjective, metepita is an adverb.

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

On the other hand, despite the apparent gravity of style and subject matter of this particular text, its health-related concerns remain within the restricted and predictable thematic boundaries of popular periodicals: they relate to the regularly featured beauty-oriented issue of obsessive body weight regulation. his time, however, the emphasis is on its possible side-efects on a future pregnancy. By putting an important-sounding (e.g. medical) spin on one of its constantly reiterated, trademark topics (e.g. preoccupation with physical appearance), the magazine revitalizes it, lends it a sense of consequence, and thus ultimately stages an opportunity for the formulation of a defensible canonistic statement. Example B. he following example from Status men’s magazine, which replicates procedural discourse, concerns the technicalities of hanging a business suit in the wardrobe upon return from work: (20) Before you put the suit in the wardrobe, brush it gently so that dust and pollution are removed and ater that hang the trousers correctly. hey must be in the middle of the hanger and the legs right on top of each other so that creases are avoided. he knee area of the trousers must never be on the wooden hanger (it is the part of trousers that wears most) and it would be good if it were slightly lower.

his text echoes the style of instructional documentation, providing a detailed step-by-step description of a technical process. he appropriate actions and their recommended sequence are expressed by means of ive diferent deontic constructions: two plural imperatives (vurtsiste ‘brush’, kremaste ‘hang’), the modal verb prepi ‘must/should’ (twice), and the ixed expression kalo θa itan ‘it would be good’. Each occurrence of prepi is followed by the verb ine ‘is’ (3rd person singular/ plural of ime ‘be’), whose respective subjects (the trousers, the legs, the knee area of the trousers) refer to the key parts of the suit which need tending. A series of spatial adjuncts (in the middle of the hanger, right on top of each other, on the wooden hanger, slightly lower) indicate precisely the desired position of the trousers on the hanger, whilst the presence of intensiication and negation (right, must never be, most) reinforces the impression of exactness. he use of formal grammar (passivisation, inanimate subjects of na-complements), morphology (elafros17 ‘slightly’)

17. he suix -os in elafros is the Ancient Greek derivational morpheme which forms adverbs from adjectives. When used in Modern Greek, it adds a distinctly more formal tone than the corresponding present-day adverb-building suix -a (elafra).

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and phraseology (sti sinexia ‘ater that’, kalo θa itan ‘it would be good’18), adds to the overall sense of factuality. As in Example (19), the instructions are substantiated by rational-sounding arguments relating to the prevention of undesirable efects (creases, wear and tear). his type of weighty delivery seems incongruous with the excerpt’s rather trite subject matter, a fact which has ideological implications. Hanging one’s suit in the wardrobe ater getting home from work is a routine act normally performed quickly and perfunctorily at a time of fatigue, and desire for rest, nutrition and diversion. In the Status text it is developed into an elaborate process warranting an earnest and methodical analysis and description. In this manner, this mundane action is infused with special signiicance. Adopting a formal instructional style in order to explain in excruciating detail the ostensibly esoteric technicalities of a trivial and straightforward act is a common rhetorical technique employed by both men’s and women’s magazines. Such issues are usually of a consumerist nature (e.g. the daily care of a business suit, the washing and drying of speciality knives, keeping a wine collection logbook), and are oten presented as necessitating the use of specialized, quasi-professional tools (e.g. brush, trimming scissors and white pencil for eyebrow shaping). Such activities are thus elevated to the status of obligatory and complex rituals which evidently require formal induction and instruction such as that ofered by popular periodicals.

Category 2 Example A. he following excerpt from Esquire men’s magazine deals with stress management: (21) 21. Relax your walking pace a little. You do not gain something if you get to the oice three minutes earlier, nor do you miss something if you are there three minutes later. 22. Unfortunately, in our society it has become the norm that we must rush for everything. hat’s not the way it is. Break the vicious circle of haste. 23. Tranquillizers cause sedation, they do not solve problems. You always take them on doctor’s advice, always on prescription, and always temporarily.

Here the magazine simulates the style of a self-help book, whose established role is to ofer reliable and accessible advice on physical and/or psychological problems.

18. his phrase is the past tense form of the expression kalo θa ine. It generally sounds more polite and indirect than the present tense form. For the use of past tenses as a hedging device in Greek, see Iakovou (1999: 115f.).

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

he writer employs the standard stylistic features of self-help discourse, such as bullet points, mildly colloquial lexicogrammar and phraseology, short and relatively snappy sentences – usually paratactically linked, direct but polite reader address (use of 2nd person-vous plural verb and pronoun forms), and rhetorical devices which render advice more easily digestible and memorisable such as ritualized repetition (always … always … and always …) and antithesis (you do not gain something if …, nor do you miss something if …; tranquillizers cause …, they do not solve …). he above excerpt contains part of a set of practical instructions for dealing with daily stress, constructing the reader as a work stress suferer and the magazine as an expert on stress relief. Item 21 addresses the reader’s presupposed habit of rushing to work. To combat the symptom, he is instructed to simply slow down (2nd person plural-vous imperative xalaroste ‘relax’). An adage formulated by two antithetical present tense clauses (you do not gain something …, nor do you miss something…) suggests the reader’s personal responsibility for the occurrence of the symptom, whilst the parallel adverbial structures three minutes earlier … three minutes later and the accompanying vagueness marker kati ‘something’ serve to trivialize his ostensible pursuit of absolute punctuality and emphasize its futility. In item 22, the magazine makes use of the modal verb prepi to refer to an established stress-related social norm (rushing for everything), which at irst glance it appears to condemn (δistixos ‘unfortunately’). he attached aphorism (that’s not the way it is) is probably intended to further refute the stated norm, but is essentially ambiguous as to whether the social sanctioning of haste is a real but unacceptable situation or simply a common misconception (also held by the reader). his makes the invocation of society as a source of stress seem pedestrian and pretextual. he alternative ofered by the magazine, manifested as a forceful imperative which sounds rather like a command (spaste ‘break’), is nevertheless vague and not obviously operationalisable (cf. Jefries (2007: 49–50) on magazine advice that is not really informative). Item 23 clariies the magazine’s ostensibly expert stance on the use of tranquillizers to alleviate stress. Two semantically opposed 3rd person plural present tense verbs (prokalun ‘cause’, δen linun ‘do not solve’), with their shared inanimate subject (iremistika ‘tranquillizers’), formulate a maxim intended to dispel the alleged fallacy that tranquillizers solve stress problems, subtly presupposing that the reader concurs in this fallacy. his is followed by no-nonsense but rather predictable instructions on the judicious consumption of tranquillizers, introduced by a verb in the present tense with deontic meaning (ta pernete ‘you take them’). his represents a case of grammatical metaphor (Halliday 1985/1994; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004), whereby a given meaning, rather than being conveyed by a structure typically used to express it (a congruent form), is actually realised by

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an atypical (incongruent) form, namely one which “originally evolved to express a diferent kind of meaning” (hompson 2004: 203). his process allows the meaning expressed by the metaphor to be reconstrued in the light of the characteristic semantic features of the incongruent structure (cf. Ravelli’s (1988: 137) “feedback efect”). In the example under scrutiny, a directive is atypically formulated as a statement in the present tense (rather than, for instance, an imperative, cf. Murcia-Bielsa 2000), thus allowing it to also be construed as an established habit, or a permanent truth, or a dictum (cf. Clairis and Babiniotis’ (2005: 450) gnomikos enestotas ‘proverbial present tense’). he rhythmic repetition of the intensifying temporal adverb panda ‘always’ further emphasises the universal validity of the statement. Similarly to Example (19), this text appears to furnish the reader with practicable advice on the treatment of a common contemporary aliction. he solutions posed, however, are variously symptomatic, vague or common knowledge, and thus of low or questionable informational value. Moreover, the individual reader is systematically assigned partial or sole responsibility for generating or treating work-related stress, a process which obfuscates the structural nature of this particular predicament. In terms of style, the text is characterised by a relatively informal and casual tone, creating the impression of a closer familiarity between expert addressor and lay addressee. At the same time, however, presenting each piece of ostensibly useful information as an irrefutable maxim makes the text sound mildly didactic and patronizing. Example B. he following example from Votre Beaute women’s magazine provides sexual counseling to a young female: (22) 15. I have an orgasm only when I masturbate. How can I achieve this with my boyfriend, too? Only 30% of women have an orgasm when they make love! So don’t feel guilty. But if you want to also get the same pleasure with your boyfriend you must teach him this. hat is, show him the right spots he must ‘take advantage of ’. Responsible for the… ater-school tutorials were Mr Andreas Bazeos, obstetrician-surgeon-gynaecologist of Great Britain’s Royal College of Gynaecologists, and Mr Stamatis Papacharitou, M.Sc., spokesperson of the Sexual Malfunction Report Centre of the University of hessaloniki.

his text adopts a question-answer format, simulating an expert/non-expert conversation, possibly between a counselor and a patient (the presence of the discourse marker δilaδi ‘that is’ in mid-clause position, adds a distinctly colloquial tone – Goutsos, Hatzidaki and King 1994). his is the inal out of 15 pieces of advice for which the magazine uses the term frondistiriaka maθimata ‘private

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

ater-school tutorials’, a Greek nominal compound with characteristic secondary school connotations, which explicitly allocates the role of teacher to the two specialists and that of struggling pupil to the person requesting the advice, thus efectively mapping one form of hierarchical relationship (teacher/pupil) onto another (doctor/patient). he questioner/respondent asymmetry is accentuated by the experts’ impressive credentials detailed at the end of the feature and meaningfully ushered by the phrase ipefθini ja ‘responsible for’, which typically introduces the part of Greek oicial/bureaucratic texts announcing the person or party in charge of an administrative sector or procedure; at the same time, the suspension points function as a disarming sign of self-relexiveness. he sexual malfunction question is ostensibly posed to the male specialists by a young woman (as evidenced by the word agori ‘boy/boyfriend’ which refers to a male child or teenager, or a young man, and signiies her date), further accentuating the social asymmetry via the element of age diference, also implicating that of gender (young ignorant female questioner – mature knowledgeable male respondents). he reply ofered by the experts concerning the recommended course of action is corroborated by an apparently objective fact, a non-referenced statistic intended to lend credibility to the advice and also to console the reader by emphasizing the commonness of her situation. his is immediately followed by a negative imperative (min exete enoxes ‘don’t feel guilty’) which, via the surface form of a directive, reinforces the message of consolation and encouragement, thus conlating a commanding and a supportive style (cf. Lassen 2003 on the multifunctionality and rich metaphorical potential of imperatives). his imperative presupposes that the reason behind asking the question is not genuine dissatisfaction and frustration, but self-guilt. he transference of responsibility for the reader’s predicament onto herself is consolidated by the advice ofered, whereby the reader is asked to undertake the task of leading her partner through the lovemaking process in order to get the desired results. he deterministic, sure-ire nature of the advice is highlighted by the conditional structure (if you want … you must …), a very common rhetorical technique in both W and M, which formulates magazine recommendations as deinitive solutions. he deontic modal verb + na-complement structure θa prepi na tu to δiδaksete ‘you must teach him this’ also invokes classroom interaction with its conventional unequal teacher-student roles, which, by means of a further deontic statement concerning the male lover (prepi na ekmetaleti – “he must ‘take advantage of ’ ”), are superimposed on the theoretically equal ones of young inexperienced lovers, thus further sanctioning and extending power relations by creating a chain of deonticity. hrough the text the reader simultaneously assumes the roles of instructee and instructor, receiving and issuing guidance, being patronized and, at the same time, seemingly empowered. On the whole, in citations of this category, the feature of deonticity is mitigated or

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compensated by rapport-building or reader gratiication features, which, however, do not eliminate the prescriptive efect.

Category 3 Example A. he following excerpt found in the Celebrity women’s magazine horoscope column ofers advice on personal inances: (23) Finances-Career. You must get your expenses in order and make sure you pay your bills in time, so you don’t face serious problems (like I’ve had my phone cut of again).

Here the writer seems to appropriate the role of a parent or other older relative who is concerned about his/her daughter’s (or younger sister’s, niece’s, etc.) presupposed inancial sloppiness. he advice is formulated around a deontic modal verb (prepi ‘must/should’), while a direct and personal tone is achieved by the use of the 2nd person singular-tu form of inite verbs and pronouns, and colloquial lexicophraseology (e.g. valis proγrama ‘get… in order’). he clause of purpose introduced by the cluster ja na min ‘so you don’t’ constitutes a warning about the adverse consequences of the reader’s negligent attitude. he quotation, in direct speech, of the reader’s ostensibly own words of admittance of a home economics faux pas justiies the cautioning and adds a scolding tone to the text. he ability to quote verbatim demonstrates the magazine’s allegedly privileged access to the intimate details of the reader’s everyday life (cf. Talbot 1995). By means of the prescriptive statement above, which has a characteristic for-your-own-good ring to it, the magazine seems to claim for itself the socially validated right of older family members to counsel or even reprimand younger ones, especially if the latter have somehow erred (repeatedly: pali ‘again’) (the very phrase ja to kalo su ‘for your own good’ occurs elsewhere in the corpus, as the title of a Men’s Health article). Example B. he following excerpt from Men’s Health magazine forms part of a short bullet-point feature entitled aparavati kanones tu protu randevu ‘Inviolable Rules of the First Date’. he men’s magazine appropriates the voice of an evidently desirable woman who, in monologic form, ofers her male date inside information on contemporary dating savoir vivre. his concerns a series of rather clichéd actions such as holding the lady’s coat, taking the seat facing the wall, turning of the mobile phone, ordering food and wine, and paying the bill. his is the inal piece of advice on the list:

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

(24) 7. Pay discreetly. So discreetly that you can do it without me seeing you. And one more thing: you don’t have to show what a big spender you are by leaving the tip for the waiter next to my shapely ingers.

his excerpt refers to the closing part of a irst date meal, speciically the technicalities of paying the bill with the utmost chivalry, i.e. without involving the lady in this ostensibly unromantic transaction. he use of the 2nd person singular-tu form of address identiies the lady’s date with the male reader of Men’s Health and establishes the close familiarity of the dating individuals. he advice is formulated around two deontic modality structures, an imperative (plirose ‘pay’), which functions as an instruction, and the negative deontic verbal structure δen xriazete na ‘you don’t have to’, which, via the surface meaning of negation of obligation, expresses preemptive disapproval (‘you don’t have to’ here means ‘it would be annoyingly gratuitous’). his seems to be a further case of grammatical metaphor, whereby the meaning of reproach is manifested by a structure typically realising the apparently innocuous and semantically irrelevant deontic meaning of ‘no necessity/obligation’. his type of incongruity creates the efect of irony at the expense of the male reader (cf. Coates 1983: 51, who characterises this particular use of the corresponding English modal verb needn’t as an idiomatic imperative conveying the meaning ‘there’s no point, so stop it!’). he full text, which is not reproduced here, simulates a product demonstration, where actions are executed successively in chronological order and are accompanied by verbal instructions in real time. Ironic comments such as the lady’s warning against parading one’s generosity add a strong element of condescension, making the text also sound like a bossy woman’s lecture (accentuated by the use of grammatical intensiication: toso … pu ‘so … that’, poso (aploxeris) ‘what (a big spender)’). his text amalgamates procedural and private discourse, again transferring characteristics of hierarchical (expert/non-expert) relationships to intersexual ones. Although the synthetic female lover addresses the male reader in a rather demeaning manner (also accentuated by the monologic format), thereby appearing to momentarily reverse the traditional power polarity of the sexes, the image of an ideal irst date ‘she’ is depicting is conservative and promotes anachronistic and essentially reactionary values such as gallantry and chivalry. In reality, even though the male reader is ‘being told what to do’, what he is actually being told to do is reassuringly conventional and non-disruptive. Moreover, the lady’s manner seems to conirm the age-old stereotype of desirable woman as demanding shrew. his is another example of a canonistic statement which is accompanied by some form of compensation which mitigates the deontic efect without, however, obliterating it: the pressure to perform exercised on the male reader by this text

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is sustained by the uninterrupted barrage of directives (and also by their content: e.g. the categorical statement, in the excerpt above, that the male partner should be the sole bearer of the expenses of the couple’s apparently exclusive entertainment). At the same time, the minimal informational value of such hackneyed instructions, which presupposes an uncommonly high level of ignorance of dating etiquette on the part of the male reader, creates the impression that they provide an excuse for including some form of deontic statement in the magazine, and thus serve as justiication and reiteration of its prescriptive function. Example C. In the following excerpt from a FHM men’s magazine feature entitled posa plironis ja na kanis sex?19 ‘How much do you pay to have sex?’, the reader is asked to calculate the worth of maintaining a steady relationship, by summing up his weekly dating expenses (transport, entertainment, gits, condoms, phone bill, etc.) and then comparing them with the number of times he has sex with his girlfriend each week, and its overall quality. Expenditure is then ranked according to a set of ive price categories in order to ascertain whether a stable female partner is better value for money than a series of casual ones. he excerpt reproduced below refers to the middle price range: (25) FROM €20 TO €30. Can she do a sensual striptease a la Kim Basinger? Does she demonstrate a special talent in bed? If yes, this is good value for money and you shouldn’t complain: you get what you pay. If not, I’m sorry, but she plays you for a sucker.

Here the magazine confronts the male reader with two successive direct questions and then delivers two alternative judgments depending on his hypothetical (positive or negative) response. he text replicates the discourse of interrogation or cross-examination, albeit humorously, given the untypical content of the questions and anticipated responses. he magazine quizzes the reader about the sexual competence of his steady female lover, which it then evaluates according to monetary considerations, inally producing two possible (mock-austere) verdicts on his choice of partner. In the irst, the magazine grants its seal of approval: a deontic modal verb + na-complement combination (δen prepi na δisanasxetite ‘you shouldn’t complain’) dispels the reader’s presupposed reservations about his preference, while two money-related ixed expressions (value for money, you get what you pay) highlight axiomatically the inancial orientation of the deal. In the second, an ofensive slang phrase (she plays you for a sucker) signals the magazine’s outright disapproval. he negative discourse marker I’m sorry, but, which prefaces the reproof, unequivocally predisposes the reader about the magazine’s 19. he word sex is in English in the original.

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

ostensible dissociation from his preference. he insertion of this bilingual (English-Greek) phrase (sorry, ala), which typically occurs in informal conversations, adds a distinctly colloquial tone to the text. his is an entertaining piece of text, whose humorous efect is produced, on a linguistic level, by juxtaposing conversational and slang features with formal lexicogrammar (e.g. emfanizi ‘demonstrate’, iδietero talendo ‘special talent’, disanasxetite ‘complain/begrudge sth’, etc.; polite 2nd person plural form of reader address), and, on a textual level, by seamlessly blending and simultaneously parodying diverse discourses, such as police interrogation with its relentless questioning, business service provision (e.g. car rental) with its price categories, FAQ and questionnaire discourses with their quasi-dialogic if yes … if not format, and informal conversation with its mock-impoliteness. he latter feature, which is common to several citations in this category, is typical of spoken interactions between well-acquainted interlocutors in both hierarchical (cf. Schnurr, Marra and Holmes 2008) and non-hierarchical (Hasund and Stenström 2004: 331–332)20 relationships. Mock-impoliteness, or banter, is aggressive and face-threatening verbal behaviour which is obviously insincere and remains a surface realization (Bousield 2008: 87). In reality it is a sign of familiarity and intimacy and serves to reairm and ‘strengthen social bonds between the producer and intended recipient’ (ibid.: 136). In the above excerpt, this potent afront-based bonding strategy is replicated in order to synthesize rapport between an impersonal and collective addressor (the magazine) and an anonymous and inscrutable recipient (the reader). By employing this feature, the magazine simulates the ease with which a bosom buddy is able (i.e. authorised) to express unqualiied and plain-spoken, oten ‘inyer-face’ criticism of the most intimate aspects of his friend’s life without causing ofence or any other communicative disruption (cf. Bourdieu’s (1991: 105) view of name-calling as an act of authority).21 In reality, the facetious and partially matey mood of the text acts as an efective means of “disclaiming responsibility for politically unpalatable sentiments” (Benwell 2002: 163), in this case the facile analogy between a steady female lover and a prostitute/stripper drawn by presenting a romantic/sexual relationship as a purely inancial transaction and explicitly assigning to the male partner the role of payer for services rendered. Further still, projecting onto the men’s magazine 20. Hasund and Stenström (2004) use the terms playful dispute and ritual insult. 21. Calling the reader names is a characteristic feature of mock-impolite formulations in Greek gendered periodicals. Reader-addressed epithets in men’s magazines are, for instance, trajelaikos ‘grotesque’, karagjozis ‘bozo’, karmiris ‘pickpenny’, anaxronistikos pimp ‘anachronistic pimp’ and koroiδo ‘sucker’; examples in women’s magazines are θriskolipti ‘churchy’, control freak (in English in the original), and koritsaki ‘little girl / missy’ (used in a deprecatory manner).

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discourse the convivially confrontational and risklessly power-launting atmosphere of a group of male friends or well-acquainted colleagues serves to forestall a potential relex of skepticism or disapproval on the part of the reader, and even present as daringly provocative and uncompromising (and plausible), the crudely chauvinistic and commercially naïve presupposition that a steady female partner should be expected to act as a (human) luxury commodity readily available at a bargain-basement price (e.g. provide professional adult-style entertainment of Hollywood-star standards or display exceptional sexual skills at 20 to 30 euros per intercourse, paid in the form of bus tickets, DVD rentals and anniversary cards).

Conclusion he macroscopic corpus-driven trigram-based quantitative analysis of the discourse of Greek men’s and women’s lifestyle periodicals revealed its primarily regulative character in both types of gendered publications, while the concomitant microscopic concordance-based qualitative analysis brought to light the more speciic textual mechanism employed for the expression of prescription, namely the systematic appropriation by both men’s and women’s magazine texts of diverse powerful and familiar discourses of authority, associated with both the public and the private sphere. hese discourses, which normally originate from institutions entrusted with “delegated authority” (Bourdieu 1991: 109) such as welfare institutes, experts of various kinds, educators, parents and relatives, trusted friends and so on, are recontextualised (i.e. selected, disembedded and reembedded to it the media’s “own distinctive logic” – Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999: 109–110; ater Bernstein 1990: 183–184) within the discourse of another powerful institution, i.e. gendered media, thus endowing it with the relevant linguistic capital (Bourdieu 1991: 51). he appropriation of authorised discourses by such media serves their self-construction as legitimated institutional sources of direction on a focused range of issues (i.e. corporeal maintenance, personal inances, social image, and intersexual and employment relations), and the other-construction of the individual reader as lawed, un- or misinformed, or under threat, and thus as in need of such direction. In this context, the discourse of prescription is constantly underpinned by another compelling discourse, that of concern for the reader’s welfare, which reconirms the usefulness of normative statements (the exonerating ‘for your own good’ principle), and serves to apparently decouple them from their expected associations of restriction and subjugation, a technique which may partly explain their appeal (cf. Hermes 1995: 65; see also Downing and Locke 2006: 206 who argue that the social acceptability of imperatives increases when the actions they prescribe are of beneit to the addressee).

Greek men’s and women’s magazines as codes of gender conduct

he appropriation of deontic discourses by men’s and women’s periodicals and their recontextualisation within the texts of both magazine types is especially resourceful and imaginative. Reproduced public and private sphere deontic discourses constantly alternate in gendered magazine texts, variously foregrounding the diferent characteristic qualities of the respective messages, namely gravity and import for the former (Examples (19) and (20)), and empathy and candour for the latter (Example (23)). Very oten, these qualities are co-present within one single deontic message, typically in reproductions of self-help discourse (Example (21)), in interviews with experts and celebrities, etc. Further still, normative discourses are mixed with other appropriated genres and registers, producing hybrid regulative texts (Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999). Creatively rearticulating deontic discourses in the context of other, frequently incongruous discourses, signiicantly increases the entertainment value of these media texts (cf. the notion of collision of discourses, Fiske 1987: 87), simultaneously serving (and veiling) the advancement of ideological processes such as the reinvigoration and reairmation of conformist or reactionary values (Example (25)), or of questionable associations such as those of the intimate and relational with the hierarchical (Example (22)), the procedural (Example (24)), and the inancial (Example (25)). his study has focused on the textual mechanisms developed by men’s and women’s magazines for the assertion of institutional power towards their respective readerships. It emerged from the corpus-driven analysis that such mechanisms, which largely rest on appropriating recognisable authorised discourses, are remarkably similar,22 so much so that, during data analysis, one is under the constant impression that deontic statements in women’s and men’s periodicals (including those in the so-called ‘lad mags’, such as Nitro, FHM and Maxim) have been written by the same hand. On the other hand, the distribution, and thus the weight of each of the three categories of deontic discourse is signiicantly diferent in each subcorpus.23 hat is, although women’s and men’s magazines are equally prescriptive towards their readers and, to this end, employ the same global textual mechanism (i.e. the appropriation of recognisable authorised discourses), their specialised approach towards their respective readerships is diferent: Women’s magazines tend to favour the reproduction of public deontic styles, such as those of institutions, and self-help and instructional documentation, which, although frequently incorporating rapport-building features, essentially establish a more evidently hierarchical relation with the female readers; on the other hand, men’s

22. See statistical tests applied on Table 2 data. 23. See statistical tests applied on Table 3 data.

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magazines tend to reproduce more personal and ad hominem deontic styles, which, although seemingly more aggressive and patronising, ultimately create an ostensibly more equal and involving relationship between medium and male reader. Prescriptivism is a foundational element of the discourse of men’s and women’s lifestyle magazines. In this study I have sought to pinpoint the precise mechanisms by which the prominent feature of deontic modality serves the advancement of normativity and of medium/reader asymmetry in Greek gendered popular publications. he data analysis showed that, in Greek magazine copy, deontic modality is characterised by omnipresence, rich formal diversity, enormous functional (discoursal and ideological) lexibility and customisability, close stylistic ainity with a wide range of familiar real-life regulative discourses, creative hybridity with recognisable simulated non-regulative discourses, and systematic gender-diversiied use. In its ininite yet patterned guises, deontic modality represents a powerful and highly sophisticated and versatile rhetorical instrument for the conveyance of gender-oriented and other central (e.g. consumerist/commercial, political, etc.) reader-targeted messages.

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Appendix: he Greek examples (transliterations) (19) i jinekes δe stin anaparaγojiki ilikia θa prepi na apofevγun tis eksandlitikes δietes, i opies bori na exun os sinepia to metepita ipositizmo tu emvriu. (20) prin valete to kostumi stin dulapa, vurtsiste to apala na iji I skoni ke to kafsaerio ke sti sinexia kremaste to padeloni sosta. θa prepi na ine sto kendro tis kremastras ke ta patzakia akrivos to ena pano apo to alo ja na apofevγonde i zares. i perioxi ton γonaton tu padelonju δen prepi na ine pote pano stin ksilini kremastra (ine to simio pu fθironde pjo poli ta padelonja) ke kalo θa itan na ine elafros xamilotera. (21) 21. xalaroste liγo to vimatizmo sas. δen kerδizete kati an tasete sto γraio tria lepta noritera, ute xanete kati an iste eki tria lepta arγotera. 22. δistixos, stin kinonia mas exi epikratisi to oti prepi na trexume ja ola. δen ine etsi. spaste to favlo kiklo tis vjasinis. 23. ta iremistika prokalun katastoli, δen linun provlimata. ta pernete panda me simvuli jatru, panda me sindaji ke panda prosorina. (22) 15. exo orγazmo mono otan avnanizome. pos boro na to petixo ke me to aγori mu? mono to 30% ton jinekon exi orγazmo otan kani erota! opote min exete enoxes. an θelete omos tin iδja apolafsi ke me ton ilo sas θa prepi na tu to δiδaksete. na tu δiksete, δilaδi, ta sosta simia pu prepi na ‘ekmetaleti’. ipefθini ja ta … frondistiriaka maθimata itan o k. anδreas bazeos, meetiras-xirurγos-jinekoloγos, melos tu vasiliku kolejiu jinekoloγon tis meγalis vretanias, ke o k. stamatis papaxaritu, m.sc., ipefθinos epikinonias tu kendru anaforas seksualikon δizliturjion tu panepistimiu tis θes/nikis. (23) ikonomika-karjera. θa prepi na valis proγrama sta eksoδa su ke na frondisis na kaliptis tus loγarjazmus su engeros ja na min andimetopisis sovaro provlima (opos mu ekopsan to tilefono pali). (24) 7. plirose δjakritika. toso δjakritika pu na boris na to kanis xoris na se δo. ke kati akoma: δen xriazete na δiksis poso aploxeris ise ainondas to tip ja to servitoro δipla sta kalosximatizmena δaxtila mu. (25) apo €20 eos €30. kseri na kani esθisiako striptiz a la kim beisinger? emfanizi idietero talendo sto krevati? an ne, i sxesi piotitas–timis ine kali ke δen prepi na δisanasxetite: oti plironis pernis. an oxi, sorry, ala sas exi pjasi koroiδo.

Representation of desire and femininity he advertisement in late-modern consumer culture of Japan Toyoko Sato Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

his paper proceeds as a case discourse analysis of a singularly important 1988 advertising campaign, “Hoshii mono ga hoshii wa” (I want what I want) for the Seibu Department Stores, an energetic driving force of Japan’s taste culture. Although the campaign is more than 20 years old, it remains one of the most inspiring advertising campaigns in Japanese history. he case provides an opportunity to study how the concepts of desire and femininity are salient signiiers in late-modern Japan as one kind of representation in paternalistic socioeconomic systems. his paper focuses on both the textual sphere of the campaign and the socio-historical/cultural background of the Japanese consumer society in relation to the semiotic and the social. hus, critical discourse analysis is the chosen methodology. Judith Butler’s (1993) construct of performativity including the concepts of iteration and foreclosure provides the conceptual ground. In my analytical process, I articulate those iterations and foreclosures in the advertisement. For Butler, desire is the desire for recognition and it is connected to the subject’s capacity for self-knowledge. Construing the advertisement as the desire for recognition attempts to show how gender can be perceived as a “doing” and how commercial advertisements can be a site of relection for women living in a late-modern consumer society. Keywords: femininity, performativity, desire, advertisement, department store

1.

Introduction

An advertisement is oten considered a mirror relecting the societal values of a society. his may sound rather passive; in fact, the role of advertisements is pervasive, as they cumulatively penetrate our everyday life. An advertisement is a

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discursive practice. Among the abundance of advertising images in late-modern consumer culture, one of the most frequent stimuli we encounter is the igure of a young female. hey are everywhere enticing to sell us conveniences, sexual fantasies, the good life or aesthetic pleasures of everyday life. his paper analyzes one such example of this discursive practice by investigating the femininity and desire in an advertisement. his is because both desire and femininity have been seminal concepts in our age (Harvey and Shalom 1997; Gill 2007; Johnson and Esslin 2007; hornborrow 1994) especially with regard to the politics of the gaze, which concerns our ways of seeing (Berger 1972; Gofman 1978; Williamson 1978; Mulvey 1989; Fowles 1996; Kress & van Leeuwen 1996; Messaris 1997; Schroeder 1998; Shields 2002). In particular, I analyze an advertising campaign called “Hoshii mono ga hoshii wa” (I want what I want) from Japan’s Seibu Department Stores in 1988. Seibu Department Stores has been attracting audiences through advertising since the 1960s, but its advertising has only come to the fore since the beginning of the 1980s. Although the advertising campaign in question is more than 20 years old, it remains one of the most inspiring campaigns in Japanese advertising history. he case provides an opportunity to study how the concepts of desire and femininity are salient signiiers in late-modern consumer society as one kind of representation in paternalistic socio-economic systems. his advertising campaign has transgressed time, for it can still be seen in an advertising anthology of the art director Asaba Katsumi, Asaba Katsumi: he World Graphic Design Series no. 18 (1995/2007). his is also because the advertisement itself has been a topic of conversation among its audience. For instance, in addition to substantial discussions about the campaign by blog writers who have been eager to voice their opinions in connection to what they think of the “I want what I want” campaign,1 magazine articles (e.g., Kurihara 2007) and a section of an academic textbook (Ishida 2005) are also presented. he advertisement itself is an on-going story of discursivity. his paper ofers a new dimension to the discussion. At a theoretical level, I employ Judith Butler’s constructs of gender and articulate concepts of the subject, desire, and femininity in connection to Butler’s construct of performativity, which is a domain where power acts as a discourse and is a “discursive practice which enacts or produces that which it names” (Butler 1993: 13). On the analytical level, this paper focuses on both the textual sphere of the campaign and the sociohistorical and cultural background of the Japanese consumer society in relation to the semiotic and the social spheres. hus, critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a methodology ofered by Chouliaraki and Fairclough (1999) is used. CDA 1. One of the most renowned blog texts on this theme is by Miura Atsushi, market researcher and sociologist. http://www.culturestudies.com/consumption/consumption12.hhhtml.

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encompasses three types of analysis: (1) analysis of text, which includes both the verbal and the visual; (2) analysis of the processes of text production, distribution, and consumption; and (3) analysis of the discursive event as a whole. In order to fulil (2) and (3), this study also utilizes interviews with the advertiser and its advertising creative staf, as well as archival works. Depictions in advertisements are not necessarily there to show us how we actually behave as men and women. Rather, advertising expressions subconsciously compel us to think a certain way about how men and women behave (McLuhan 1967; Gofman 1978). According to Walter Benjamin, an advertisement is an apparatus that fashions the desires of an era and a society (1969). Yet, such penetration is not always direct, simple, or easy to grasp. Advertisements may appear to us as a distraction (Zerstreuung) at irst but then iniltrate into our lives imperceptibly as time passes (Benjamin 2002). hus, the task of this paper is to show the process of the construction of the two intertwined themes – the feminine and desire – that speak to the audience in Japan and beyond. In the process of articulation, this paper also aims to show how commercial advertisements can be a site of relection for women in our own age. In the following sections, I irst introduce the concept of performativity in relation to desire and femininity. A methodological section and a case analysis section follow thereater.

2. Conceptual background he central theme of Judith Butler’s concept of performativity revolves around an argument that gender is neither a noun nor a set of free-loating attributes, but an act of doing. As a term, performativity is diferentiated with performance. hen, what does it really mean to say that gender is an act of doing? J. L. Austin’s deinition of performative utterance helps to understand this question. According to Austin, what we need to study “is not the sentence but the issuing of an utterance in a speech situation” (1961: 139). Austin deines the performative utterance in two ways: (1) it neither describes, reports nor constates; that is to say, the utterance does not say whether it is itself true or false; (2) the uttering of the sentence is, or is a part of, the doing of an action, which again would not normally be described as “just” saying something. Performative in this situation means: (1) to require or need and (2) (with a second or third person as the subject) should, or ought to. In contrast to a sentence that simply conveys information, a performative sentence is a set of words that performs an action such as “I thee wed” or “You are ired.” hese sentences enact or interpellate, an Althusserian term (1971), the addressee.

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Appropriating Austin and Althusser, Butler (1990, 1993, 1997a, 1999) calls this utterance of performative power performativity. Performativity is the domain in which power acts as a discourse. For Butler, there exists no “I” behind the discourse that enacts its agency. “I” only emerges into being as it is called, named, and interpellated. Butler uses the word discourse speciically in reference to Foucault’s formulations of discourse, which is a large group of statements that govern the way we speak about and discern a speciic historical moment or moments. hese statements, as repeatable events, are connected by their historical context. Foucault (2000) draws attention to the subject positions presupposed by the utterances and the way in which subjects are discursively constructed. hen, how does performativity relate to desire? According to Butler, desire is closely connected to the process of coming into consciousness. It is connected to the subject’s capacity for self-knowledge: “an interrogative mode of being, a corporeal questioning of identity and place” (1987: 9). hus, for Butler, desire is the desire for recognition and self-consciousness. he Self is able to know desire only through recognizing and knowing another. Hence, desire is always desire for something “Other.” he subject can only discern itself through an “Other.” Butler points out that Hegel, in Phenomenology of Spirit, describes that the subject comes to know itself through the recognition and subduing of diference. In other words, desire metaphorically consumes the Other, a process Hegel calls Auhebung. Aufhebung has a threefold meaning in English: of liting up, canceling, and preserving. According to Butler, Auhebung is a “developing sequence” of desire, “consuming desire, desire for recognition and desire for another desire” (1987: 43). he Self can recognize itself only through the process of Auhebung. What is the condition of the Self in being a woman? Butler maintains that being a woman is performative and “a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame” (1990: 33). It is connected to power and discursively iterated and mimed, much in the same way a judge, for instance, cites the law that is applied in order to authorize and install a verdict. In relation to gender, the law begins with a midwife’s cry, “It’s a girl!” he naming of the “girl” is the process that compels a layered series of “girling” to one who was just born.2 he formation of the subject is preceded and conditioned by the discursive condition of social recognition that entails the foreclosure or cultural and societal exclusion of women. It is, therefore, recognition that forms that subject. Yet, subject formation is incomplete and unstable, for one’s social identity is inaugurated and mobilized by an equally unstable and incomplete society. 2. he case of South African athlete Caster Semanya is an extreme recent case. Several Olympic athletes’ cases apply to what Butler says about the “midwife’s cry” or “girling.” Gretel Bergmann, the 1936 Olympic athlete, is another example of this (Politiken, November 29, 2009).

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Butler does not claim that gender is a performance but “performative, that is, constituting identity it is purported to be” (1990: 24–25). his is because performativity “is not a single act, but a repetition and a ritual, which achieves its efects through its naturalization in the context of a body, understood, in part, as a culturally sustained temporally duration” (Butler 1999b: xv). While Butler’s theory substantially inluenced feminist understanding of gender, it has not been immune to criticism. here are two streams of criticism in connection to the theme of this paper: its abstract account of subject formation is seen as too remote to be useful (McNay 1999; Fraser 2008), and Butler does not ofer an account about how to approach discourse itself (Speer and Potter 2002). It is precisely this articulatory juncture that this paper attempts to explore with critical discourse analysis, which is discussed next.

3. Methodological approach Discourse has assumed the role of common currency amongst researchers in various ields of humanities and social science. Because of the wide range of usage of this term, diverse meanings are attributed to it. he paradigm of critical discourse analysis is not homogeneous. Yet, it is agreed among discourse analysts that discourse is a form of social practice (Wodak et al. 1999). How then can we approach advertisements as representations? I utilize critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a methodology. Lilie Chouliaraki and Norman Fairclough (1999: 10) state that an advertisement is one sort of cultural commodity that consists of signs in which both words and visual images partake in the discourse. hus, in addition to written texts, visuals can also be analyzed as a part of the discourse. Here, the term discourse is used as: … semiotic elements of social practices. Discourse therefore includes language (written and spoken and in combination with other semiotics, for example, music in singing), non-verbal communication (facial expressions, body movements, etc.) and visual images (photographs, ilm). he concept of discourse can be understood as a particular perspective on these various forms of semiosis – it sees them as moments of social practices in their articulation with other extra-discur(1999: 38) sive movements.

For Fairclough, CDA signiicantly involves “the relationship between texts, processes, and their social conditions, both the immediate conditions of the situational context and the more remote conditions of institutional and social practices” (2001: 26). hus, the analysis deployed in this paper has three dimensions. Examining and analyzing the distinctive semiotic elements of the visual and the verbal

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aspects of the text under consideration is the irst and major dimension of CDA, while interpreting the text as these relate to text production, consumption, and distribution, is another dimension indispensable to CDA. he other dimension is to evaluate the text as an overall social practice. CDA as a methodology can be complemented by Butler’s performativity, for the latter is not a single act but a repetition and a ritual, which means that this repetition or ritual can be treated as a disposition that is open to being construed (Chouliaraki 2002). Such attempts have been conducted elsewhere (e.g., Litosseliti and Sunderland 2002; Mcllvenny 2002). his paper adds another dimension to those with a representation of the Japanese advertisement. For the actual analysis, I use Chouliaraki’s framework. In her paper, “Towards an analytics of mediation” (2006), Chouliaraki proposes four categories for CDA: the visual, the verbal, the relationship between the visual and the verbal, and the aesthetic quality. Although her analytics are speciically ofered for the hypermediated environment of television news and “seeks to integrate the multi-modal with the critical analysis of discourse” (2006: 153), I found this framework useful for texts of “still” images such as the advertising poster for this study. I amended Chouliaraki’s framework and present it in the following order. First, a background to the Seibu advertising campaigns is provided. Second, an analysis of the visual elements is performed. In particular, I describe and analyze the visual in relation to its composition, physicality, materiality, and colour. hese sub-divisions are inspired by both Gofman (1978) and Kress and van Leeuwen (1996). hird, I analyze the verbal, which consists of the campaign slogan and the body copy. he latter is the jargon of the text within a print advertisement that helps to explain or qualify the campaign slogans, headlines, or sub-headlines. he verbal is followed by an evaluation of the poster’s efects on the aesthetic plane. hen, I evaluate the overall discourse of this campaign. I conclude with a discussion of the advertising discourse in connection to its audience, its society, and its historical signiicance.

4. Analysis of the advertisement

he background Seibu is one of Japan’s top department stores, as mentioned earlier. It has been an energetic, driving force in Japan’s cultural taste for decades. During the 1980s, Seibu was known as an advertiser who emphasized images of lifestyle in its advertising campaigns (Havens 1994; Ueno 1998; Sato 2010). According to Asaba Katsumi, art director of the advertisement under study, the theme of this advertisement is “A kiss at sixteen.” he campaign tried to appeal not only to youth

Representation of desire and femininity

Creative Director: Itoi Shigesato, Art Director: Asaba Katsumi, Designer: Takada Masaharu, Photographer: Sawatari Hajime, Copywriter: Itoi Shigesato

Figure 1. he 1988 Seibu Department Stores campaign: “Hoshii mono ga hoshii wa” (I want what I want)

but also to all generations who once had or will have such an experience (Asaba interview, September 2007).3

3. Data: his advertising campaign constituted an ofset print poster, newspaper/magazine advertisements, and a TV commercial. he poster was displayed inside and outside of the Seibu Department Stores and railway and subway stations. Itoi Shigesato was the creative director and copywriter. Asaba Katsumi was the art director, and Takada Masaharu was the designer. he photographer was Sawatari Hajime.

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he visual Composition: his print advertisement is composed of a studio photograph, the advertiser’s logo, and text consisting of a campaign slogan and advertising copy. With careful observation, one may notice that the photograph is mounted on a white space, which works something like a photo frame. his efect captures the couple as if they are in a photo frame of the moment of irst love. he logo is situated at the top let of the plane, whereas the copy is set at the bottom right. he plane is divided diagonally from the top let corner to the right bottom, almost in a symmetrical manner. he campaign slogan is set on the right side of the mounted white background, which is at the same time the let side of the diagonal line. he photograph highlights a couple on the verge of kissing. Neither the boy nor the girl is gazing at the viewer of the advertisement but they are facing each other. he photo, in proile, focuses on the heads and necks of the two. he girl is positioned on the let side of the diagonal line, whereas the boy is situated on the right side. he emphasis is clearly on the girl, because of the manipulation of the studio lighting. Physicality: his is a photo of a couple, one second before they kiss. All we see are their heads: the tilted proile of the boy focuses on his lower jaw and face and the side of the girl’s face with her neck stretched upwards. No other parts of their bodies are shown. he couple appear to be teenagers. he photographic emphasis is on the girl, who holds her cheek up and presents her long neck to her counterpart. Her eyes are closed, but her lips appear to be slightly opened. Her hair is pushed behind her ears. Straight fringe falls around her eyebrows. here is no trace that her eyebrows are plucked for cosmetic reasons. Meanwhile, the boy is not quite secondary in this advertisement. His eyes are closed, just as his counterpart’s are. His most notable feature is his hair style, which is modiied to a punk-like feel with slanting sideburns that have been carefully sculptured. Materiality: What is immediately noticeable is the lip-gloss on the girl. On the boy, there is a hint of hairspray that holds his hair up. While some mascara and blusher might have been used for photographic enhancement, the overall tone of the photo is rather natural. here are no props involved in this scene. he couple’s social or class backgrounds are unknown. Colour: he ruling shade of this advertisement is white. he campaign slogan, the copy and the logo are all in the same black shade. his harmonizes with the colour of the couple’s hair. he skin colour of the girl is slightly fairer than that of the boy. A subtle but signiicant diference between the two is the respective colour of their lips. he colour of the boy’s lips does not contrast with his facial

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complexion, whereas the girl’s lips show a pink-orange hue and appear to be the focal point of the advertisement. In fact, this colour functions as a signiier of an immaculate, yet erotic, enticer of adolescence, while the black-and-white colour combination appears to symbolize an ascetic aspect to which the aesthetic visual efect of this advertisement appeals.

he verbal he campaign slogan: “Hoshii mono ga, hoshii wa” (I want what I want). his slogan is a tautological sentence with the repetition of hoshii signifying desire or want in English in both the adjective and verb form. For the purpose of translation, I chose the word “want,” because “want” in English is rather more casually used than “desire” and its the climate of the Japanese text. Both the Japanese version and English translation can be argued as linguistically performative, according to John L. Austin’s deinition. his is because the verb “hoshii/want” has the meaning of: (1) to require or need, and (2) (with a second or third person as the subject) should, or ought to. Although it is not unusual in Japanese, the grammatical subject is not speciied in this sentence. In fact, the “I” in the English translation of the campaign slogan is missing in Japanese. he person who utters the slogan, nevertheless, is most likely the girl. here are three reasons for this assumption. First, this is because of the wa suixed to the sentence Hoshii mono ga, hoshii wa. his interactive particle, wa, is mostly used as a particle for females (Ide 1979).4 Second, all of the advertisement’s copy is written in hiragana script, which was created and used by female aristocrats in the Heian period5. In contrast to the use of kanji (Chinese characters) and katakana (another script style), the use of hiragana is still perceived as a representation of the feminine in Japan. hird, there are different versions of this “I want” campaign, in which totally about twenty men and women are photographed together. he wa does not appear in the slogan. Hence, the particle wa was chosen intentionally to emphasize the voice of the girl. McGloin and Ide (1991) state that wa has two diferent functions that are relexive in nature. First, it indicates deference to the addressee’s feelings. Second, it sotens the statement, which can be efective as a strategy of negative politeness. Ide states:

4. According to Ide’s quantitative research (1979), the particle wa was used by 88.9% of female college students, whereas only 11.1% of male college students used it. 5. he Heian period falls between 794 and 1185.

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… it is the sotening function of the particle wa (the efect of positive politeness strategy) that makes it possible to create an atmosphere of relaxation because of its function of no-imposition and respect for the other, which in turn creates an atmosphere of sharedness (the efect of positive politeness strategy). (Ide 1992: 126)

Accordingly, as we see this wa as a strategy of politeness, it can be said that the girl is telling the reader, “I want what I want” with the nuance of negative politeness mingling with a sotening linguistic tactic. On the other hand, wa, when used with a high rising tone, expresses airmation and is exclamatory (Yamaji 2006). he slogan, thus, can be seen dually. he body copy: he body copy is composed in verse. It attempts to ensure the campaign slogan inds the direction that the advertiser intends. he inal line is the campaign slogan, which is expressed by the use of a larger font than that of the copy. Yet, the copy and the slogan form part of one verse. Below are the Japanese copy and the slogan rewritten in Roman letters, with the English translation below that: (1) Hoshii mono wa itsudemo, aru’nda kedo, nai. ‘Even though there are things I always want, they are not.’ (2) Hoshii mono wa itsudemo, nai’nda kedo, aru. ‘Even though there is nothing in particular I want, they exist.’ (3) Honto ni hoshii mono ga aru to, sore dake de ureshii. ‘When I have that which I really want, I am delighted with just that.’ (4) Sore dake wa hoshii, to omō. ‘I think that is all I want.’ (5) Hoshii mono ga hoshii wa. ‘I want what I want.’

In the copy, the word, hoshii, appears in every sentence. he irst two lines are syntactically parallel phrases, which imply that “things I want (hoshii mono)” simultaneously exist and do not exist in and for “I.” he words, aru and nai are contrasted as positive and negative: aru’nda kedo, nai (line 1) and nai’nda kedo, aru (line 2). he verb, aru means to have (possession) or to be (existence). he verb, nai in Japanese is the antonym of aru. here is no equivalent verb in English for nai, which evokes a feeling of nothingness (no thing-ness). Although such an evocation opens these short lines equivocally and/or metaphorically, deploying nda, which is derived from the auxiliary verb, noda, gives the phrasing a sot and informal impression.

Representation of desire and femininity

he third line appears to be a statement that the “I” becomes happy, as “I” has the thing that “I” desires. Here again, aru (to be and/or to have) is the key, for both “to be” and “to have” are a condition of the consciousness of “I,” so that the fourth line could be interpreted as a strategy to realize the desire of “I” with continuous choices, because to be as well as to have are tantamount to meaning to choose in connection to “want.” Seeing it this way, the ith line, which is the campaign slogan, emerges not only to ask for the sympathy of the reader but also declares a longing or a sighing desire: “I want what I want.” Furthermore, the text interpellates, in Althusser (1971) and Butler (1993) terms, into “You want what you want.” “You” are the spectators of the advertisement. hus, this interpellation as an imperative, appears to order “you”; “Want what you want.” As in the campaign slogan, the “I” in the English translation is missing in the original Japanese. his grammatical scheme makes the “I–You” shit smooth and natural. It is crucial to notice that “I” is happy when “I” knows what “I” really wants. Knowing precedes possession or acquisition of the particular thing. his is a key statement. I will discuss this implication in the discourse section.

he aesthetic In terms of the advertisement’s graphic design, the 1988 Seibu Spring Campaign is classic. It heightens the spectator’s aesthetic contemplation of youth. he photograph used here gloriies youth as a sublime state. he exaggerated close-up technique on their proiles epitomizes the representation of the kiss. his, however, is not a kiss scene appealing to déjà vu as we carefully observe. he models’ postures at irst glance seem to be classical, in which the boy’s head is slightly above the girl’s, his lips are slightly lower than hers. Contrast this, for instance, with the wellknown kiss scene from the ilm poster for Gone with the Wind, a ilm originally produced in 1939. here is much less appeal for masculinity in this advertisement than in the Gone with the Wind poster. he viewer does not know whether or not the boy is embracing the girl in his arms. Instead, the centre of attention in this advertisement is the girl as the protagonist as she stretches her neck and holds up her cheeks and is ready for the coming moment. Her straight fringe of bangs, fresh cheeks, and natural eyebrows appear to symbolize an eternal maiden, such as Shakespeare’s Juliet. In this advertisement, there appears to be order, deiniteness, symmetry, and harmony that Aristotle deines as the properties of the aesthetic (Aristotle 1941). Yet, this Juliet-like image, particularly her lips, deconstructs the aesthetic image created. he texture of her glimmering orange-pink lips is the signiier of bodily

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Figure 2. Gone with the Wind (© Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved)

attraction. In contrast to the austere appeal of the overall graphic tone, which is composed of the irreducible combination of black and white, her orange-pink lips emphasize the girl’s feelings, sensations, preconceptions, and willingness towards the kiss, which is one form of a physical relationship, even though the space that the lips occupy in this plane is only marginal. In other words, the design of the photo does not psychologically distance the spectator from the advertisement but rather gives proximity. his strategy keeps this iconic photograph within a sphere of desire, which is a necessary condition of an advertisement (Uchida 1983). his is because the spectator’s aesthetic contemplation is negated by the girl’s lips and her indirect or assertive declaration (depending on how we interpret the particle wa mentioned above), “I want what I want,” which was uttered, or will be uttered, through her lips.

Representation of desire and femininity

To sum up, the 1988 Seibu advertisement has, it seems to me, an efect on three levels. It lits up the spectators’ aesthetic contemplation. It then negates this heightened aesthetic contemplation, and at the same time, it preserves their interest in the advertisement. hese three separate phenomena appear to be happening all at once as Auhebung and move us toward connecting with Judith Butler’s interpretation of power and subjectivities to be considered in the discussion section.

he discourse he campaign is polysemic and equivocal at the same time. First, this is a discourse of consumption, which is declared, advocated, and advertised by the retailer giant, Seibu Department Stores, using the voice of a consumer, the girl in the advertisement. his desire cannot, thus, simply be understood as a demand that consumers want what they want. his is a twisted discourse encouraging consumption. he advertisement shows the moment when the thing wanted is going to be attained. he object of the thing wanted is depicted as a kiss, which is a metaphor of love, in particular, of being in love, to which the feelings attributed, in this case, can be afection, intimacy, and physical attraction. Love works as a medium of interpersonal relationships on various levels, so that this kiss can be seen as a irst step towards the girl passing through a gate from childhood to adolescence. Presenting the adolescents as wanting each other, the advertisement questions the audience about what they desire. he desire signiies the audience, with their various positive expectations, rushing into the Seibu department stores, and walking around every loor to ind something that they want. Seibu Department Stores sells not only material goods but also opportunities for travel and events such as art exhibitions, concerts, and lectures/symposiums of all kinds (Creighton 1992; Ueno 1998). his desire expressed is a marketized and commodiied desire at best for the good or bad for all of us in the so-called society of choice, which is itself socially constructed. he fresh visual impact and the skilful copy of the advertisement show a touch of innocence. Nevertheless, the “I want” campaign cannot avoid being inluenced by the saturated consumer society. Speciically, there is a sort of negation in the verbal text that can be called a discourse of descent desire. his discourse can be a relection of driting desire in a late-modern consumer society. his descent is at a symbolic level, and it is for desire’s connection with a social climate of saturated aluence, which does not necessarily verify, but relects the real economy of the Japan of 1988 in which this advertisement was distributed. his was the period of Japan’s bubble economy, which began with the Plaza Accord in 1985 between the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, in which it was

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agreed to devalue the US dollar to the Japanese yen and German Deutsche Mark by means of intervening in the currency exchange market. Within two years, the US dollar had depreciated to half its original value against the Japanese yen, and this accelerated not only the intensiication of Japan’s foreign investments, but also the expansion of its import market at home. However, this did not substantially lower the retail prices of imported goods (Matsubara 2000). Rather, the weak dollar and the plethora of foreign goods available to Japan’s consumers meant that hitherto stable social values were at stake. While the index of Japan’s consumption continued to rise (Matsubara 2000), the feeling of a rapid artiicial aluence that had not taken root in Japan’s historically resource-limited soil made the desires of the consumers descend adversely. “I want X” (e.g., a Gucci bag) was replaced by “I want what I want,” which meant that one would not be able to be fully satisied materially in the economically saturated society. To the contrary, this was a world that lured individuals into uncertainty. In such a context, desire might be considered endless and by seeking its object through a repeating action, never would bring satisfaction. Obtaining that which one wants appears not to be the aim of desire. What Seibu presented was not the world of horsten Veblen, where conspicuous consumption was a way of life for the leisure class who used commodities to show of their wealth (Veblen 1902). Rather, the end of desire is, itself, desire. his discourse of descent desire parallels an observation by Mizuno Seiichi, then President of the Seibu Department Stores. According to Mizuno (1990), to his surprise, many of the audience appeared to interpret the advertisement to mean that what one wants is undiscoverable.

Discussion here are ive points to discuss. First, the desire that was talked about in this advertisement is part of a semiotic and abstract construct. One of the most crucial theoretical points about the advertisement concerns the desiring of the female as a subject. Butler explained that all her work remains based around a set of Hegelian questions: “What is the relation between desire and recognition, and how is it that the constitution of the subject entails a radical constitutive relation to alterity?” (Butler 1999a: xiv). Butler stressed that desire is important for self-relexivity and cannot be relected without a process of mutual recognition with another that is called the Other (2004). he Self ’s consciousness comes from outside of itself, and the Self inds consciousness in the Other. hus, desire for recognition is realized in the Other, so that desire is desire for the Other. he only

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way that the Self can know itself is through the Other. Hence, desire is the metaphoric consumption of the Other. hus, a pertinent question in this context is, who is the Other in the advertisement? here are two levels of response of the Other in the advertisement in question. For the girl featured in the advertisement, the immediate Other is the boy, whose Other in turn can be the girl. hus, this coming kiss between the two will be realized as a relection and recognition of the Other’s desire. he kiss, in this light, will also be a symbolic action for consuming or unifying with the Other. he desire is a desire for uniication. On a metaphorical level, it can be said that the Other is the soul of the late-modern consumer society, which has numerous tentacles with which it is able to attract a consumer who is a subject of and a participant in the society. his appears to be a source of frustration for the social subject, because attaining self-knowledge is becoming increasingly fuzzy. Even though, as in the text, there are things the subject always wants, they are not always there, and even though there is nothing in particular that the subject wants, things exist. As a result, the subject utters: “I want what I want.” his equivocality is presented not only as true for the girl but also for the audience in late-consumer society. Second, how is citation done in the “I want” campaign? I ask this question because citing is what constructs the feminine, as we saw in Butler earlier. I see four citations for this question. he irst citation is the suixed interactive particle wa of the campaign slogan mentioned earlier. his particle is predominantly for female usage and was chosen intentionally for this slogan by the advertisers. he second citation is the models’ hairstyles. he male model’s hair in the advertisement is done in a moderate punk style. While there may be some women with this style these days, this style was trendy among young males in Japan at the time (Asaba interview, September 2007). In contrast, the female hairstyle has not been done in a hip fashion. Her straight fringe and hair set behind her ears (perhaps for an unseen ponytail) is a typical, long-lasting and perhaps idealized hairstyle for Japanese female students (jyogakusei) that signiies naivety and modesty. he third citation is their lips: hers with and his without lip gloss. Putting on lip gloss or lip stick is usually seen as a practice for a woman. hus, while the hairstyle appears to attribute naivety and modesty to the girl, the lip gloss implies that the girl is a little more than just a girl. She is constructed as a person who is becoming a woman. he fourth citation is the models’ postures. As mentioned in the visual section, this is a typical kiss scene in which the male’s head is higher than the female’s, and the female appears to be willing to “receive” his kiss. hese citations efect gender as iterated being and reproduce the feminine as a disposition. Furthermore, they act as inscriptions of gender as performativity and one attribution of gender is “becoming” through citations.

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Butler emphasized that performativity is reiteration that constitutes “the power of discourse to enact what it names” (1993: 187). Butler wrote, … femininity is not ‘the product of a choice, but the forcible citation of a norm, one whose complex historicity is indissociable from relations of discipline, regulation, punishment’. Indeed, there is no “one” who takes the gender norm. On the contrary, this citation of the gender norm is necessary in order to qualify as a “one,” to become viable as a “one,” where subject-formation is dependent on the (1993: 232) prior operation of legitimating gender norms.

To be sure, performativity has both negative and positive signiicances. When it works as a negative, performativity enacts as exclusion or foreclosure. It also may afect the potential to “open the signiiers to new meanings and new possibilities for political resigniication” (Butler 1993: 187). Although the advertisement in question does not appear to be the “forcible” citation of a norm, the sot power of citations is evident. Sot power is not actually sot in practice, as can be seen close up, for instance, in Japan’s employment policy. As Sano Yoko pointed out, while Japan established an equal opportunity law for employment in 1985, the dichotomy between men’s and women’s employment opportunities, including promotion and salaries, remained deep (Sano 1995). his has been one of the foreclosures that being a woman encounters and is one of the most signiicant moments of living in patriarchy. My third point concerns the historical signiicance of this advertising slogan in Japan. here are two wartime mottos that this 1988 advertising campaign may evoke: Hoshigari masen katu made wa (We shall not want until we win) and Zeitaku wa teki da (Luxury is the enemy). hese mottos were solicited from the public in 1942 by three nationwide Japanese newspapers, Asahi, Tokyo Nichinichi, and Yomiuri in tandem with the Taisei-yokusan kai, a network of political organizations led by the government. hese wartime slogans asked the Japanese to be willing to spare no cost in collaborating with the war efort. While this war propaganda was aimed at everybody, the majority of the people who received the messages were women; they were even presented with the slogan, “Pāmanento wa yamemashō (Let us stop perms). In addition to the luxurious connotations of a perm due to the requirement of electricity, curled hair connoted Caucasians. Americans, Japan’s enemy in the Paciic War, were the representatives of Caucasians at the time. hese wartime mottos of the home front remind us of the duality of a subject: subject to be someone else through control and dependence and subject to her own identity by conscience or self-knowledge (Foucault 1977; Butler 1987). In contrast to the Japanese women who were the subjects in the wartime economy in terms of their dependence as well as their autonomous willingness at the same

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time, the woman in the Seibu advertisement appears to be liberated in terms of her wants. She appears capable of not only speaking about her desire but also of acting according to her desire, including kissing, which has not been a standard practice in public in Japan, even today. In fact, in my audience interviews, some of those who saw this advertisement and were born before 1945 told me about their surprise at seeing a kissing scene on a department store advertisement and at the slogan. One of them was immediately impressed by the change of the wartime slogan “We shall not want until we win” to “I want what I want.” Considering their comments, my question is how this 1988 Seibu advertisement is divorced from, or continues, the wartime slogan in relation to its advertising discourse? his brings to mind Baudrillard’s view of the role of women in advertising: … all those women who go in for all the eaux de toilette, messages and treatments in the hope of ‘rediscovering their bodies.’ … he body sells products. Beauty sells products. Eroticism sells products. And this is not the least of the reasons which, in the last instance, orientate the entire historical process of the ‘liberation of the body’. It is the same with the body as it is with labour power. It has to be ‘liberated, emancipated’ to be able to be exploited rationally for productivist ends. Just as freedom to dispose of oneself and personal interest – the formal principles of the individual freedom of the worker – have to operate for labour power to be able to transform itself into the demand for wages and exchange-value, so the individual has to rediscover his body and invest it narcissistically – the formal principle of pleasure – for the force of desire to be able to transform itself into a demand for rationally manipulable objects/signs. (Baudrillard 1998: 134–135, italic in the original text)

For Baudrillard, female bodies in advertisements are constructed in three processes. hey are liberated irst. hen, the emancipated bodies are exploited rationally. hrough liberation and exploitation, their bodies become objects/signs for further exploitation. I see this procedure occurring in the Seibu advertisement. First, the girl in the advertisement is gloriied. What is gloriied is her physical youthfulness and beauty. Her mental equivocality toward her desire is also highlighted in the text. his gloriication and highlight are the process of the liberation of her body as well as her state of mind. Second, with these gloriied and highlighted attributions, she becomes desirable to be gazed upon as a desiring body to be consumed by the spectators/consumers. She is now an object or sign of desire exploited by the advertiser and by the spectators – these include the female audience. She, thus, attempts to unify or to consume the spectators at the same time. Here femininity is identiied with consumption, not production. In addition to the femininity depicted as a consumed body, it is also purported to be a consuming body.

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Ironically in this light, “I want what I want” is connected to the pervasively submissive home-front slogan “We shall not want until we win.” hese slogans of two diferent eras both preserve the hierarchy of the society. What is missing here is positioning the feminine as a productive body, that is, a body with agency. he femininity is still circumscribed within a masculine paradigm as Japanese society itself remains equated with patriarchy. Is there any performative inauguration in the text? In order to consider this possibility, there is an alternative way of construing the Seibu advertisement, which is my fourth point. In the discourse section, I stated that the Seibu advertisement was a discourse of both consumption and descent desire. here is more, as uncertainty is also involved. Performativity itself has contingent or conditional dimension. Because of this uncertainty, desire appears to be desired desperately at the same time. We noted that the “I” is happy when “I” knows what “I” really wants. Knowing precedes possession or acquisition of the particular thing. In this advertisement, desire is desire to know, which is to say that desire is desire for meaning. Here we see a clear link with Butler. Declaring, “I want what I want,” the girl in the advertisement is asking the audience to recognize her being as a desiring body on the horizon of audience perception. his declaration is thus a potential new inauguration from her performativity that includes iteration and foreclosure as essence. For Butler, iterations fall under the law of contingency. Emerging hope in this circumstance would occur in the following scenario: if such iterations elide, shit, or alter, then change may be attained (1997b). he inauguration through utterance and recognition is a change driven by contingency. Hope as a disposition of society and its era may not be completely gender free. Yet, the constellation of hope will perhaps be able to change because of such a contingency. For instance, the majority of Japanese young women could not even imagine that they would possibly be more than wives and mothers in the 1960s. heir hope for professional occupations was expanded during the 1980s by awareness of women and subsequent political and societal negotiations (Tanaka 1995). In this regard, the advertising text can be read as a discourse of hope. According to Butler, the formation of the subject is preceded and conditioned by the discursive condition of social recognition, including the foreclosure of women. Yet, the subject formation is incomplete and unstable, for the discursive condition of social recognition that makes the subject is itself incomplete and unstable. In fact, the slogan, “I want what I want,” can be seen as a subversion of what the protagonist is made to stand for – a society of paternalism, but one which is getting more liberal, yet still retains its ainity for patriarchy. To utter is to voice, that is, to voice is a potential factor and power for change in such a patriarchy.

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he advertisement can be seen as an exemplary case of this discourse of hope in plasticity and relexivity. My inal point is about advertisements. he 1988 Seibu spring campaign raised the question of what an advertisement is. Advertisements have their own sponsors, run in a inite period in which they are to be displayed, and contain messages to be delivered through various media (Shimamura 2006). hey, in principle, cannot be successful in a commercialized and competitive economy without marketing and clear advertising strategies that narrow down the target consumers. Nevertheless, advertisements are released to penetrate a potentially unlimited public within the society. At the same time, an advertisement as apparatus organizes activities to bring in new members, consumers, or audiences. Seibu endeavoured to accomplish this. Shopping at department stores has from time to time been considered a sign of conspicuous consumption (Veblen 1902; Sekiguchi 2004). While Baudrillard sees such consumption as one of the acquisitions of today’s society, he points out that it is not only for the leisure class any more. Conspicuous consumption today is rather unconscious, more structural, and less class speciic (Baudrillard 1998). To attract the desires of those rather unconscious, more structural and less classspeciic people to the celebrated status of the leisure class, femininity has become the ultimate theme. Women form the majority of visitors to department stores in Japan (Clammer 1997). In order to make femininity thematic for these customers, the feminine body in advertisements is irst liberated in order to exploit it later, either intentionally or unintentionally. For Baudrillard, this is the process of construction of the feminine in advertisements. As mentioned in the beginning, encountering advertisements is what Walter Benjamin called a distraction (Zerstreuung). It is the repetition of the distraction that penetrates our lives imperceptibly as time passes. his penetration may become a disposition and afect us as the performative with iterations, citations, and foreclosures. Yet, we can now say that the liberation-exploitation process is not the end of advertising. here may be a process of subversion that inaugurates this disposition as a productive force, which rests on the shoulders of the audiences.

5. Conclusion I have attempted to show the two intertwined themes of femininity and desire at work in a Japanese advertisement. In particular, I sought to demonstrate how femininity was constructed as a desiring body in late-modern Japanese consumer society. In order to do so, I employed Judith Butler’s concept of performativity

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and analyzed the 1988 Seibu advertising campaign “I want what I want,” using the methodology of critical discourse analysis. I identiied and explicated the discourses embedded in the advertisement: the discourse of consumption, the discourse of descent desire, and the discourse of hope. hese discourses were discussed in relation to a speciic time and space in which the advertisement was irst distributed. he advertising text was also compared and contrasted within a historical perspective. Construing the advertisement as the desire for recognition attempts to show how gender can be perceived as a “doing.” With regards to gender, depictions of advertisements are not necessarily intended to show how we actually “behave” as men and women. Gofman (1979) agrees with McLuhan (1967) that advertising expressions subconsciously direct us to “think” in a certain way about how men and women behave. Having said this, what I attempted to demonstrate with CDA in this paper is that although gender can be a product of social construction, to watch advertisements cannot necessarily be passive. his is because our efort to decode and construe advertisements is a critical moment of discursivity that we can encounter. Looking at advertisements can ofer relection and subsequent creativity, so that it is also possible to make the consumption of advertising a productive process (Hall 1980; Fiske 1989), which possibly entails an inauguration and subversion as well. For Japanese society, the last two decades have seen a new economic and societal phase emerge as a consequence of the burst of the bubble economy in 1991. his change has not only happened in Japan but also in many regions of the globe as other countries have experienced the inancial meltdown ater the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Hyped consumerism has been dampened or shited to newly emerging economies such as of China, while a feeling of saturation ironically remains. Nevertheless, the Seibu advertisement challenges us subtly and challenges us still; knowing precedes possession or acquisition of the particular thing. “I want what I want” is a journey in search of one’s own desire. It is the desire for recognition. It is also connected to our capacity for selfknowledge living in and against the patriarchy of society.

References Althusser, Louise. 1971. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. New York: Monthly Review Press. Aristotle. 1941. he Basic Works of Aristotle. New York: Random House. Asaba, Katsumi. 1995/2007. Asaba Katsumi [Sekai no graikku dezain 18]. Tokyo: Ginza Graphics Gallery.

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Austin, John L. 1961. How to Do hings with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Baudrillard, Jean. 1998. he Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Sage: London. Benjamin, Walter. 1969. Illumination: Essays on Relections. New York: Schocken. Benjamin, Walter. 2002. he Arcade Project. New York: Belknap Press. Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin. Butler, Judith. 1987/1999a. Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Relections on Twenty – Century France. New York: Columbia University Press. Butler, Judith. 1990/1999b/2007. Gender Trouble: Feminism and Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies hat Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Retledge. Butler, Judith. 1997a. Excitable Speech: A politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge. Butler, Judith. 1997b. he Psychic Life of Power: heories in Subjection. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing Gender. London: Routledge. Chouliaraki, Lilie and Fairclough, Norman. 1999. Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Chouliaraki, Lilie. 2006. he Spectorship of Sufering. London: Sage. Chouliaraki, Lilie. 2006. “Towards an analytics of mediation”. Critical discourse studies 3 (2): 153–178. Chouliaraki, Lilie. 2002. “‘he contingency of universality’: Some thoughts on discourse and realism”. Social Semiotics 12 (1): 83–114. Clammer, John. 1997. Contemporary Urban Japan: A Sociology of Consumption. Oxford: Blackwell. Creighton, M. 1992. “he depāto: Merchandising the West while selling Japaneseness”. In Remade in Japan, J. Tobin (ed.), 42–57. New Haven: Yele University Press. Fairclough, Norman. 2001. Language and Power. London: Longman. Fiske, John. 1989. Understanding Popular Culture. London: Routledge. Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish. London: Tavistock. Foucault, Michel. 2000. Essential Works of Foulcault 1954–1984 [Power 3]. London: Penguin. Fowles, Jib. 1996. Advertising and Popular Culture, Feminist Perspective on Consumption. London: Sage. Fraser, Nancy. 2008. “False Antitheses: A Response to Seyla Benhabib and Judith Butler”. In Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, Linda Nicholsen (ed.), 59–74. London: Routledge. Gill, Rosalind Gill. 2007. Gender and the Media. Cambridge: Polity. Gofman, Earving. 1978. Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper & Row. Hall, Stuart. 1980. “Encoding/decoding”. In Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972–1979, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (ed.), 128–138. London: Hutchinson. Harvey, Keith and Shalom, Celia. 1997. Language and Desire: Encoding Sex, Romance, and Intimacy. London: Rutledge. Havens, T. 1994. Architects of Aluence: he Tsutsumi Family and the Seibu-Saison Enterprises in Twentieth-century Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Ide, Sachiko. 1979. “Daigakusei no hanashikotoba ni mirareru danjosei (he diferences according to sex in university students’ speech)”, Handout for the 6th ICU symposium of the study of language and society.

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Ide, Sachiko. 1992. “Gender and function of language use: Quantitave and qualitative evidence from Japanese”. In Pragmatics and Language Learning Monograph Series, 3, L. F. Boston and Y. Kachra (eds), 117–129. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Ishida, Hidetaka. 2005. Kigō no chi, media no chi (Knowledge of Sign and Knowledge of Media). Tokyo: he University of Tokyo Press. Johnson, Sally A. and Ensslin, Astrid. 2007. Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies. London: Continuum. Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, heo. 1996. Reading Images: he Grammar of Visual Design. London: Arnold. Kurihara, Yūichirō. 2007. “Daisann sedau SPA wa web 2.0 no yume o miruka (Does the third generation of SPA dream web 2.0?)”. Nikkei Business on Line, Nov. 9th. Retrieved on September 2009. Litosseliti, L. and Sunderland, J. (eds). 2002. Discourse Analysis and Gender Identity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Matsubara, Ryūichiro. 2000. Shōhi shihonshugi no yukue (he Direction for Consumer Capitalism). Tokyo: Chikuma shobō. McGloin, Naomi H. and Ide, Sachiko. 1991. Aspects of Women’s Language, Tokyo: Kurosio. Mcllvenny, Paul. 2002. Talking Gender and Sexuality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. McLuhan, Marshal. 1967. he Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man. New York: Beacon. McNay, Lois. 1999. “Gender, Habitus and the Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits of Relexivity heory”. Culture & Society 16 (2): 175–193. Messaris, Paul. 1997. Visual Persuasion: he Role of Images in Advertising. London: Sage. Mizuno, Seeiichi. 1990. Rofuto graphithi: hoshiimono sagashi no jidai (Lot Graphity: the Age of hings hey want). Tokyo: President-sha. Mulvey, Laura. 1989. Visual and Other Pleasures. London: Macmillan. Sano, Yoko. 1995. Human Resource Management. Tokyo: Keio University Press. Sato, Toyoko. 2010. Performativity and Discourse: Japanese Advertisements on the Aestyhetic Education of Desire. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School PhD Series. Schroeder, Jonathan. 1998. “Consuming representation: A visual approach to consumer research”. In Representing Consumers: Voices, Views And Visions, B. Stern (ed.), 193–230. London: Routledge. Sekiguchi, Eri. 2004. Gendai nihon no shōhi kūkan (he Consumer Space of Contemporary Japan). Kyoto: Sekai Shisō-sha. Shields, Vickie. 2002. Measuring Up: How Advertising Afects Self-Image. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Shimamura, Kazue. 2006. Nihon no kōkoku (Advertisements in Japan). Tokyo: Dentsu. Speer, Susan A. and Potter, Jonathan. 2002. “Judith Butler, discursive psychology, and the politics of conversation”. In Talking Gender And Sexuality, Paul McIlvenny (ed.), 151–180. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Tanaka, Yukiko. 1995. Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women. West Port, CT: Praeger. hornborrow, Joanna. 1994. “he woman, the man and the ilofax: Gender positions in advertising”. In Gendering the Reader, S. Mills (ed.), 128–158. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Uchida, Ryuzō. 1983. “Kōkoku shashin no isō ni tuiteno sobyō” (A sketch for topology of advertising photographies). Shashin-sōchi (8): 56–64.

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Ueno, Chizuko. 1998. “he Seibu Department Store and Image Marketing”. In Asian Department Stores, K. MacPherson (ed.), 177–205. London: Curzon. Veblen, horsten. 1902. he heory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: Macmillan. Williamson, Judith. 1978. Decoding Advertisements. London: Marion Boyars. Wodak, Ruth et al. 1999. he Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Yamaji, Nahoko. 2006. Shōsetu ni okeru jyoseikei shūjoshi wa no shiyō (he usage of suix wa for female in novels). he Society for Gender Studies got Japanese 6.

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Gendered discourse(s) Liberia’s ‘Iron Lady’ vs. George Weah Grace Diabah Lancaster University, UK / University of Ghana

Politics is one ield in which patriarchy has enjoyed some level of acceptance over the years. For instance, some researchers (Gidengil and Everitt 1999; Sapiro 1993; Atanga 2007) have indicated that many people have always perceived politics as the ield for ‘men’. Accordingly, women who subscribe to the ‘ideals’ of womanhood should not engage in politics. his does not only constrain women’s political ambitions, but it also constructs them as politically weak and unit for such ‘serious’ business. his assumption has however been challenged by the changing roles of women as they construct multiple identities. In this paper, I discuss two texts (proiles of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George Weah) from the BBC produced on the Liberian election in 2005, which represent both the traces and changes in patriarchal practices in Africa. Important to this election was that Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf (if elected) was going to be the irst female African president – a role perceived as inconsistent with socio-cultural roles of (African) women. So, to what extent was gender (rather than experience) considered a major factor in the BBC’s proiles? he results show that this political discourse is gendered because a man and a woman are the major aspirants. However, the issue of ‘gender’ becomes ‘omni-relevant’ (Holmes 1997) and explicit only in Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s proile. his, I argue, is because the text producers consider her to be ‘the deviant’ one. In this way, her political ambition is presented as a challenge to patriarchy. Keywords: patriarchy, gender, discourse(s), politics, media, Liberia

Introduction Patriarchal societies are noted for their ‘unquestioned’ male dominance – as enshrined in the stereotypical gender practices and identities prescribed by culture. I am not using ‘unquestioned’ here to mean that it has not been challenged at all but in the sense that many people, including women, have come to endorse

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such hegemonic beliefs, believing that these are part of the socio-cultural realities – to the extent that some women even resist changes to such ‘realities’. hat is, although alternative gender beliefs, in the form of women empowerment, equal rights etc, have evolved in recent times, individuals who share these views are likely to expect to be treated according to those beliefs in some settings. his is what Ridgeway and Correll (2004: 514) describe as “a stubborn part of social reality that must be dealt with or accommodated in many contexts, even if they are not personally endorsed”. Until the quest for equality began in the late 1960s and 1970s (Baxter 2003; Mills 2002), women had always (and still do in some contexts) played subordinate roles to men in many contexts. Politics is one such context in which patriarchy has enjoyed some level of acceptance over the years. For instance, some researchers (Gidengil and Everitt 1999; Sapiro 1993; Atanga 2007) have indicated that many people have always perceived politics as the ield for ‘men’; women who venture into this male-dominated ield are seen as ‘encroachers’ (Anderson, Diabah and hMensa 2011). As a result, women who subscribe to the ‘ideals’ of womanhood are not expected to engage in this ‘rough’, ‘dirty’ but ‘serious’ game. his does not only constrain women’s political ambitions, but it also constructs them as politically weak and unit for such ‘serious’ business. his assumption has however been resisted and challenged by the changing statuses of women as they deconstruct and reconstruct multiple identities. For instance, as shown in some media reports and research indings, there is evidence that many women have crashed (and more continue to crash) through the ‘glass ceiling’ (Holmes 2005: 31). Examples can be cited of Margaret hatcher of United Kingdom, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, Kim Campbell of Canada, Isabel Peron and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina (Anderson et al. 2011) and Gloria Arroyo of Philippines. On the African front, women have also played very important roles in both traditional and modern governance (Yankah 1995;1 Skaine 2008). Examples can be cited of the Queens and Queen-mothers in traditional governance – although there are always restrictions on how far these women can go (see Yankah

1. In discussing the communication roles of women in traditional governance among the Akan of Ghana, Yankah (1995) argues that the Queen-mother has the inal say in the choice of a royal successor. She also has the sole right to reprimand or rebuke the Chief in public. But, as he notes, there are socio-cultural restrictions and limitations on how far a woman can go. For instance, they are not allowed to ofer ancestral prayers, play drums etc. because they are believed to be ritually ‘unclean’ (because they menstruate) to perform such duties. his uncleanliness is believed to be capable of weakening spiritual immunity (Yankah 1995: 69).

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1995; Atanga 2007). In modern governance, we can cite examples like Georgina heodora Wood (Chief Justice) and Joyce Bamford-Addo (Speaker of Parliament) from Ghana, Luisa Dias Diogo (Prime Minister) from Mozambique and Ruth Sando Fahnbulleh Perry (Leader of the Liberian transitional team 1996–1997). But, as Holmes asks, “is this evidence that gender has inally become irrelevant to women’s progress?” (2005: 31). In spite of the challenges to male dominance and the changes that have occurred on the political front (and in other contexts), there are still ‘traces’ of the notions of patriarchy, as shown in the ways (media) texts, for example, are (re)produced – thereby making gender relevant. In this study, I discuss two of such texts (proiles of Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr George Weah2) – which present both the ‘traces’ and the changes to the notions of patriarchy – from the BBC produced on the two major opponents in the Liberian election in 2005. Important to this election was that Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf (if elected) was going to be the irst female African president – a role perceived by many people, especially those who endorse patriarchy, as inconsistent with socio-cultural roles of (African) women. More challenging and diicult for a female president was the fact that Liberia’s political history is one that is characterized by repression and violence. Although elections were held regularly, governments made sure they had no opposition – by jailing, exiling or executing their opponents (Sawyer 1992; Tarr 2008; Moran3). hese were the autocracies that sent the nation to war for nearly 20 years – and even ater the end of the civil war, tension continued to heighten as repression continued in Charles Taylor’s government. If the argument that women are communal and co-operative (Holmes 1997, 2005; Lakof 1975) is anything to go by, then this is not the kind of job a woman is expected to do i.e. ‘only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants’ (lines 44–45 in Appendix B). However, others (mostly women) also believed that a woman was needed to rebuild what the men had destroyed. hat was the state of afairs when Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf decided to vie for the post of a president.

2. hese texts can be accessed from http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/ news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4403120.stm (for Mr Weah) and http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/ mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4395978.stm (for Mrs JohnsonSirleaf). hese are the printable versions I used for my analysis; but I also referred to a comment on the second image in the web version of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s proile (see http://news. bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4395978.stm for the web version of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf). I have provided both texts in appendices A and B respectively. 3. See http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Liberia.html for Moran’s article.

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It is against this background that this study seeks to address the following questions: to what extent is gender (rather than experience) considered a major factor in the BBC’s proile of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr Weah? To what extent do the text producers (both the interviewees and the media reporters) consider Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s political ambition as a challenge to patriarchy? And, how does the construction of her gender identity (conforming to, negotiating and resisting stereotypical feminine identities) tie in with current theoretical debates – that gender is ‘performative’ rather than an ‘essential’ biological category? (Butler 1990; see also Baxter 2003; Cameron 2005; Lazar 2005).

heoretical considerations In this study, I follow the Post-modern feminist thinking that ‘gender’ is a social construct rather than an essential biological category (Butler 1990; Cameron 2005; Baxter 2003, 2008b). In other words, I see “gender diference and gender identity as socially constructed rather than as originating in biological diference” (Mills 2008: 22). I follow this understanding because, as I shall discuss later in the analysis, ‘gender’ is performed (Butler 1990) – something participants do rather than something they have (Cameron 2005; Butler 1990).

Gender identity and social constructionism he social constructionist approach to identity “rejects any category that sets forward essential or core features as the unique property of a collective’s members” (Cerulo 1997: 387). herefore, from the social constructionist perspective, and in line with Post-modern feminism, gender identities are not ‘ixed’ but luid and continually changing (Mills 2008; Sunderland 2004; Baxter 2003; Litosseliti and Sunderland 2002). hus, there is no set of ‘ixed’ identities to which a woman (or man) must subscribe. his is the understanding of gender and identity construction adopted in this study – that Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf, for example, reportedly performs (also shown in how the reporter constructs her identity) both masculine and feminine gender identities in various contexts. Mills (2008) however cautions against overuse of the concept of ‘performance’, as if gender is like “a set of clothes that one puts on – the individual chooses the type of identity they would like to have and simply performs that role” (p. 24). Rather, we should take into consideration the fact that “institutional and contextual constraints determine the type and form of identity and linguistic routines which an individual considers possible within an interaction and which others

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feel are available” (p. 24, emphasis mine). Although I agree with her caution, I however disagree with her use of ‘determine’ – when indeed, a given context itself is luid, continually changing and open to interpretation (Fairclough 1992; van Dijk 2006; Wodak 2008). I rather argue that these institutional and contextual constraints inluence the choices individuals make – and hence the identities they perform. In Holmes’ view, for instance, there are gendered norms which participants are aware of “as relevant background to … what is going on” (2005: 48), but these norms and categories are not ‘ixed’ but are continually redeined and renegotiated according to the context. hus, in applying the concept of gender performativity, analysts/researchers should see the construction of an individual’s gender identity as ‘luid’ but also as something that is inluenced (rather than ‘determined’) by certain contextual constraints. I shall draw on these ideas in my analysis of the texts – since both Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr Weah reportedly construct diferent identities in various contexts; the reporters also construct them in various ways.

Gender identity and power construction Like the construction of gender identities, the understanding of power construction adopted in this study is largely in line with Post-modern and post-structuralist perspectives on power construction. Mills for instance describes power as “a net or web of relations not … a possession; thus power is enacted and contested in every interaction” (Mills 2008: 27; cf. hornborrow 2002). Baxter (2003) also argues that “individuals are rarely consistently positioned as powerful across all the discourses at work within a given context – they are oten located simultaneously as both powerful and powerless” (Baxter 2003: 9). I draw on this notion of power construction in my analysis (see the section on ‘powerful (wo)men or powerless (wo)men?’) and argue that both Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr Weah are constructed as powerful in some contexts but powerless in others.

he ‘universal’ and the ‘local’ Rather than “celebrating the notion of a universal female nature”, post-modern feminists are concerned with “deconstructing gender identities and relations within speciic communities of practice” (Baxter 2003: 4). Just as we cannot talk about a universal female subordination or suppression, we cannot also generalize that female liberation is universal. It is true that many women have crashed (and continue to crash) through the glass ceiling (Holmes 2005: 31), but even for such people there are moments when they may be positioned as, and feel, powerless

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(Baxter 2003). It is from this same understanding that I ind Baxter’s point (cf. Mills 2002) that by focusing on “context-speciic gender issues … terms like ‘patriarchy’ and ‘sexism’ are … considered out of date” (Baxter 2003: 5) as potentially problematic. hat is, if we consider gender issues as context-speciic, that is the more reason why we cannot generalise that patriarchy and sexism are out of date because though they may be out of date in some contexts, they may still be vibrant in others. For instance, in rural Liberia (this may be true for many countries), most women (and men) still hold on to certain patriarchal social orders. It is therefore important that we look at each situation on its own merits.

Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis he understanding of discourse(s) adopted in this study is the one used in Critical Discourse Analysis (e.g. Fairclough 1992, 1995; Sunderland 2004) and Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis (Baxter 2003, 2008a, 2008b). I therefore use ‘discourse(s)’ here to include “extended samples of either spoken or written language” as well as “diferent ways of structuring areas of knowledge and social practices” (Fairclough 1992: 3; see also 1995: 54; Sunderland 2004). For instance, the socio-cultural practices and expectations about gender roles/practices and power relations, and the language used in discussing them are all part of the gendered discourse(s). Taking my cue from Fairclough (1992), ‘discourse(s)’, as used in this paper, refer to language use as social practice, which is organised according to particular discursive practices of production, distribution, reception and adaptation, and is instantiated in concrete texts, spoken or written. With regards to analysis, I follow the Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analytical (FPDA) perspective. Baxter (2003) deines FPDA as “a feminist approach to analysing the ways in which speakers negotiate their identities, relationships and positions in their world according to the ways in which they are located by competing yet interwoven discourses” (p. 1; see also Baxter 2008a, 2008b). Similar to other gender and language theoretical approaches within Post-modern feminism, FPDA’s central concern is to examine how speakers construct their identities by negotiating, challenging and resisting existing subject-positions in competing discourses. In line with the post-structuralist inquiry, FPDA is also concerned with how speakers shit between diferent positions of power in various contexts. Because discourses of gender are competing, the construction of power in a certain context can be based on status, ethnicity etc. For instance, the construction of power by discourse users (as will be shown later in this study) may not only be based on gender identity, but also on educational background, political

Gendered discourses

experience etc. Again, whereas “there may be dominant discourses constructing stereotypical assumptions about masculinity, femininity and binary gender differences … there may also be resistant or oppositional discourses advocating, for example, gender diversity, inclusion or separatism” (Baxter 2003: 8). his is one important point for this study, which CDA does not emphasise.4 It is for its focus on the luidity of power in both dominant and competing or resistant discourses that I ind FPDA a very useful approach for my analysis. However, because FPDA itself is ‘supplementary’ to CDA (Baxter 2003, 2008a, 2008b), I also draw on CDA approaches (e.g. Fairclough’s analytical approach; cf. Fairclough 1992, 1995) to expose and critique the subtle biases and ideological workings in the texts. his is an aspect of text analysis that FPDA does not also stress.

Related studies Research indings from diferent parts of the world have drawn attention to gender biases in media coverage of political igures. Most of these researches have concluded that female politicians are discriminated against (Gidengil and Everitt 1999, 2000, 2003; Everitt 2003, 2005; Anderson et al. 2011). hese biases come in the form of the critical and unfavourable presentation they get, which raises questions about their viability (Ross 1995; Gidengil and Everitt 1999; Tremblay and Belanger 1997; Anderson et al. 2011). Others focus on their personality traits in stereotypically feminine terms (Ross 1995; Robinson and Saint-Jean 1991, 1995). Again, female political leaders are portrayed as mothers, wives or grandmothers. As Sapiro (1993) points out, these traditional roles which are highlighted are usually not compatible with political leadership – thereby presenting women as ‘encroachers’ and not it for the job (Anderson et al. 2011). In her discussion of how Canadian women are presented by reporters, Everitt (2005), for instance, argues that instead of concentrating on female politicians’ academic attainment, professional experience and achievements, media reportages tend to centre on personal characteristics, relationships and traditional roles. In a similar study, Anderson et al. (2011) analyse various (African and Western) media reports on the Liberian election. Like the others, their results show traces of bias towards the female politician. For instance, they also argue that reporters (especially, from the Western media) focused more on Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s appearance and traditional roles than on her intellectual ability and political experience. 4. Some current researches in CDA have looked at resistant and oppositional discourses though (e.g. Holmes 2005).

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hey therefore conclude that the reports relect the beliefs, ideologies and expectations of the reporters as well as societies they operate from or report on. his study is similar to the above studies in many ways. For example, I also discuss gendered political discourse in the media, bringing out the biases against Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf (and Mr Weah, if any). Unlike the others, however, I am also interested in how these biases and ‘powerless’ subject-positions can be reinterpreted as ‘powerful’. I argue, in a post-structuralist spirit, that female politicians may not always be positioned as ‘powerless’, neither are the men always positioned as ‘powerful’, as most of these studies suggest (e.g. Anderson et al. 2011). Again, in the spirit of Post-modern feminism, I ofer an analysis of what (gender) identities the BBC reporters (and their informants) construct for Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr Weah; and how they are positioned as conforming to, negotiating, challenging, or resisting these constructions.

Methodology here were many interesting media articles on Mr George Weah and Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf before, during and ater the Liberian election. To select my texts, I did a Google search by typing in ‘election, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George Weah’. I also typed in their names separately. All these yielded very interesting results. I however chose two texts (proiles of Mr Weah and Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf posted on the 11th and 23rd November 2005, respectively) from the BBC News website for various reasons. First, because of the text analytical approach adopted in this study, I chose these two texts in order to limit the number of articles so I could ofer an in-depth analysis of the texts. However, in the spirit of a critical discourse analytical approach – in which intertextual and extra-textual information is relevant – I will refer to other articles from other media sources where necessary. Second, I chose these particular texts because as ‘proiles’, they are both on the same level, so I expected the reports to be on the same level as well (unbiased, indepth and ‘true’ representations of their achievements and abilities). his selection was also inluenced by the fact that both proiles come from the same media source – BBC. his makes an easy comparison, thereby making my claims and conclusions more valid. hird, the gendered captions caught my attention: “Proile: George Weah” as against “Proile: Liberia’s ‘Iron Lady’”.5 hat is, whereas Mr. Weah’s name is used, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s ‘steely nickname’ is used. he contrast

5. he texts are provided in the Appendices.

Gendered discourses

between the second sub-captions, which I believe are gendered, also caught my attention: George Weah vs. Fire engine (creates images of war, e.g. gun)

‘Iron Lady’ Land reform (creates images of transformation of the people)

his supports van Dijk’s argument that “topics may inluence what people see as the most important information of text or talk … expressing such a topic in a headline in news may powerfully inluence how an event is deined in terms of a “preferred” mental model” van Dijk (2001: 358, original emphasis). Another important point of contrast, which makes the contents of the texts even more interesting, is the dates for the publications: 11th and 23rd November (see conclusion for my comments on this). Because discourses are invisible but recognised through ‘linguistic traces’ in the texts that produce such discourses (Sunderland 2004: 7), I identiied some linguistic traces which I consider to be gendered and gendering and categorised them into various models of gender identity.

Findings Models of gender identity In the spirit of Post-modern feminism, gender identities in these texts are performed, rather than possessed. here are, however, models of gender identity – stereotypical beliefs about what one ought to be and how he or she ought to behave – and these politicians reportedly construct their identities either by conforming to, negotiating, challenging or resisting these stereotypes.

Politics is for ‘men’ Ater reading through the texts, I identiied some linguistic traces which led me to the conclusion that the reporters and most of the people they quote consider politics as a domain for ‘men’. For instance, in Extract 1 below (see appendix B for full text; my emphasis in italics), the reporter quotes a “veteran of Liberia’s political scene” as saying:

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Extract 1: B17–186 “It would have been much easier for her [Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf] to quit politics and sit at home like others have done but she has never given up” he said. (B17–18)

Here, the question that needs answering is why this man says it is “much easier … to quit politics and sit at home”. hat is, ‘sitting at home’ and probably tending one’s family is what this man sees as the (traditional) role of a ‘woman’. he use of “others”, which I interpret here as ‘other women’, further strengthens this point. his phrase can be interpreted in two ways: as either ‘other women who have also quit politics ater probably realising that that is not the place or job for a woman’ or ‘other women who have not even gone into politics at all’. Whether it is the irst or the second interpretation, the point still remains that politics is not for women and that is why these women have decided to “sit at home”. Doing politics, then, is in contravention with the socio-cultural expectation of a ‘woman’. hus, by her “iron will and determination” (B16) to remain in politics, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is constructed here as ‘masculine’ – for defying socio-cultural norms about appropriate feminine behaviour and practice. A similar example can be found in the following extract: Extract 2: B40–45 hroughout her campaign, she has said that if she won, it would encourage women across Africa to seek high political oice. But in rural areas, where maledominated traditions remain strong, there may be some resistance to the idea of a female leader. Even one well-educated man said: “only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants. Liberia just isn’t ready to have a woman leader yet”. (B40–45)

Extract 2 also supports the argument that ‘politics is for men’ in a very patriarchal way: “only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants. Liberia just isn’t ready to have a woman leader yet”. Although this is a quote, and the reporter appears to be very critical of this (through the use of “even”), I argue that s/he shares a similar view. his is because s/he copied and strategically placed this quote (between lines 25 and 26) ater the question “who better to rebuild Liberia’s shattered economy?” (see further discussion about this under Extract 6) to serve as an answer to the question. Perceiving politics as a domain for men corroborates indings from other studies (e.g. Ross 1995; Gidengil and Everitt 1999; Everitt 2005; Anderson et al. 2011). For instance, in Anderson et al.’s (2011) analysis of he New York Times, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is even referred to as “our 6. ‘B’ represents ‘Appendix B’ and ‘A’ will represent ‘Appendix A’.

Gendered discourses

man” and seen as joining “an old boys’ club” (he New York Times, November 12, 2005; cited in Anderson et al. 2011: 2513). hese points are further strengthened by the quotation below: Extract 3: ABC News Ms Sirleaf is buoyed by a resume impressive for its scope and accomplishments at a time when African women were considered best suited to tend to their homes, not their governments or their countries. (ABC News,7 January 17, 2006; cited in Anderson et al. 2011: 2513; emphasis mine)

On the other hand, although Mr Weah is a ‘male’, he did not it into this domain because it is not for male political novice: “as a politician he is a novice – a ‘babein-the-woods’” (A10); “it seems Liberians are worried by Mr Weah’s lack of experience” (A53). Politics, therefore, is neither for ‘women’, ‘babes’ nor ‘novices’. On the other hand, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf has an advantage here because of her experience (“a political career spanning almost 30 years”, B6–7; “ater spending a generation in politics, she comes with considerable baggage”, B49). his is one important mark (of ‘masculinity’) in politics that Mr Weah lacked, hence his presumed defeat. Accordingly, as Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is constructed as ‘masculine’, Mr Weah is ‘degendered’ – a “babe-in-the-woods”. Also, by the extended interpretation of the stereotypical perception that ‘women are weak’ (Extract 2), ‘babies’ are even weaker. It can also be argued that by using ‘babe’ (a term for a female lover, oten used derogatorily), Mr Weah’s lack of political experience is compared to ‘femininity’, thereby constructing him as ‘feminine’. his further strengthens the argument that politics is for ‘men’.

Politics is war, and ‘men’ go to war he metaphoric use of “ire engine” (A41) connotes ‘war’. We therefore see the image of ‘war’ painted through the use of ‘ex-ighters’, ‘killing’, ‘war’, ‘military’ and ‘freed slaves’ in Mr Weah’s proile. his is suggestive of the point that it is ‘normal’ for a man to be associated with war. However, Mr Weah’s critics (who are mostly the elite) have problems with this. heir problem (fear) may have resulted from the fact that “ex-ighters have confessed to killing people during the war simply on the basis they had gone to school” (A42–44). On the other hand, Mrs JohnsonSirleaf ’s support for Mr Taylor (facing charges of war crimes) is worrying (B47– 48) because women should not be associated with war. he diference between these two people’s association with warlords is that whereas Mr Weah’s “critics” (A47) have problems with this (which, of course, is normal with critics), in Mrs

7. Accessed from http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1548669.htm.

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Johnson-Sirleaf ’s case, “some” have problems (B47), which may even include her supporters. his strengthens the point that because ‘women’ are not expected to get involved in war, even her supporters are likely to criticise her for associating herself with warlords. here is a conlict between Mr Weah’s association with ex-ighters, on the one hand, and his lack of education (A45–46) and experience (A53) on the other. According to the report, it appears that he lost because of his lack of experience – Liberians (not just his critics) are worried (A53) – and not his association with warlords because that may be interpreted as ‘normal’ for a man: “only a man can … deal with all the ex-combatants” (B44–45, emphasis mine). he important contrast to note here is that when it is about ‘war’ he is ‘man’ enough to ‘deal with ex-combatants’, but he is ‘degendered’ or ‘demasculinised’ (i.e. “a babe”) when it comes to ‘political experience’. To be able to it into this male-dominated ield, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf also needed to “ight” (not human beings though; see B51).

Strength is ‘masculine’, weakness is ‘feminine’ Another stereotypical gender identity is the assumption that men are strong and women are weak, both physically and emotionally. he quotation “only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants” (B44–45, emphasis mine) supports this point. he image of war (discussed above) painted in Mr Weah’s proile is also in support of this, i.e. the strong and the courageous are able to ight. I also interpret “his life story – from a Monrovia slum to international celebrity …” (A11–13) as evidence of his strength (a construction of a masculine identity) in the face of ‘hard times’ (A14). On the other hand, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is positioned as challenging the stereotypical ‘female weakness’ as she constructs ‘masculine’ identities. hat is, instead of ‘sitting at home’ as other women have done, “she has never given up” (B17–18) because of “her iron will and determination” (B16). his “iron will and determination” is particularly highlighted in the extract below: Extract 4: B8–14 She was imprisoned in the 1980s for criticising the military regime of Samuel Doe and then backed Charles Taylor’s rebellion before falling out with him and being charged with treason ater he became president. She twice went into exile to escape her legal problems with the governments of the day. In 1997, she came a distant second to Mr Taylor in elections following a short-lived peace deal. (B8–14)

his ‘masculine’ construction runs through the whole text, hence the metaphor in the title: “Iron Lady”. She also commits herself to ighting corruption (B51).

Gendered discourses

Mothers and homemakers One major traditional role of women is to take care of their home (e.g. husband, children and house chores). Text B lines 17–18 (“It would have been much easier for her to quit politics and sit at home like others have done”) support this. he extract from ABC News (Extract 3) even makes this point more explicit. By refusing to sit at home to ‘tend her family’, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is constructed here as contradicting traditional gender practices. She is therefore portrayed as constructing a ‘masculine’ identity. Again, the reporter does not hesitate in making it known that Mrs JohnsonSirleaf is a mother and a grandmother (B59–60). his, I believe, makes it appear as though she is negligent of her family, by refusing to “sit at home” (B17–18). In other words, she is a family woman, and that is the more reason why she should “sit at home”. In contrast, although Mr Weah’s proile indicates that he is married (“Mr Weah’s wife is from Jamaica”, A59), we are not told he is a father (of four children – Wikipedia), because fatherhood does not stop him from his political ambitions – ater all, his wife is the one expected to ‘sit at home’ and take care of the children. Like the previous point, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is constructed here as ‘masculine’. As the report indicates, she however negotiates this construction by drawing on what may be seen as a trace of a ‘motherhood discourse’. hat is, by reportedly promising “motherly sensitivity”, she may be arguing that she (as a mother) is it to heal the “wounds of war” (B34–35). What is interesting is that this phrase was selected by the reporter as a subheading (B21), who is then also making her gender (and motherhood) relevant. Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is therefore presented as constructing both masculine and feminine identities. his is in line with the theoretical perspective adopted in this study (see page 172f.) – that gender identities are socially constructed so both men and women can construct identities traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Agents of reformation he use of “land reform” (B46) could be metaphoric. his could imply the reformation of ‘the people of the land’ through the reconciliation Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf pledges (B36–37) – no wonder she was the head of Government Reform Commission (B52–53). It is stated that some people believe that men have wrecked the country so they “need a woman to put things right” (B29). his is similar to the transformation mothers bring to their homes – any good mother wants to see her children reformed, healed and reconciled (B34–39). Although reconciliation is also suggested in Mr Weah’s case, it is for those who were forced to ight (A18–20). In other words, whereas a man is needed to “deal with ex-combatants” (B44–45), a woman is needed to “reach out to them” (B38). his reported nonconfrontational attitude of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf may be interpreted as supporting

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a stereotypical ‘feminine’ identity (Holmes 1997; Lakof 1975), but Mr Weah is constructed in a more ‘masculine’ way, i.e. confrontational – Charles Taylor even suspected it (A32–34).

Powerful (wo)men or powerless (wo)men? As indicated earlier, the concept of power adopted in this study is luid, and individuals are not consistently positioned as powerful or powerless (Mills 2008; Baxter 2003; hornborrow 2002). For example, Mr Weah is constructed as both powerful (“Africa’s greatest ever footballer” (A2), “international celebrity” (A11), “beacon of hope” (A12) etc.) and powerless (“a babe-in-the-woods” (A10) and “a school drop-out” (A22)). I interpret the metaphoric language a ‘babe-in-thewoods’ as a sign of ‘powerlessness’. hat is, like a little child in the forest who is gripped by fear, confused and does not know where to go or what to do, he is let at the mercy of ‘wild animals’ to probably devour him. his image of ‘powerlessness’ is further strengthened by the claim that “with his lack of education, he would have become a pawn in the hands of his political advisors” (A45–46). In addition, since ‘babe’ is oten used derogatorily of women, the use of the term here constructs Mr Weah as ‘feminine’. Politics, therefore, is neither for ‘women’, ‘babes’ nor ‘novices’. Whereas there is no report of a reaction to his ‘powerful’ subject-positioning, he is presented as negotiating the ‘powerless’ subject-positioning. hat is, it may be true that he is inexperienced and uneducated, but those with education and experience who have governed the nation for years have “never done anything for the nation” (A51–52). Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf, on the other hand, is constructed as ‘powerful’ because of her education and political experience (B6–7; B19–20; B49) but ‘powerless’ through the use of adjectives, nouns and verbs like “diminutive”, “grandmother igure” and “dwarfed” (B5–6). For instance, ‘grandmother igure’ is used metaphorically to present her as ‘powerless’ – just as ‘grandmothers’ may oten be perceived as old, fragile, weak and powerless (in contrast with the youth). She is not only that, but ‘diminutive’ – which makes the notion of ‘powerlessness’ much stronger. Similarly, the metaphoric expression “dwarfed by her party oicials and bodyguards” indicates ‘domination or suppression’, and this reinforces a ‘powerless’ subject-position. What I ind interesting is whether she is indeed ‘dwarfed’ in the photograph in question. See Figure 1 below. It is clear from the photograph that Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf (pointed at with the arrow) is not ‘dwarfed’ as the reporter wants us to believe. his biased interpretation of the photograph and her ‘stature’, I argue, is an indication of the reporter’s underlying ‘motive’ to deconstruct or play down on her ‘powerfulness’. his

Gendered discourses

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (centre, back) was dwarfed by party officials during campaigning

Figure 1. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and party oicials8

argument conirms van Dijk’s (2001: 359) observation that “approaches in critical media studies have revealed biased, stereotypical, sexist or racist images in texts, illustrations, and photos.” Again, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is presented as constructing a ‘powerful’ subjectposition for herself when she is quoted as saying “he Liberian people have voted for their conidence in my ability to deliver … very quickly” (B27–28). his is a challenge to the reporter’s (and the informants) ‘powerless’ subject-position that she won because majority of the people identiied with her gender (B31–33), her education (B29–30) or her age (B29–30).

Traces of gender ideologies and biases Sunderland (2004) argues that “discourses are inherently ideological ‘lows of information’ which construct the world through language and texts, and ‘subject position’ individuals. his ‘subject positioning’ is sometimes gendered, for example, when women are positioned as carers by default” (p. 8; cf. Foucault 1984). his argument ties in with Fowler’s (1991) and Fairclough’s (1992) argument that news and discourse, respectively, are ideologically invested (see also Fairclough and Wodak 1997). hat is, the processes of text production and consumption are ideologically invested because social conventions and our objectives inluence,

8. his photograph appeared only in the web version but not in the ‘printable version’ attached as appendix.

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whether directly or indirectly, what we produce, how we produce it, and how we interpret what others have produced (Fairclough 1992, 1995). For instance, doing selective reporting (which is what reporters do) may be a relection of the traces of one’s own ideologies about the issue at hand. In support of this argument, and with evidence from the analysis of these texts, I argue that the texts used in this study largely represent the ideological stance (whether consciously or unconsciously) of the reporter(s). For instance, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf has held many important positions, including Minister of inance (Liberia), Director of UNDP (Africa region), World Bank economist, Vice president of Citibank (Africa), Vice president and member of the executive board of Equator Bank, among others. It is expected that any ‘good’ proile will cover these areas – not merely saying “a string of international inancial positions” (B19). his publication, I argue, does not make an ‘exhaustive’ presentation of these achievements. However, her political experiences that are highlighted are those that oten contradict the socio-cultural expectations of a ‘woman’, thereby constructing her as a ‘social deviant’. Support for this observation can be found in the extract below: Extract 5: B8–12; B47–50 She was imprisoned in the 1980s for criticising the military regime of Samuel Doe and then backed Charles Taylor’s rebellion before falling out with him and being charged with treason ater he became president. She twice went into exile to escape her legal problems with the governments of the day … Some are wary of her because of her previous support for Mr Taylor – currently facing 17 charges of war crimes for his alleged ties to rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Ater spending a generation in politics, she comes with considerable baggage and has stepped on many important toes in her time. (B8–12; B47–50)

On the other hand, Mr Weah receives a detailed and positive presentation. For instance, the reporter uses certain positive phrases like “greatest ever footballer” (A2), “world’s most famous Liberian” (A7), “international celebrity” (A11), “rare beacon of hope and inspiration” (A11–12), “brings rare glamour to the grind of daily life” (A24–25) and “football star” (B20) to describe Mr Weah. His benevolence to the Liberian people, which the reporter sees as “extremely good public relations” (A35–36) is also highlighted. In contrast, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is described through the use of “diminutive grandmother igure” (B5), “dwarfed by her party oicials” (B5–6), “iron will” (B16), “comes with considerable baggage and has stepped on many important toes’ (B49–50; emphasis mine). As stated above, because metaphor does ideological work (Koller 2002, 2004), by using ‘diminutive grandmother igure’ and ‘dwarfed’ to evoke images of powerlessness and

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suppression/subordination, the reporter’s ideology about the ‘powerlessness’ of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is revealed. However, the reporter uses what Fairclough (1992: 85) calls “manifest intertextuality”9 to make her/his own ideological stance covert. hat is, the overt patriarchal beliefs that run through this publication are reports or quotes from the public, but I wonder why the reporter will concentrate so much on these if s/he does not have any interest in them (this again supports selective reporting). For example, “her supporters” say she won because she is educated and a woman (B19–20). his contrasts with Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf belief (in Extract 6 below) that Liberians voted for their conidence in her ability to deliver quickly: Extract 6: B25–28 So, the argument goes, who better to rebuild Liberia’s shattered economy? “Only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants. Liberia just isn’t ready to have a woman leader yet” Liberian man And she says she is ready to start on what will be an enormous task. “We know expectations are going to be high. he Liberian people have voted for their conidence in my ability to deliver … very quickly,” she told Reuters (B25–28) news agency.

his contrast is interesting because one can argue that by quoting Mrs JohnsonSirleaf, the reporter purports to discredit what her supporters say. However, as shown in the above extract, this comes immediately ater “And she says …” (B22), which in itself is an expression of doubt (i.e. so she says). hus, this foregrounds an irony in Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s statement vis-à-vis the supporters’ and the reporter’s belief. his irony is even made stronger by placing a quotation from a Liberian man (in the box) ater the question and before Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s statement. Since the man’s statement is given a beitting context in B44–45, I argue that its presence ater the question is just to provide an answer and to also foreground the irony of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s statement. I see this as a sign of the reporter’s (and a section of the society) ideological position – that only a man can rebuild Liberia’s shattered economy. hus, her ability to ‘deliver’ is questioned, because she is ‘a woman’. he use of intertextuality is therefore carefully employed to ‘hide’ the reporter’s own ideologies – ater all, s/he is not the one saying it but “her supporters” and “a Liberian man” say so.

9. his is “where speciic other texts are overtly drawn upon within a text” (Fairclough 1992: 85).

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Also, as noted above, Mr Weah is constructed as a ‘man’ enough to ‘deal with ex-combatants’ when it is about war, but he is ‘degendered’ or ‘feminised’ (i.e. a babe) when it comes to ‘political experience’. In positioning Mr Weah as ‘powerless’, his lack of experience is compared with ‘a babe-in-the-woods’. I interpret this presentation as gender-biased because Mr Weah is both ‘degendered’ (a baby) and ‘feminised’ (a babe – female lover). his contrast covertly presents the feminine gender as signifying weakness and powerlessness.

Discussion of indings From the indings, I notice that this political discourse is gendered because it is about a man and a woman as major presidential aspirants. However, the issue of gender becomes ‘omni-relevant’ (Holmes 1997) and explicit only in Mrs JohnsonSirleaf ’s proile (text B). For instance, it is suggested that people voted along the lines of gender identiication (B31–33) – as well as educational (B29–30), ethnic (A54–56, B29–30), and age (A18–20) identiication – in a country where majority of the voters are females (Anderson et al. 2011: 2514). herefore, gender (and to some extent education – the two advantages she has, B19–20), rather than experience, appears to be what is important here. Making gender ‘omni-relevant’ in Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s proile, I argue, is because the text producers (both reporters and informants) consider her to be ‘the deviant’ one (by refusing to “quit politics and sit at home like others have done”, text B: 17–18). In this way, her political ambition is presented as a challenge to patriarchy. On the other hand, what is highlighted in Mr Weah’s proile is the educational divide. Gender is not made explicit because of a normative construction of politics as a ‘male domain’. However, referring to Mr Weah as a “political novice” (A10, A53) is evidence of the importance of experience in politics. Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf reportedly uses this weapon efectively to challenge and resist the belief that ‘women’ and ‘gender sensitive men’ voted her into power; rather, the Liberian people voted for their conidence in her ability to deliver very quickly (B27–28). As shown in the indings, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is presented as ‘doing gender’, i.e. she is constructed as both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’. For example, she is constructed as ‘masculine’: she is an Iron Lady because she has an iron will and determination (B15–16), she refused to sit at home as others have done (B17–18), instead, she chose to criticise the government (B8–12)). However, being aware of the socio-cultural expectations of women, and the consequences for contravening such expectations, she is quoted as promising “motherly sensitivity and emotion” (B34–35) by reconciling the people. his reported non-confrontational attitude

Gendered discourses

of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is interpreted as conforming to a stereotypical ‘feminine identity’ (Holmes 1997; Lakof 1075). Anderson et al. (2011) also argue that Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf conforms to socio-cultural expectations of women by promising “to show a new, soter side as president” (p. 2514, quoted from the Daily Graphic January 17, 2006). his is in line with Holmes’ point that there are gendered norms, which participants are aware of “as relevant background to interpreting what is going on” (2005: 48). While commenting on her indings in workplace interaction in New Zealand, Holmes argues that while it is oicially acceptable for women to ‘do power’ explicitly in the workplace, there is an underlying pressure to counter or neutralize the efects of the authoritative and ‘masculine’ strategies entailed in doing so with more ‘feminine’, (Holmes 2005: 52) supportive and collegial or self-deprecating behaviours.

hat is, “powerful women would ‘do power’ authoritatively … and then follow up with [an] anecdote … attenuating the efect of their ‘masculine’ behaviour” (Holmes 2005: 52). In other words, the ‘Iron Lady’ needs to ‘soten’ up or ‘bring motherly sensitivity’ to conform to traditional feminine practices. In the case of Mr Weah, however, gender is not drawn upon explicitly. However, he is ‘degendered’ and ‘feminised’ (“a babe-in-the-woods”) for lack of political experience and education. Sunderland (2004) argues that subject positions are “powerful … in the sense of enabling as well as hindering”. As discussed above, I interpret positioning Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf as a mother and a grandmother who needs to, probably, tend her family as both hindering and enabling. hat is, if she should be taking care of her family (hindering her from her political ambitions) – which means she has the ability to take care of people – then, like a mother, she can also take care of a nation which desperately needs peace and reconciliation. his, I interpret as the essence of ‘bringing motherly sensitivity’ to heal the wounds of war (B34–35). On the point of biases, I argue that the texts are produced through the ideological ilters of the reporters. hat is, they selectively choose what support whatever agenda they may have in mind. his conirms Fowler’s (1991: 10) argument that “because the institution of news reporting and presentation are socially, economically and politically situated, all news is always reported from some particular angle”. he indings from this study have shown that news reporting is not as unbiased and objective as the reporters may intend it to be. Instead, as Fowler (1991) rightly notes, reporters may have their own agenda and they select and report news items to suit their agenda.

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Conclusion To sum up, some studies have suggested a drastic decline in the gender biases in media coverage. hese studies (Kahn 1996; Norris 1997; Smith 1997; Everitt 2003) attribute this decline to professionalism on the part of reporters for national media or large circulation regional newspapers, and the increased number of female politicians. he indings by Anderson et al. (2011) show that this assertion is not wholly true. here are still instances of gender biases in the international media, which present ‘gender’ as the most important characteristic of female political leaders irrespective of how far women have gone in politics. he indings from this study also lend support to this observation. hat is, whereas the personal achievements of Mr Weah are foregrounded, those of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf are downplayed even though her proile was published ater she had won the election. One wonders how the proile would have been like before her victory. hat is, in spite of women’s political successes, most people still see them as not it to do politics. his links up with Ridgeway and Correll’s (2004) observation that “although changing socioeconomic conditions and personal and collective resistance do gradually modify cultural beliefs about gender, the core structure of the beliefs are not easy to erode” (528).

References ABC News online: Africa’s irst elected female leader sworn in http://www.abc.net.au/news/ newsitems/200601/s1548669.htm (accessed 20/06/08). Anderson, Jemima, Diabah, Grace and hMensa, Patience A. 2011. Powerful Women in Powerless Language: Media Representation of African Women in Politics; he Case of Liberia. Journal of Pragmatics 43(10): 2509–2518. Atanga, Lilian Lem. 2007. Gendered Discourses in the Cameroonian Parliament. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Lancaster University. Baxter, Judith. 2003. Positioning Gender in Discourse: A Feminist Methodology. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan. Baxter, Judith. 2008a. “Feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis – A new theoretical and methodological approach?”. In Gender and Language Research Methodology, K. Harrington, L. Litosselitti, H. Sauntson and J. Sunderland (eds), 243–255. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Baxter, Judith. 2008b. Is it all tough talking at the top? A post-structuralist analysis of the construction of gendered speaker identities of British business leaders within interview narratives. Gender and Language 2(2): 197–222. BBC News: Proile: George Weah. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4403120.stm (accessed 15/02/08).

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BBC News: “Proile: Liberia’s ‘Iron Lady’”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4395978. stm (accessed 15/02/08). Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Cameron, Deborah. 2005. “Language, gender, and sexuality: Current issues and new directions”. Applied Linguistics 26: 482–502. Cerulo, Karen A. 1997. “Identity construction: New issues, new directions”. Annual Reviews of Sociology 23: 385–409. Everitt, Joanna. 2003. “Media in the Maritimes: Do female candidates face a bias?” Atlantis 27(2): 90–98. Everitt, Joanna. 2005. “Gender, media and politics: A critical review essay”. Political Communications 22: 387–396. Everitt, Joanna and Gidengil, Elisabeth. 2003. “Tough talk: How television News covers male and female leaders of Canadian political parties”. In Gender and Electoral Representation in Canada, M. Tremblay and L. Trimble (eds), 194–210. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Media Discourse. London: Hodder Arnold. Fairclough, Norman and Wodak, Ruth. 1997. “Critical discourse analysis”. In Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, T. A. van Dijk (ed.), 2: 258–284. London: Sage. Foucault, Michael. 1984. “he order of discourse”. In Language and Politics, M. Shapiro (ed.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Fowler, Roger. 1991. Language in the news. London: Routledge. Gidengil, Elisabeth and Joanna, Everitt. 1999. “Metaphors and misrepresentation: Gendered mediation in news coverage of the 1993 Canadian leaders’ debates”. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 4: 48–65. Gidengil, Elisabeth and Everitt, Joanna. 2000. “Filtering the female: Television News coverage of the 1993 Canadian leaders’ debates”. Women & Politics 21(4): 105–131. Gidengil, Elisabeth and Everitt, Joanna. 2003. “Conventional coverage/unconventional Politicians: Gender and media coverage of Canadian leaders’ debates, 1993, 1997, 2000”. Canadian Journal of Political Science 36(3): 559–577. Holmes, Janet. 1997. “Women, language and identity”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 1(2): 195–223. Holmes, Janet. 2005. “Power and discourse at work: Is gender relevant?”. In Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse, M. Lazar (ed.), 31–60. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kahn, Kim F. 1996. he Political Consequences of Being a Woman: How Stereotypes Inluence the Conduct and Consequences of Political Campaigns. New York: Columbia University Press. Koller, Veronika. 2002. “‘A Shotgun Wedding’: Co-occurrence of war and marriage metaphors in mergers and acquisitions discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 17: 179–203. Koller, Veronika. 2004. Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Study. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Lakof, Robin. 1975. Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper and Rowe. Lazar, Michelle M. 2005. “Politicizing gender in discourse: Feminist critical discourse analysis as political perspective and praxis”. In Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse, M. M. Lazar (ed.), 1–28. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Litosseliti, Lia and Sunderland, Janet. (eds.). 2002. Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

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Mills, Sarah. 2002. “hird wave feminism linguistics and the analysis of sexism and naming practices”. Plenary Lecture at IGALA 2, Lancaster University, UK. Mills, Sarah. 2008. Language and Sexism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moran, Mary H. “Culture of Liberia”, http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Liberia.html (accessed 02/04/09). Norris, Pippa. 1997. Women, Media and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ridgeway, Cecilia L. and Correll, Shelley J. 2004. “Unpacking the gender system: A theoretical perspective on gender beliefs and social relations”. Gender and Society 18(4): 510–531. http://gas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/4/510 (accessed 30/11/07). Robinson, Gertrude and Saint-Jean, Armande. 1991. “Women politicians and their media coverage: A generational analysis”. In Women in Canadian Politics: Toward Equity in Representation, K. Megyery (ed.), 127–163. Toronto: Dundurn Press. Robinson, Gertrude and Saint-Jean, Armande. 1995. “he Portrayal of women politicians in the media: Political implications”. In Gender and Politics in Contemporary Canada, F. Gingras (ed.), 176–190. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Ross, Karen. 1995. “Gender and party politics: How the Press reported the Labour Leadership Campaign”. Media, Culture and Society 17(3): 499–509. Sapiro, Virginia. 1993. “he uses of symbolic women: An essay in honor of Murray Edelman”. Political Communication 10: 137–149. Sawyer, Amos C. 1992. he Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia: Tragedy and Challenge. San Francisco, California: Institute for Contemporary Studies. Skaine, Rosemarie. 2008. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jeferson, NC: McFarland. Smith, Kevin B. 1997. “When all’s fair: Signs of parity in media coverage of female candidates”. Political Communication 14: 71–82. Sunderland, Jane. 2004. Gendered Discourses. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Tarr, Byron. 2008. “Orientations and challenges of economic and social reconstruction in Sierra Leone and Liberia”. Regional Workshop on Post-conlict and Development. http://www. oecd.org/dataoecd/54/31/40990116.pdf (accessed 20/04/09). hornborrow, Joanna. 2002. Power Talk: Language and Interaction in Institutional Discourse. London: Pearson Education. Tremblay, Manon and Bélanger, Nathalie. 1997. “Femmes chefs de partis politiques et caricatures éditoriales: l’élection fédérale canadienne de 1993”. Recherches feministes 10: 35–75. Van Dijk, Teun A. 2001. “Critical Discourse Analysis”. In Handbook of Discourse Analysis, D. Tannen, D. Schifrin and H. Hamilton (eds), 352–371. Oxford: Blackwell. Van Dijk, Teun A. 2006. “Discourse, context and cognition”. Discourse Studies 8(159). London: SAGE publications. http://dis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/8/1/159 (accessed 14/5/2008). Wodak, Ruth. 2008. “Controversial issues in feminist Critical Discourse Analysis”. In Gender and Language Research Methodology, K. Harrington, L. Litosselitti, H. Sauntson and J. Sunderland (eds), 193–210. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Yankah, Kwesi. 1995. Speaking for the Chief, Okyeame and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

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Appendix A

1 2 3 4

Proile: George Weah George Weah, 39, is widely acclaimed as Africa’s greatest ever footballer ater being crowned World Player of the year in 1995 but he seems to have failed in his bid to become Liberia’s head of state.

5 6

Ater gaining most votes in the irst round of presidential elections, he is trailing a long way behind Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf with 91% of the votes counted in the run-of.

7 8 9

He was counting on his status as the world’s most famous Liberian to win the polls, hoping he could be a igurehead for the country’s rival ethnic, political and armed groups to rally round.

10 But as a politician he is a novice – a “babe-in-the-woods”, one analyst said. 11 His life story – from a Monrovia slum to international celebrity – provides a rare beacon 12 of hope and inspiration to Liberia’s many thousands of young people who see little future 13 except for a life of poverty. 14 “Weah’s been through hard times like us,” said Emmanuel Toe, 26, who fought in the 15 14-year civil war which ended in 2003, leading to these irst post-conlict polls. 16 “I know he’s not well educated but those with education have done nothing, just stolen 17 money.” 18 In an example of the kind of reconciliation Liberia desperately needs, many of the young 19 men brutalised by being forced to ight for rival factions during the 14-year war, have 20 now united behind “Oppong” – as Mr Weah’s supporters love to call him. 21 Several former warlords who contested the polls have also rallied behind Mr Weah. 22 ‘High-school drop-out’ 23 Ater playing for some of the world’s most famous clubs – AC Milan, Chelsea, 24 AS Monaco, Paris Saint Germain, Olympique Marseille and Manchester City – he brings 25 rare glamour to the grind of daily life in Liberia. 26 During his years playing in France, it was reported that he had taken French citizenship 27 and this almost scuttled his presidential aspirations. “With all their education and experience, they have governed this nation for hunGeorge Weah dreds of years. hey have never done anything for the nation” 28 Some of his rivals took him to court, saying that as a foreign national he was disqualiied 29 from contesting Liberia’s presidency. But the elections commission ruled that they did 30 not have the evidence to back up their arguments. 31 He has, however, obviously been planning his move into politics for some time. 32 Former President Charles Taylor, who stepped down in 2003, suspected Mr Weah wanted 33 his job when the footballer refused to remove his sunglasses in the president’s presence – 34 seen as a sign of the utmost disrespect.

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35 He oten paid out of his own pocket for the cash-strapped national football team to travel 36 to matches abroad and this can now be seen as extremely good public relations. 37 More recently, he has used some of the money he earned in Europe to set up a radio and 38 television station in Liberia to get his message across. 39 But many educated Liberians dismiss Mr Weah as a “high-school drop-out” – he says he 40 has an online Associate of Arts degree in Sports Administration. 41 ‘Fire engine’ 42 he elite is especially worried by this education divide because many ex-ighters 43 have confessed to killing people during the war simply on the basis they had gone 44 to school. 45 Some take this argument one step further, saying that with his lack of education, he 46 would have become a pawn in the hands of his political advisors. 47 Mr Weah’s critics say they see around him many of the faces who used to surround 48 military leader Samuel Doe, whose disastrous rule in the 1980s led to the outbreak 49 of war. 50 But Mr Weah is sharply critical of the educated elite, who say he is not it to govern. 51 “With all their education and experience, they have governed this nation for hundreds of 52 years. hey have never done anything for the nation,” he says. 53 But it seems Liberians are worried by Mr Weah’s lack of experience. 54 A sub-text to the educational argument is the divide between the descendents of freed 55 slaves who set up Liberia in 1847 and the indigenous inhabitants, who feel they have 56 been exploited ever since. 57 Mr Weah is from the Kru ethnic group, with his origins in south-eastern Grand Kru 58 County, one of Liberia’s most under-developed areas. 59 Mr Weah’s wife is from Jamaica. While eying the presidency and waiting for Mr Taylor to 60 step down, he resided in Ghana and New York where he still has assets. 61 His house in Liberia is a modest afair in the countryside outside the capital, 62 Monrovia.

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Appendix B

1 2 3 4

Proile: Liberia’s ‘Iron Lady’ Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 67, fondly called the “Iron Lady” by her supporters, has become Africa’s irst elected female head of state following Liberia’s presidential run-of.

5 6 7

During the election campaign, the diminutive grandmother igure was oten dwarfed by her party oicials and bodyguards but over a political career spanning almost 30 years she has earned her steely nickname.

8 She was imprisoned in the 1980s for criticising the military regime of Samuel Doe and 9 then backed Charles Taylor’s rebellion before falling out with him and being charged 10 with treason ater he became president. 11 She twice went into exile to escape her legal problems with the governments 12 of the day. 13 In 1997, she came a distant second to Mr Taylor in elections following a short-lived 14 peace deal. 15 One veteran of Liberia’s political scene said Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf ’s nickname comes from 16 her iron will and determination. 17 “It would have been much easier for her to quit politics and sit at home like others have 18 done but she has never given up,” he said. 19 Her supporters say she has two advantages over the man she faced in the run-of – 20 former football star George Weah – she is better educated and is a woman. 21 ‘Motherly sensitivity’ 22 Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf has held a string of international inancial positions, from minister 23 of inance in the late 1970s to Africa director at the United Nations Development 24 Programme. 25 So, the argument goes, who better to rebuild Liberia’s shattered economy? “Only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the ex-combatants. Liberia just Liberian man isn’t ready to have a woman leader yet” 26 And she says she is ready to start on what will be an enormous task. 27 “We know expectations are going to be high. he Liberian people have voted for their 28 conidence in my ability to deliver … very quickly,” she told Reuters news agency. 29 Many educated Liberians – and members of the old elite descended from freed American 30 slaves – gave Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf their backing. 31 Women and some gender-sensitive men in the city are also quick to blame men for 32 wrecking the country. 33 “We need a woman to put things right,” said one waitress.

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34 Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf said she wants to become president in order “to bring motherly 35 sensitivity and emotion to the presidency” as a way of healing the wounds of war. 36 She has pledged to work towards reconciliation by bringing her former opponents into a 37 government of national unity – if they want to join her. 38 “We are going to reach out to them and assure them the country is also theirs,” 39 she said. 40 hroughout her campaign, she has said that if she won, it would encourage women 41 across Africa to seek high political oice. 42 But in rural areas, where male-dominated traditions remain strong, there may be some 43 resistance to the idea of a female leader. 44 Even one well-educated man said: “Only a man can be strong enough to deal with all the 45 ex-combatants. Liberia just isn’t ready to have a woman leader yet.” 46 Land reform 47 Some are wary of her because of her previous support for Mr Taylor – currently facing 48 17 charges of war crimes for his alleged ties to rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone. 49 Ater spending a generation in politics, she comes with considerable baggage and has 50 stepped on many important toes in her time. 51 She constantly stresses her commitment to the ight against corruption and ater 52 returning from exile, she served as head of the Governance Reform Commission set up 53 as part of the deal to end Liberia’s civil war in 2003. 54 She resigned that post to contest the presidency, criticising the transitional government’s 55 inability to ight corruption. 56 She also promises to “revisit the land tenure system” in order to remove a potential 57 source of dispute between Liberia’s rival ethnic groups. At present, much of Liberia’s land 58 is controlled by local chiefs. 59 Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf, a divorcee whose ex-husband died a few years ago, is the mother 60 of four sons and has six grandchildren.

Gender ideologies in the Vietnamese printed media Nguyen hi hu Ha National University of Singapore (NUS)

Since the late 1980s, studies in language and gender have been turning to the role of discourse as social practice which relects as well as constitutes social reality (Litosseliti 2006). Discourse, hence, has the power of shaping gender relations as part of social reality. Turning to the context of Vietnam as an advanced country in terms of gender equality promotion, this study is concerned with what is the quality of that equality? he study analyses a number of Vietnamese media articles published on and related to the International Women’s Day – March 8, 2010 to ind out the gender ideologies that prevail. Adopting a feminist critical discourse analysis perspective (Lazar 2005), the study draws on a systemic functional framework for multimodal text analysis. he analytical framework includes aspects of the grammar of Halliday (1994), Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)’s visual grammar and van Dijk (1988)’s guidelines for news structure. he study inds that besides the progressive changes in Vietnamese women’s roles in the public domain and their equal status in the society in liberal terms, traditional Confucian expectations on them in the domestic domain still persist. he ever-rising social responsibilities and the ‘monolithic’ traditional roles are blended to pose an unfair challenge for Vietnamese women. Keywords: discourse as social practice, feminist CDA, Vietnamese women, gender equality

1.

Introduction

In the course of more than a century, continuous feminist movements and struggles have gained enormous success, though unevenly across the globe. One of the most glorious feminist achievements was that of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which made people start to think of a ‘post-feminist’ era. he term ‘post-feminist’, when irst used in the 1970s, seemed to suggest that feminism itself was no longer necessary (Mills 1998). here emerged a popular

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feminist assumption that once a measure of equality, in liberal terms, had been achieved by women, gender struggles along with feminism had ended (Lazar 2005). A number of studies in the domain of language and gender have been carried out in contestation of this ‘post-feminist’ assumption, and they all have pointed to some forms of discrimination in diferent social contexts though women’s visibility in the public domain is at the same time acknowledged. A collection of such studies can be found in Lazar (2005) with Holmes’ investigation of subtle forms of gender discrimination in workplace interactions in New Zealand, Martin Rojo and Gomez Esteban’s study of the androcentric workplace culture in Spain, Wodak’s concern of the gender mainstreaming in European Union, Remlinger’s indings of the reproduction of normative gender ideologies in gender-related courses in two American university classrooms and Lazar’s research into the identities of Singaporean men represented in a government advertising campaign. Following this trend of research, this chapter aims to investigate the gender ideologies in contemporary Vietnam, believing that the study will contribute insights into the gender issues in a distinct cultural context, adding a stroke to the big picture of ‘post-feminist’ gender issues the world over. Adopting a feminist critical discourse analysis perspective (Lazar 2005), the chapter examines 99 articles published in the Vietnamese printed media on the occasion of International Women’s Day – March 8, 2010. he event of International Women’s Day is the chosen focus because this is considered the festival for women in Vietnam. Since 1977, Vietnam has been member of the United Nations and coincidently, 1977 was the point when the UN oicially chose the date of March 8 to be the International Women’s Day. Since then, the date has gradually become an important event for the rest of the population to congratulate and to praise women for their merits. When the event is approaching or on the day itself, meetings are held, special music performances are organized, and particularly, women and women related issues become the topics of mass media in general and printed media in particular. Looking at how they are represented and acclaimed on this event will yield insights into the gender ideologies being circulated. In scrutinizing the data, I aim to answer the question of how women are expected to be and behave in contemporary Vietnam. As will be shown, although there is a certain degree of liberal equality in the public sphere, traditional expectations on women in the domestic domain still persist. Moreover, the liberal equality that they appear to have gained is strictly linked to nationalism because women are encouraged to contribute to the country at their own cost and their own loss. he domestic burden, which does not seem to be unloaded from their shoulders, has put them at disadvantage compared to men and the lasting Confucian expectations seem to keep them at a lower status than men.

Gender ideologies in the Vietnamese printed media

In what follows, a brief review of gender related issues in Vietnam throughout history is provided, serving as a contextual background for further discussion of gender ideologies. his is followed by a presentation of key theoretical concepts and analytical categories used. And inally, an analysis and discussion of how Vietnamese women are expected to be in the public sphere and in the domestic sphere are presented.

2. Contextual background he followings are some highlighted key points to note about gender relations in the context of Vietnam. First, Vietnam is an advanced country in terms of gender promoting policies. Although Vietnamese women gained sufrage in 1945, much later than women in many Western countries, most other political rights were granted to them right ater the sufrage without any feminist struggles. In the country’s constitution, they have been equal to men in all respects since 1946 while internationally it is well documented that the Women’s Liberation Movement in Western countries started in the 1960s and 1970s (Hannam 2007: 7). Apart from the constitution, gender equality has been relected in the law on marriage and family, irst composed in 1959. More recently, Vietnam passed the law on gender equality in 2006, the aim of which is to eradicate gender discrimination and to build gender equality in all aspects of social life and in the family. Alongside with the law on gender equality, the law on prevention of domestic violence became efective in 2008, prescribing how to educate people about, prevent people from and punish people for crimes which had been protected by the patriarchal society for long. Additionally, promoting gender equality is the responsibility of diferent governmental institutions such as the National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Women’s Union. In liberal terms, Vietnamese women have gained the rights that women elsewhere in the world have been struggling for for centuries. Second, Vietnamese women were not originally oppressed. he historical fact of constant wars in Vietnam has aroused and nurtured a centuries – old tradition of heroism and nationalism among the Vietnamese people and women were not exceptions. During the Chinese conquest (207 B.C.–39 A.D.), Trung Trac, Trung Nhi and Lady Trieu were prominent examples of female combative nationalists who rose up in arms against Chinese rulers. During the two resistance wars against the French and the American, there were no less examples of nationalist females, who were conferred with ‘heroines of armed forces’ by the state, such as Ms. Vo hi Sau during the French war and general Nguyen hi Dinh, during the

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American war (Tran 2009). For all their contributions to the national resistance wars, the state conferred all the Vietnamese women with 10 golden words “Phụ nữ Việt Nam bất khuất, trung hậu, đảm đang” (Vietnamese women: undaunted, faithful and skillful). his explains why Vietnamese women have oten been gloriied especially as martyrs throughout history although they were at times devalued by Confucian ideas. hird, the Confucian inluence was a cause to the decline in Vietnamese women’s status. As history goes, Confucian ideals started to iniltrate into the society in the ith century; however, not until the iteenth century did Confucian impact come to its peak to become one of the three religions in Vietnam besides Buddhism and Daoism. Confucianism focused on developing an orderly society in which social relationships were hierarchical in nature. Confucian doctrine clearly supported a patriarchal social order, emphasizing male supremacy and putting women in a lower social rank compared to men. Women were limited to the domestic realm and they were encouraged to ofer themselves in total sacriice to others. Although Confucian ideals of gender were more or less eroded when Vietnam came into contact with the Western people from France in the early twentieth century, and they were later almost eradicated by the irst constitution of Vietnam granting equal rights for both genders, these ideals seem to be restored in the modern Vietnamese society in the 21st century (Le 1992; Bui 1996; Le 1996). In what follows, I will also discuss this restoration from my data analysis. Fourth, there have been no explicit feminist movements in Vietnam and feminism has been an unpopular topic. his lack of feminist movements can be due to the continuous resistance wars and it was those repetitive, prolonged wars and poverty have together overshadowed gender issues (Duong 2001). From a Western point of view, Barry (1996: 14) inds that the isolation of Vietnam until the last few years has not made it possible for women in Vietnam to develop autonomous women’s movements, which have characterized an important element of feminist emancipation in many other countries. Fith, Vietnamese women’s movements have been closely attached to nationalism. It is not paradoxical to note that there have been no feminist yet numerous women’s movements in Vietnam. hese movements were not feminist in the sense that the cause underlying them was not primarily for women’s own rights and beneits but for the call of the nation or more neutrally, the call of political leadership in times of political instability. One clear example is the foundation of the Vietnamese Women’s Union (VWU) in 1930 with the highlighted task of mobilizing women nationwide to take part in the anti-feudalism and anti-imperialism movements led by the Indochinese Communist Party, which constantly emphasized the importance of women’s participation in politics in order to strengthen the revolutionary movement (Hannam 2007: 91). he gender ideology underlying

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this was Marxist in seeing the sameness between men and women and while there might have been oppression by men on women, they were ‘ultimately oppressed by capitalism and hence the interest of men and women are not crucially diferent’ (Beasley 1999). Against this contextual background, this research aims to show that despite all the progressive laws as mentioned, there still exists gender inequality in contemporary Vietnam as relected and perpetuated by the media. While the tradition of female heroism and nationalism is revitalized to mobilize women’s contributions in the public sphere, Confucian expectations are being restored to preserve men’s privilege. To put it another way, gender equality in the public sphere if already gained does not necessarily secure equality in the domestic sphere where norms and conventions are oten more powerful than regulations. More speciically, although being acknowledged for their talents and contributions, Vietnamese women are still implicitly regarded as inferior and subordinate to Vietnamese men.

3. Methodology he 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of a new approach to language and gender studies, namely the ‘post-modernist approach’ (Gibbon 1999: 11) or the discoursal approach, as a result of the inluence of post-structuralism. While the earlier dominance and diference approaches assume that gender pre-exists interactions and afects the way that interactions develop, the post-modernist approach sees gender as socially and discursively constructed and the way participants perform in conversations bring about their gendered identities (Mills 2008). his new approach turns to the role of discourse generally seen as social practice, which relects and creates how we see the world including assumptions about gender and gender inequalities. his perspective assumes that language does not simply relect social reality but it is also constitutive of such reality. Language use, hence, has a potential to help establish and maintain social and power relations, values and identities (Litosseliti 2006). he shit in theorization of gender in relation to language entails a shit in research methodology. While studies in the earlier two approaches are mostly done with introspection and observation, sociolinguistic surveys and conversational analysis (see Baker 2008 and Coates 1998), Litosseliti (2006) notes that current thinking has led to an emphasis on discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis as valuable frameworks for exploring a range of text types for their contribution to the construction of gender. Since ‘many proposals and basic assumptions of feminist linguistics relate to and overlap with principles of critical linguistics

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and critical discourse analysis’ (Wodak 1997 as quoted in Sunderland 2006: 59), the marriage between feminism and CDA seems reasonable and inevitable. Sunderland (2004) also states that CDA is theoretically well placed to seek and identify gendered discourses of a damaging kind. While CDA aims to show non-obvious ways in which language is involved in social relations of power and domination, feminist linguistics seeks to unveil the unequal gender relation prevalent but hidden in discourse. In fact, many feminist linguists have used CDA fruitfully in their feminist research and Lazar (2005) is the irst book to explicitly bring together achievements of this theoretical approach (Sunderland 2006). Feminist CDA (Lazar 2005) works with the basic principle of CDA that discourse is both constituted and constitutive, that ideology is mediated by language use, and that underlying discourse is the struggle of power. CDA entails the extra discursive – a ‘real world’ where reality does not depend on what is known about it (Sunderland 2004). Feminist CDA takes an explicit stance of working towards emancipation and is openly committed to the achievement of a just social order through a critique of discourse (Lazar 2005: 5). In doing CDA, we do not ask how true a certain representation is but rather what ‘kind of cultural lenses’ text producers are wearing. In other words, CDA practitioners try to see the assumptions and beliefs (together making up ideologies) underlying certain representations. And if certain texts have a massive inluence on the public, then those text producers are inluencing the public with their (own) ideologies. Ideologies of certain groups of people gain popularity in this way and many assumptions which are biased or even unjust can become social norms in this peaceful way. One of the practical aims of doing CDA is to ‘help increase consciousness of how language contributes to the domination of some people by others, because consciousness is the irst step towards emancipation’ (Fairclough 2001). For critically analyzing the data in both linguistic and visual modes, I have based myself on a number of frameworks such as Fairclough (2001), Halliday (1994), Kress and van Leeuwen (1996), van Leeuwen (2008), and van Dijk (1988). In Fairclough (2001), a comprehensive list of guiding questions for text analysis is provided in which Fairclough draws on both functional aspects of grammar such as transitivity and thematic structure and also traditional grammatical concepts such as modality, lexicalization (repetition, synonymy, antonymy, etc.), metaphor, and presupposition. Underlying all these guiding questions is a systemic functional view of language use in which choices are made for certain purposes and to relect certain ideologies. For the visual mode, I focus on the ideational and interpersonal meta-functions of the images. his is inspired by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) who suggest that ‘like linguistic structures, visual structures point to particular interpretations of experience and forms of social interaction’. hey propose

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that analyzing visual communication is, or should be, an important part of the ‘critical’ discipline. Van Leeuwen (2008)’s guidelines for analysis of social actors representation is also utilized in some instances. For analysis of a number of news articles, van Dijk (1988)’s framework is seen as an important tool. Seeing news as constituting a particular type of discourse, he proposes a list of news schema categories including headline, lead, main events, context, background, consequences, verbal reactions, comment and some other minor categories (van Dijk 1988: 55). In the current study, the analysis of main events and verbal reactions are seen to be useful in unveiling imbedded ideologies. he data source for this research consists of 99 articles related to and published on the event of International Women’s Day – March 8, 2010. For the sake of systematic analysis, these articles are categorized in terms of text types in which there are 23 news articles (N1–N23), 37 feature articles (F1–F37), 26 interviews (In1–In26), 8 narratives (Na1–Na8) and 5 advice articles (Ad1–Ad5). he language of these articles is Vietnamese and the analysis is done in this original language of data; however, for the sake of international readership, all data excerpts included as examples have been literally translated into English. Original texts in Vietnamese are provided in the Appendix.

4. Analysis and discussion 4.1

he expected woman in the public sphere

4.1.1 An active participant in the workforce As a common social practice in Vietnam, the international women’s day is a big event whose focus is women in the society. hey are mentioned with love, presented with lowers and gits, treated with care and above all, their merits are acknowledged. his is not just a personal issue among the general public but a national agenda. Numerous political celebration events are organized and get reported in all means of media, making the day especially outstanding. Although the day should be meaningful for all women, only those who are actively involved in the public missions and have noted contributions to the nation get saliently represented in the news reports. A glance at the main events (van Dijk 1988: 53) reported in the 23 news articles reveals that women’s contributions in the contemporary society as well as throughout history have been highlighted and generously acknowledged. One of the most commonly repeated events in all news reports is the conferring of Golden rose medals to 6 female politicians and Golden rose cups to 100 businesswomen by the President (N1, N4, N18, and N22). Women’s contributions throughout history also get represented in the event of a meeting

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celebration of the 100th International Women’s Day, 1970th anniversary of the Two Trung Sisters’ uprising and 45 years of the three possibilities movement (N2, N3, N5, N6, N9, N13, N16, and N22). Apart from that, smaller scaled events in diferent localities highlighting women’s contributions also get reported such as meeting to commend typical outstanding female teachers and students in Central provinces (N8). As an obligatory category in news discourse schema (van Dijk 1988: 56), main events carry the proposed truth and reality of news, which in this case is the acknowledgement of Vietnamese women’s contributions to national construction and development. his acknowledgement is further emphasized and highlighted by verbal reactions (van Dijk 1988) in which voices of prominent political leaders get projected either directly or indirectly. Examples (1) and (2) below show two verbal reactions found in the news collection. (1) President Nguyen Minh Triet said: “… Vietnamese women have been playing the very important role and have had enormous contributions.” (N4, N1, N18) (2) he Central Party Committee’s Secretary Ha hi Khiet also clariied that during resistance wars, our grandmothers, mothers and sisters actively participated in the struggles … to defeat the invaders. (N2, N21)

An analysis of transitivity of these projected clauses inds that women are chosen as the active agents of the material processes playing (roles) and participating, which asserts the activeness of Vietnamese women, which is further explicitly emphasized by the adverbial actively. Moreover, the insertion of these verbal reactions in the data is meant to reassure readers, most likely women, that their contributions throughout history are enormous and highly valued by the nation, whose representatives in this case are political leaders. It is apparent that praises by prestigious politically high ranked people will have more encouraging efects on women. Further analysis at the micro level of the news discourse and feature articles reveals even more about how Vietnamese women are excessively acclaimed for their contributions. Both repetition and synonymy are found with mental processes expressing the attitude of the society towards women such as: (3) honoring (women) (N4, N7, N17x2, N18, N9), glorifying (women) (N5, N8), acknowledge (the role, the position and the contribution of women) (N21, N3), praise (the beauty and the achievement of women) (N16), highly appreciate (the role of Vietnamese women) (N2, N3, N5).

Besides, Vietnamese women are generously praised as having valuable attributes and beauty with a high frequency of expressive descriptive phrases of

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(4) good/noble qualities (N9, F34), resistant, persevering, enduring (N17), self dependence and activeness (N17), dynamic and creative (N1), united, striving, dynamic, self conident (N3, N5), extraordinary strength (N21, N17), brave and contriving (N17), brilliant, outstanding, whole-hearted (N8), and outstanding (N18), creativeness (N10).

he beauty of women being valued in the discourse is not the physical beauty conventionally thought of as the primary asset of the female gender, but the functional beauty in their good deeds. And notably, in the public sphere, the tradition of the un-oppressed female heroism is revived, disclosed in the repetition of such phrases as (5) the tradition of madam Trung and madam Trieu (N3, N5), the courageous spirit of the long haired army (N3, N5), magnanimous/glorious history of Vietnamese women (N2, N20, N5, F33), the tradition of being heroic, loyal and responsible (N5, N9, N21), and the tradition of solidarity, patriotism and creatively working (N9).

he high status of Vietnamese women is saliently made obvious in the discourse of women in the public sphere. here is certainly no sign of such conception that women are the second class citizens. hey are not only visible in the public sphere but even shining brightly in the media representation. An analysis of the social actors (van Leeuwen 2008) being represented in the feature articles and interviews will strongly prove this claim. he role models for the modern Vietnamese women are all successful and talented ones in their professions such as professors (F4, F6, F7, In2), scientists (F4), novelists (F8, In22), sports referees (F17), coaches (F18), politicians (In1), businesswomen (In3, In4, In11, In12), ilm directors (In21), policewomen (F5) and so on. his ‘radical inclusion’ (van Leeuwen 2008) of all successful working women as the social actors in the features and interviews suggests that the Vietnamese women have triumphed in the public arena, and such women are socially desirable, serving as good examples for the rest of Vietnamese women. Findings from the visual analysis of accompanying images also support a representation of active female participants in the public sphere. Images of women in the public setting, i.e. in their work, are oten taken from a low camera angle (In3, In5, In1, In14, F6, F19, In6, In9, In11, In17, In19, In20, In21), signifying the power of the person being represented. Additionally, they are shown in there

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Image 1. Women in the public sphere (In3)

tasks (F6, F12, F13, F14, F17, F18, In6, In9), which highlights the importance of what they do and consequently their contributions rather than how they look or else. In many instances, direct eye contact (In3, In5, In11, In14, In17, In19, In20, In21) also reveals the person’s power in directly engaging with the viewers. his also shows their self conidence in this engagement. Image 1 taken from In3 is included here as an example. 4.1.2 Equality for whose sake? What is salient to this point is that contemporary Vietnamese women are represented as having gained certain credits in the public sphere, including the ields commonly thought of as men’s ields such as politics, science, business and sports. Women are not only acclaimed and praised to be active in the public sphere but also encouraged to get more involved in this arena. However, this equality is not seen as rooted from a feminist cause, i.e. their participation in the public sphere is not for their self-actualization but for a national cause. In the data studied, the expressions the nation’s economic, politic and social development or national building and protection are overwhelmingly found coming together with women’s contribution and women’s role, which overtly links women’s liberation and mobilization to nationalism just like in the wartime as already presented in the context of the study.

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Another evidence for this anti-feminist cause of this liberal equality is that while women are mobilized to work for the richness of the country, the domestic work is not unburdened from their shoulders, resulting in women’s “double shit” (Treas and Drobnic 2010: 4). he rearrangement of housework while women generally become breadwinners of their families is not a personal issue but highly afected and channeled by societal institutions mostly through propaganda. Although it is progressively stated in the law on gender equality that both male and female family members have the same responsibility of doing housework (clause 18), women are excessively praised and urged to do both tasks of housework and paid employment. In the context of Vietnam, paid employment is termed ‘national tasks’ in the sense that all employment outside the household is for the sake of the nation and there exists a slogan Vietnamese women: good at national tasks and good at housework.1 his has become the benchmark for the Vietnamese women to live up to and they will be awarded if they are certiied as good at national tasks and good at housework. his practice is seen in most institutions and business sectors in Vietnam. In the discourse studied, women’s double shit assumption is reinforced irstly by the repetition of the phrase good at national tasks and good at housework itself in N23, N13, N16, F34, N10, and F34. he slogan is sometimes rephrased to become the two good movement2 (N23, N15). Moreover, pervasive explicit statements on Vietnamese women’s double role are also found in the data. Examples (6) and (7) below are just a few among them. (6) he burden of modern women is much bigger than before because they have to shoulder both household responsibility and social responsibility and at the same time balance them. (In1) (7) We (women) have to try very hard because our society expects us to fulill our heavenly responsibility of a mother and a wife and at the same time to work well in the public sphere. (In4)

In this linguistic evidence, relational modality (Fairclough 2001) is found with the use of modal auxiliaries must and have to, creating a sense of obligation towards women. According to Fairclough (2001: 105), relational modality concerns the authority of one participant (the text producer) to the other (the readers or a third participant mentioned in the discourse). In the data analyzed, the obligation is directed towards women because women appears in the data as a third participant. Apparently, the media is discursively constructing such a modern Vietnamese woman model who can be both a successful contributor in the public sphere yet a 1. Phụ nữ Việt Nam: giỏi việc nước, đảm việc nhà. 2. Phong trào hai tốt.

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good homemaker in their house, which will be further elaborated in what follows. Ater all, who cares about the cost that they need to pay to live up to this expectation? Or is good at national tasks and good at housework such a piece of cake? In what follows, more of gender ideologies will be disclosed in investigating what is expected of women in the domestic sphere. 4.2

he expected woman in the domestic sphere

As discussed above, Vietnamese women are generally more and more involved in the public sphere and liberal equality is seen as gained in the context of Vietnam. his equality, however, does not readily entail egalitarianism in the society and especially in the domestic sphere as shown in the discourse analyzed. Within the family, women are expected to sacriice their own selves to be devoted home makers, good teachers for children, good daughters in law and submissive dependent wives. Gender diferences are profound in the domestic realm and women are still disadvantaged. he dissemination of domestic inequality can be seen as a restoration of Confucian ideals on gender relations. While women are patently showing their talents and abilities in all ields, men’s socially bestowed superior status is at risk. he re-emphasis on Confucian expectations on women strengthens the likely weakening gender relation in which women are of lower status than men. 4.2.1 A devoted homemaker In the irst place, what is found as making up the identity of Vietnamese women is their devotion to their homes. Domestic responsibilities including housework and caring for husbands and children are represented as their sole duties across the data analyzed, especially in the interviews, the feature articles, and the narratives. As a matter of fact, to keep women responsible for their homes was originally the aim of patriarchal men; however, in the discourse analyzed, we ind numerous women interviewees explicitly perpetuating this view. he followings are some selected examples: (8) Such (domestic) works, I think women had better maintain (doing). Division of housework such as cooking and washing up does not mean equality. (In3) (9) Wherever we live, I (we) must also spend time looking ater the family. (In8) (10) For me, apart from work, caring for my husband and children is the biggest happiness in life, (but) it is not only the responsibility and duty of a wife and a mother. (F6) (11) For any woman, family is still unique and the most important thing. (In11)

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What is shared across examples (8), (9) and (10) is that the topics of domestic work and domestic equality are straightforwardly mentioned through the use of explicit expressions such as housework, cooking and washing up, division, equality, looking ater the family, and caring for (my) husband and children. he choice of these topics as a discussion point in the interviews and the feature articles implies a tension existing in reality within the family boundary concerning the division of housework. his tension is seen as a consequence of Vietnamese women’s increasing participation in the public sphere. Logically, when women spend their time and energy on paid work, they will have less time and energy for housework, and there arises a need among working women to re-divide the household chores among family members. However, this expected re-division may not smoothly be realized, resulting in some tension. hat’s why, the topic of domestic equality and especially housework responsibilities is found prevalent in the data as in the examples above. Also noteworthy in these examples is the radical inclusion of women as the social actors as far as the social actions of domestic work such as maintain doing housework (8), spend time looking ater the family (9), and caring for (their) husbands and children (10) are concerned. In (8), the social actor is women, in (9) inclusive we referring to women, and in (10) I – referring to the female interviewee. he choice of social actors as such explicitly perpetuates a view of women’s attachment to housework. In terms of modality, the use of modal verb had better in (8) emphasizes the necessity for women to be involved in domestic work. In (9), a stronger modal verb in terms of necessity and obligation must is found, bearing an unspoken responsibility which women are expected to hold in the domestic sphere. According to Fairclough (2001: 105), relational modality typically created by use of should (had better) or must concerns the power relation between two certain parties, most likely text producers and text receivers whereby the former holds authority in obliging the latter to do certain things. In these linguistic instances, the second party is arguably women readers because the social actors in these clauses of (8) and (9) are respectively women and the inclusive we referring to womankind. What is salient from the analysis of these examples’ modality is that the media is re-deining women’s duty in doing housework. his is also the represented solution to the tension mentioned above. Particularly in (10), women’s responsibility and duty to care for their husbands and children is backgrounded in the use of not only structure. he choice of backgrounding an argument is believed to be a linguistic strategy to attribute commonality to a certain ideology and to give it the status of an established norm. What is more to note in example (10) is the equating of domestic responsibility to

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the biggest happiness resulted from the choice of an identifying relational process (caring for my husband and children is the biggest happiness in life). By deining a duty as a beneit, the media is implicitly simplifying the duty and at the same time advising women to take on this duty thinking of it as a hobby rather than a responsibility. Of the four examples included, example (11) serves as a conclusion in emphasizing the importance of family to women. In terms of mode (Fairclough 2001), this is a declarative statement of a view point. However, the choice of extreme words such as any, unique and most together with the choice of relational processes and without any tentative markers make the statement more like a general truth which highlights the long standing cultural value of family stability and happiness. What is sexist is the exclusion of men as those who equally need to understand and appreciate this value. By adding for any woman, the statement proposes gender polarity and asserts women’s sole responsibility in keeping their families at peace. Underlying this statement is the view that family needs to be prioritized by women. In terms of lexicalization, what is most prominent is the repeated use of the ideology – laden phrases: the sacred mission of being a mother and a wife repeated in In4, F33, F15, F21, and the noble sacriicing virtue in a mother’s nature in F21. What is common in these expressions is the gloriication and naturalization of women’s roles as mothers and wives, which are conceptualized as something sacred and noble bestowed on womankind by Nature or a Creator. hese roles are, hence, seen as unchangeable because they are assigned by a sacred body or Nature. Underlying these expressions is an ideology that a woman’s identity is irstly and naturally a mother and a wife and that she is inherently sacriicing. his ideology highlights the importance of families to women because only in a family a woman can fulill her functions of being a mother and a wife. Note that in the Vietnamese society, single motherhood is still an alien concept. However, from a liberal point of view, being a mother or a wife is a choice that women can make rather than a mission that they necessarily have to do. Less overtly, the assumption of women as homemakers is found in instances of implication as in: (12) You can ask your husband to help you cook some simple dishes. (Ad4) (13) You can ask your husband and your child to help you do housework. (Ad4)

Although there is a good sign that men are suggested to be involved in household chores, the use of help implies that the task is women’s and men can refuse to help if they want to. And if men do ‘help out’ with housework, they are doing their wives a favor. However, from an egalitarian point of view, housework should also

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be his task, just as earning money is also part of his wife’s responsibility. Apparently, despite all progressive laws on gender equality, the media’s perpetuation of women’s sole duty of housework is negating gender parity. 4.2.2 A good teacher for children Not just manual housework, teaching children is also considered as women’s task in the family. As revealed from the data, teaching children is represented as a natural task that women will automatically do while men are totally invisible in this responsibility. And again, women are praised for taking this noble job as in these explicit statements: (14) he role of a mother is very important. hey are still the master of the family, still playing the major role in nurturing and teaching children. To have a broad view, a woman’s teaching for children is the teaching of the nation’s future generations. (In1) (15) From 3 to 7 years of age, if the mother cares enough for the child’s education, there will develop a good and self-determined generation mastering themselves, their family and the society. (F21)

Shared in examples (14) and (15) is the explicit discussion of the mother’s role in children’s development through the use of explicit expressions such as mother’s roles, major role, nurturing children, women’s teaching for children, teaching a future generation, caring and educating and developing a future generation. Notably, women are straightforwardly held accountable for their children’s development because only the mother or a pro-form they appears as the social actor of the process of nurturing children and the younger generations, while the father is totally absent from this task. Additionally, the choice of non-modal present tense in both (14) and (15) and relational processes in (14) without any tentative markers, have a conclusive and deinitive efect, turning viewpoints into unchallenged statements of facts. Also noteworthy in (14) is the nominalization the role of a mother and a woman’s teaching for children. Unlike what is claimed by Fairclough (2001) that nominalization is oten strategically used to hide the agent or causer of an action, in this instance, the coinage of noun phrases with clear agency bears certain presuppositions. When nurturing and teaching children is discussed, the noun phrases presuppose that women have that role and responsibility. he exclusion of fathers as responsible partners in this discussion invites a thought that this mission is supposedly solely entrusted to mothers. Apart from nominalization, the choice of lexical item still emphasizes that this view has roots from the past and is now resistant to change. Although nurturing and educating children are acknowledged

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Image 2. Women in the domestic sphere (Na1)

to be a noble, important and diicult task, assigning this task wholly to women is seemingly a strategic act aiming to keep women in their traditional roles. In other instances of Na3, ater getting divorced with his supposed-to-be-bad wife, the man inds a second mother for his daughter. he choice of the expression a second mother but not, for example, a second wife or another woman for himself, implies that men cannot by nature look ater their children and they need a woman to do it, whether the woman is their children’s natural mother or a step one. his view accentuates gender role diferentiation. Visual images in the data source also represent a tie between women and children rather than men and children. Analyzing the ideational meta-function (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996) of accompanying pictures reveals that women’s images are seen in most cases taken with children around (Na1, In8, In20, Ad4, F9, F21). his does not only emphasize asymmetrical gender relation but also seems to put women and children under the same category at one end and men at the other. Image 2 taken from Na1 is included here as an illustration. It is generally agreed that bearing children is a woman’s biological task but rearing them and teaching them are socially assigned and hence, putting all these tasks on women is a political act that aims to preserve men’s privilege. 4.2.3 A good daughter-in-law As a long standing social practice, ater getting married, the woman will come and live with the man’s family. his is not purely a matter of accommodation but also one of power. Once in the husband’s family, the woman is supposed to obey her in-laws and live in accordance with her husband’s family’s regulations

Gender ideologies in the Vietnamese printed media

regardless of however harsh or strange these regulations may be. hey are even supposed to take an inferior role of serving the rest of the family members with housework and kitchen work. In the contemporary society, with the increasing participation of women in paid work, entailing her inancial independence, this practice is gradually fading and young couples especially in urban areas, are seen as having more options in terms of accommodation. In fact, they may choose not to live with the husband’s family if they are inancially able. However, the power of men over women still exists in the assumption that women must always perform good daughters in law while men are less commonly mentioned as having to do so to his wife’s family. his way of thinking is clearly represented in the data both overtly in explicit statements and implicitly in presuppositions. In example (16), a woman who is not living with her in-laws is still supposed to take care of her parents in laws’ housework each time she visits them. his is represented as a good thing for women to follow: (16) Every time she visits his family in the country side, she performs an in-law’s responsibility in 10 days, managing all the domestic work. (F9)

hrough explicit expressions, the sentence asserts that an in-law’s responsibility is managing all domestic work, and this applies to women only as women (she) appear as the social actor in these material clauses. Meanwhile, those women who refuse to live with their in-laws for certain reasons are condemned as selish and not fulilling their role and responsibility as in the following explicit statement: (17) However far her husband’s family is or however hard life would be to her, she should have had to live with her husband’s family to fulill her in-law responsibility. She is so selish to just think of herself. (Na10)

Relational modality of should together with the explicit expression in-law responsibility once again highlight the social obligation on women. Sacriice is mentioned on the part of women only and this time it is the sacriice for her husband’s family. A woman in the contemporary Vietnamese society is still expected to care for her parents-in-law prior to her own parents as when she ‘marries out’, she is considered to belong to the husband’s family and no longer her own parents’ family. his way of thinking entails the desire for bearing at least one son for the caring he and his wife will ofer when a couple turn old. Seen as perpetuated by the media, this practice is against gender equality and supporting male chauvinism. In other instances across the data, a mother-in-law gets represented with full power and respect. For long, the relationship between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law has hardly ever been known as a peaceful one. his can be attributed by many factors, for example generation gap, co-habitation, or unrelatedness

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in terms of blood line. However, in this relationship, the daughter-in-law in any case is supposed to respect, obey and please her mother-in-law. As shown in the data, a good daughter-in-law is to know how to learn from her mother-in-law especially in terms of cooking as these examples: (18) She assisted her mother-in-law to cook in order that her mother-in-law can teach her how to cook … (F9) (19) Each time you (a man) go to your mother’s house, you can ask your mother to teach her daughter-in-law how to cook some dish … (Ad3)

he choice of the action process teach with the mother-in-law as the actor emphasizes the higher and also more powerful status of the mother-in-law. In other words, the mother-in-law is seen as a ‘better model’ from which her daughter-inlaw has to learn from. On the surface, this can be mistaken as an issue of power relation between two women. However, this power imbalance is rooted from gender inequality in which men and those related to men, in this case the mother-in-law, will enjoy advantage over women or those related to women, for example the wife’s mother. hen why mother-in-law and not father-in-law? he explanation is that these two women are supposed to belong to the same domain of domestic work. 4.2.4 A submissive, dependent and concessive wife Across the data analyzed, however successful or talented women might be in the public sphere, they are expected to be submissive, dependent and concessive wives, who assume an inferior status to their men. he long standing sexist viewpoint that women are weak and need to rely on men’s strength and wisdom for happiness in life is prevalent in numerous linguistic instances. his viewpoint is deep-rooted in human beings’ perception not only from Confucian doctrine but also from other religions such as Christianity, according to which the woman was created from the man’s rib. he right place for a woman is, hence, behind a man and dependent on him for protection and guidance. In the contemporary industrialized Vietnamese society, although women have made considerable strides in the public work arena, the previously dominantly men’s ield, this viewpoint has not changed accordingly but is reinforced by the media. In many interviews, the role models of the society state their view as such. (20) Any woman, not just me, would need a man to depend on. (In7) (21) I think any woman would need a shoulder to lean on because Creator made the woman from the man’s rib. (In10) (22) I am the woman who voluntarily stands behind her husband. (In16)

Gender ideologies in the Vietnamese printed media

Synonymous expressions of depend on, lean on and stand behind iguratively portray women as passive weaker halves and men as irm and reliable partners who women can trust. his stereotypical conceptualization emphasizes gender polarity and accentuates women’s dependence on men. An analysis of metaphors also reveals a hierarchical gender relation between men and women, or husband and wife. First, there is a repetition of the metaphorical expression shoulder referring to men in F2 and I10, and the strong in F24. hese metaphors highlight the stereotypical dependability that men supposedly possess and for which women need to rely on men. Women, on the other hand, are lexically named the beautiful (F24), which has a sense of fragility and needs protection. he choice of these metaphors is seen as clearly supporting gender stereotypical assumptions. What is more, in a married relationship, the husband is conceptualized as the boatman and the wife the boat (Na10, F25). Apparently, the boat is naturally directed by the boatman, so is the wife guided by her husband. In another instance, the husband is the wild horse and the wife the endless grass ield (In22), and also the harbor (In22). hese conceptualizations of husband and wife discretely represent women, again, as passive and men as active; hence, it disseminates a sexist view on gender relation, emphasizing gender power asymmetry. his type of sexist view has been found in literature, especially in folktales where women are constantly represented as helpless and dependent while men as brave rescuers and protectors (Levorato 2003). Furthermore, in the home, men are seen as the main pillar of the house (Na4), without which the house would collapse. his metaphor emphasizes the important and decisive role of the husband in a family despite the wife’s responsibilities of housework and child care as previously mentioned. What is clear is that whatever and however much women can do, they can only assume a subordinate role in the family and men are their masters in the name of husbands. his apparently complies with Confucian doctrine concerning gender relation.

5. Conclusion In this chapter, I have critically analyzed a number of Vietnamese printed media articles on the event of International Women’s Day, taking a feminist perspective. In summary, what has been found is that the media is circulating the gender ideologies in which women are expected to shoulder both the tasks of paid employment and housework. More speciically, while they appear to be enjoying liberal equality in the public realm, this does not guarantee their equal status with men within the family boundary. Apart from being expected to do most household chores and teaching children, they are supposed to remain inferior to their men

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and their men’s families. he circulation of such gender ideologies is believed to be a strategy of preservation of men’s privilege or to reassure them of their culturally bestowed superiority in a situation where women are increasingly proving that they are no less capable and talented than men in the public work arena. What is special is that, gender inequality in this context is sugar-coated and women are sufering this inequality without knowing that they actually are. Praises, awards and appreciation especially on yearly International Women’s Day make them feel that they want to do so. What lies behind all these praises and encouragement is a patriarchal ideology blended with nationalism, aiming for national development and at the same time sustaining a men chauvinist social order.

References Barry, K. 1996. Vietnam’s Women in Transition. London: MacMillan Press Ltd. Baker, P. 2008. Sexed Texts – Language, Gender and Sexuality. London: Equinox. Beasley, C. 1999. What is Feminism? An Introduction to Feminist heory. London: SAGE publications. Bui, T. K. Q. 1996. “he Vietnamese woman in Vietnam’s process of change”. In Vietnam’s Women in Transition, K. Barry (eds), 159–166. London: MacMillan Press Ltd. Coates, J. 1998. Language and Gender – A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Duong, W. N. 2001. “Gender equality and women issues in Vietnam: he Vietnamese woman – warrior and poet”. Paciic Rim Law & Policy Journal Association 10(2): 191–326. Fairclough, N. 2001. Language and Power (2nd edn.). Harlow: Longman. Gibbon, M. 1999. Feminist Perspectives on Language. New York: Longman. Halliday, M. A. K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold. Hannam, J. 2007. Feminism. Harlow: Pearson Longman. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 1996. Reading Images (2nd edn.). London: Routledge. Lazar, M. M. 2005. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Le, T. Q. 1996. “Domestic violence in Vietnam and eforts to curb it”. In Vietnam’s Women in Transition, K. Barry (eds), 263–274. London: MacMillan Press Ltd. Le, T. Q. 1992. “Some views on family violence”. Social Sciences 4: 81–87. Levorato, A. 2003. Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition – A Linguistic Analysis of Old and New Story Telling. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Litosseliti, L. 2006. Gender and Language: heory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Luật Bình Đẳng giới – tái bản (Laws on gender equality – revised). 2009. Hanoi: Labour Publishing House. Mills, S. 2008. Language and Sexism. New York: Cambridge University Press. Mills, S. 1998. “Post-feminist text analysis”. Language and Literature 7(3): 235–253. Sunderland, J. 2004. Gendered Discourses. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Sunderland, J. 2006. Language and Gender – an Advanced Resource Book. Oxon: Routledge. Tran, D. B. 2009. Gương Sáng Nữ Việt (Vietnamese female good examples). Hanoi: Labour Publishing House.

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Treas, J. and Drobnic, S. 2010. Dividing the Domestic – Men, Women, and Household Work in Cross-National Perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Van Dijk, T. A. 1988. News as Discourse. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Van Leeuwen, T. 2008. Discourse and Practice – New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Appendix: Original texts of examples he following are all the numbered excerpts included in the chapter in the original language of Vietnamese. (1) Chủ tịch nước Nguyễn Minh Triết đã phát biểu: “Phụ nữ Việt nam … đóng vai trò hết sức quan trọng và có những đóng góp xứng đáng.” (2) Trưởng ban dân vận trung ương Hà hị Khiết cũng nêu rõ: Trong giai đoạn đấu tranh bảo vệ đất nước, các bà, các mẹ, các chị đã tham gia tích cực vào công cuộc đấu tranh cùng toàn Đảng, toàn dân đánh bại kẻ thù xâm lược… (3) tôn vinh, biểu dương, ghi nhận, ca ngợi, đánh giá cao (4) phẩm chất tốt đẹp, phẩm chất cao quý, khí phách và ý chí quật cường, sức mạnh tổng hợp, sức mạnh phi thường, dẻo dai, kiên trì, bền bỉ, tự lực cánh sinh, chủ động, năng động, sáng tạo, đoàn kết, phấn đấu, năng động, tự tin, dũng cảm, tần tảo, ưu tú, xuất sắc, tâm huyết, hoàn thành xuất sắc nhiệm vụ được giao, (5) Quá khứ hào hùng của phụ nữ Việt Nam, Trang sử vẻ vang của phụ nữ Việt Nam, Truyền thống anh hùng bất khuất, trung hậu, đảm đang, truyền thống đoàn kết, yêu nước, tinh thần lao động sáng tạo, truyền thống hào hung, truyền thống vẻ vang, truyền thống yêu nước, ý chí quyết tâm vượt khó, truyền thống Bà Trưng, Bà Triệu (6) Gánh nặng của người phụ nữ hiện đại lớn hơn nhiều so với trước kia vì họ phải gánh cả việc gia đình và xã hội nhưng vẫn phải cân đối hài hòa các việc với nhau. (7) Chúng tôi phải cố gắng rất nhiều vì xã hội vẫn mong phụ nữ làm tròn thiên chức làm mẹ, làm vợ lại vừa làm tốt công việc xã hội. (8) Những việc như vậy theo tôi phụ nữ nên giữ lại. Công việc gia đình như nấu cơm rửa bát cũng chia không phải là bình đẳng. (9) Ở đâu mình cũng phải dành thời gian chăm sóc gia đình. (10) Với tôi ngoài công việc, được chăm sóc cho chồng con là một hạnh phúc nhất trong đời chứ đó không chỉ là trách nhiệm, bổn phận của một người mẹ, người vợ. (11) Với bất kỳ người phụ nữ nào, gia đình vẫn là duy nhất và quan trọng nhất. (12) Hãy đề nghị chồng bạn giúp chế biến các món ãn đơn giản. (13) Bạn có thể đề nghị chồng con giúp bạn làm việc nhà. (14) Vai trò của người mẹ rất quan trọng. Họ vẫn là người chủ của gia đình, vẫn đóng vai trò chính trong việc nuôi nấng dạy dỗ con cái. Nhìn rộng ra toàn xã hội thì việc nuôi dạy con cái của người phụ nữ chính là nuôi dạy một thế hệ tương lai cho đất nước.

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(15) Từ 3 tuổi đến 7 tuổi nếu người mẹ quan tâm và chú ý dưỡng dục thì sẽ vun trồng cho thế hệ sau những con người tử tế có đủ tố chất cần thiết để làm chủ bản thân, làm chủ gia đình và làm chủ xã hội. (16) Mỗi lần về quê thăm gia đình anh, chị làm dâu 10 ngày, quán xuyến mọi việc trong gia đình chồng. (17) Đáng ra nhà chồng có xa mấy, điều kiện khó khăn mấy, cô ta cũng phải về làm nghĩa vụ dâu con. Cô ta ích kỷ chỉ biết nghĩ đến mình. (18) Chị phụ mẹ chồng làm bếp để được mẹ chồng dạy nấu những món ãn mà chồng chị ưa thích. (19) Mỗi lần về, nên nói má giúp con dâu, dạy con dâu làm một món gì đó… (20) Phụ nữ ai chẳng cần đàn ông để tựa vào, đâu phải riêng tôi. (21) hảo nghĩ bất cứ người phụ nữ nào cũng cần một bờ vai để tựa vì tạo hóa đã sinh ra người đàn bà là chiếc xương sườn của đàn ông mà. (22) (Tôi) là người tình nguyện đứng phía sau chồng.

part iii

Trajectories of patriarchy and emancipation across professions

Constructing masculine work identity through narrative Two case studies from emergency medicine in Quebec Stella M. Advani University at Bufalo, he State University of New York Singapore Institute of Management

his study extends the literature on gender, language, and the professions by examining the language practices of two participants from the communities of practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 1992; Lave & Wenger 1991) of physicians in emergency medicine departments in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where the percentage of women who are becoming medical doctors is the highest it has ever been – higher than in other Canadian provinces, higher than the national average, and still growing (Kondro 2007). I argue that the growing number of women in this male dominated profession strongly depends on their success in adapting themselves and their lifestyles to an institutional structure that accommodates men and the lifestyles of men. he following study analyzes transcript data from two interviews with a male and a female physician. he research questions being pursued in the analysis are the following: How do these physicians discursively construct and negotiate their professional identity(ies)? What roles do gender and status play in their negotiation of these identities? he indings show that participants’ use of positioning (Davies & Harré 1990; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003) and narrative contribute to the construction of this community of practice as relatively masculine and may point to one of the reasons women continue to be underrepresented in this profession. Keywords: identity, ethnography, communities of practice, Quebec, emergency medicine

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1.

Introduction

In the following excerpt from an interview with a female emergency medicine physician at Holy Cross Hospital in Aubigny, Quebec, Dr. Lasalle1 talks about her maternity leave and explains why she is not a good example of a typical female doctor: (1) I did not feel any, any pressure and yet there could have been because when you look at the situation then you say, well, yes they could have perhaps called me and said, can’t you come back two weeks early? three weeks early? Because, really, they were, uh, they were pretty loaded (with work). [into laughing] … so, that’s that. Well, I have the impression that there are some who experience situations, uh, pressures. I am not, perhaps, a good example of that [into laughing].

Before the above statement, Dr. Lasalle had just recounted two stories, which were perhaps prompted by my own account of a friend’s unfortunate experience in her surgery residency. Dr. Lasalle’s irst story was about her female colleague’s experience during her residency in surgery. She had lost her irst pregnancy and wanted to become pregnant again right away, but her superior, the attending physician, strongly discouraged her. She used narrative as a way to position (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003) her colleague – that is, to assign an identity to her colleague and to assign an idea concerning female physicians in general – as faced with pressure in their medical workplaces when considering maternity leave, a gendered experience. Dr. Lasalle’s second story recounts her own gendered experience – her sixmonth maternity leave – during which two unforeseen events took place: one of the emergency medicine physicians with whom she worked decided to take a sabbatical in order to attend a program in his specialty; another colleague ruptured his tendon and, with a cast, could not work. he work shits of these three doctors would be redistributed amongst the rest of the emergency team of doctors, which included the unconventional night shits. However, despite the demands of their profession, Dr. Lasalle was not asked to return to work early from her maternity leave, although, in her opinion, her colleagues would have had a right to ask her to do so. Her main point throughout the interview is that, although she did not deny that there might be sexism in the medical workplace as evidenced by her irst story, she herself had not experienced it. She used her own story to recount how, during her medical tenure, she had not experienced the type of pressure 1. To maintain conidentiality, the names of all people and places (except for the province of Quebec) have been changed.

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that women usually do in this career. hus Dr. Lasalle concludes the interview by positioning herself as “not a good example” of a female physician. She claims for herself an identity that is positioned further from her gender, a notion that I will develop at length later in the article. Dr. Lasalle is one of the two women who work with ity-ive male emergency physicians in her emergency department (emergency room or ER). Why are there not more female physicians in emergency medicine? As the percentage of women who are becoming medical doctors in Quebec grows, attempts have been made towards gender equality in the workplace. For example, l’Oice Québécois de la Langue Française (the Quebec Oice of French Language, henceforth OQLF), a governmental institution, which deines and applies Quebec’s language policies, attempted to standardize new feminine forms of occupational titles and had over the years since 1979 published various guides to feminization as women were entering professions that were previously held only by men. Feminization of occupational titles is now the norm in both written and spoken text, although use is optional and does not always conform to the standard put forth by the OQLF. In addition, Quebec’s Commission de l’équité salariale (Pay Equity Commission) concluded that “in Quebec, women are generally paid less than men. his is the case, for example, in certain types of jobs that traditionally have been held mostly by women” (p. 2). he commission thus created in November 1997 the Pay Equity Act under which employers “must achieve pay equity” by “evaluating and comparing jobs held mainly by men with those held mainly by women in order to determine the compensations adjustments required to correct gender based wage discrimination” and must continue to pay equity in the organization thereater (Commission de l’équité salariale 2000). he next step would be an evaluation of the gendered structures, such as work schedules, that put women at a disadvantage in the workplace. I argue that this change in demographics does not imply a “feminization of the medical profession in Quebec,” which prompted the dean of Laval University’s medical school to “lament the absence of men” (Hamilton 2002: para. 2). Rather, the growing number of women in the male dominated profession of physician strongly depends on their success in adapting themselves and their lifestyles to a patriarchal structure that accommodates men and the traditional lifestyles of men. Women entering medical workplaces as doctors and, particularly, in specialties such as emergency medicine, are not entering neutral spaces into which they will seamlessly integrate, but are entering gendered spaces which will “necessitate renegotiating their identities” (Ivanic 1998: 16) and their lifestyles. he increasing organizational pressures for a limited number of doctors in speciic specialties to work long,

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unconventional shits appear to be in conlict with the traditional cultural expectation of a woman’s responsibility to family and for sexual reproduction.

2. heoretical background 2.1

Gender: Constructed through discourse

I reject the notion of gender essentialism, which posits that gender is determined by biological and genetic factors and therefore biologically predictable and unavoidable despite cultural and historical diferences. Instead, I draw on several theorists in order to establish a working deinition of gender for the purposes of this chapter. I consider my participants as engaging in diferent communities of practice and focus on the performative construction and achievement of their gendered identity (Bergvall 1999). I understand gender to be constructed socially and locally through everyday practices and pay particular attention to the discursive construction of gender in the diferent settings of the medical workplace. “We perform gender in our minutest acts. It is by virtue of the accumulation of these performances that the gender order is maintained, and it is by virtue of small changes in these performances that the gender order can be restructured” (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003: 55). here are not just abstract oppressive systems that make individuals act a certain way; the power of one or more particular ideologies or belief systems exists in the small acts of individuals who do the work of resisting or conforming to (and thus recreating) gendered practices as well. I use the term discourse in this chapter primarily to describe the talk that I transcribed from the interviews, although I also include some other kinds of talk that took place in the research setting, such as naturally-occurring talk, and written documents. hus, discourse, for the purposes of this study, means both the spoken and written word used in a particular context. For this study, I looked at how gender is constructed and performed through language use within the context of these medical workplace settings. I see discourse as serving as a “mediating mechanism” through which “culturally recognized, ideologically shaped representations of reality” (e.g. gender) are produced and received (Ivanic 1998: 17). As Butler puts it: “there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results” (1990: 25). In a similar vein, Davies and Harré (1990: 46) state:

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An individual emerges through the processes of social interaction, not as a relatively ixed end product but as one who is constituted and reconstituted through the various discursive practices in which they participate. Accordingly, who one is is always an open question with a shiting answer depending upon the positions made available within one’s own and others’ discursive practices and within those practices, the stories through which we make sense of our own and others’ lives.

In this analysis I look to both the linguistic and paralinguistic resources that the participants use to position themselves and others and, in particular, the conlicting and contradictory subject positions (Weedon 1997) they choose for themselves and others because the conlicts and contradictions illustrate the variety of resources that individuals draw on in order to construct complex identities. 2.2

Gender: An organizing and structuring principle

In order to describe the participants in the emergency medicine departments, I turn to the notion of Community of Practice (CofP) coined by Lave and Wenger and deined by Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s as “an aggregate of people who, united by a common enterprise, develop and share ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, and values – in short, practices” (1999: 186). On the surface, the group of emergency medicine staf, who also refer to themselves as a team or a family constitutes a community of practice in Saint Jean Hospital. he participants are united under the general, common goal of patient care and a shared local identity associated with the hospital, town, and region. However, ater close analysis of participant interviews within this community, the participants’ self- and other- positionings reveal a iner breakdown into subcommunities of practice. Participants interpret the realization of patient care and their role in patient care in diferent ways. hey also mention that their roles are further delineated from a top-down approach, whereby the staf must answer to the hospital administration, its own goals, and its allocation of funds. Gender becomes salient as staf roles are interpreted through the organization of the division of labor. In a hospital setting, the division of labor has a history of being gender-segregated, based on a hierarchical and dichotomous interpretation of gender that results in the two professions of physician and nurse as not sharing equal status. Physicians have a more inluential and powerful position in the hospital than nurses who carry out their orders. herefore, the group of physicians and the group of nurses can be thought of as two distinct communities of practice that, in relation to each other, are both hierarchically organized and historically gendered, with the role of physician as being the more privileged and prestigious.

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In that sense, I ind gender to be an organizing and structuring principle in this workplace and in these communities of practice. McElhinny argues that “workplaces are gendered both by the numerical predominance of one sex within them and by the cultural interpretations of given types of work which, in conjunction with cultural norms and interpretations of gender, dictate who is understood as best suited for diferent sorts of employment” (1993: 386). It is because of its predominantly male workforce and because men were traditionally understood as best suited for the role of diagnosing patients’ illnesses that I understand the occupation of physician as gendered masculine in these communities. I want to point out here that the role in the hospital to diagnose patients is elitist, prestigious, and of higher status, which translates not only into those holding these occupations to be granted the most authority but also to receive higher wages, a relection of the larger community placing high social value to these jobs. hus, I also perceive a hospital as gendered masculine because its division of labor has privileged masculine roles, “masculine norms of interaction and masculine attitudes and values” (Holmes 2006: 10) and has rewarded, in the form of power, high social status and high wages, those occupying these roles.

3. Methodology he method that best describes my approach to research is ethnography, based on Spindler’s (1982) “criteria for good ethnography” from his article under the same title. Ethnography’s focus of analysis is on naturally occurring (not in a controlled setting) human group processes and relations. Ethnography complements feminist theory in sociolinguistics. For example, feminist theory posits that gender varies locally and culturally, thus to do research in a site from a feminist perspective already takes into consideration an emic perspective of participants and assumes that meaning is derived from the local contexts. he following interviews took place while residing in Quebec as part of the data I collected for a larger ethnographic study (Martinez 2008) during which I made observations in various areas of the emergency department, in particular the majors area, which housed in-patients. I visited the research site eighteen times over the course of six months from April to September 2006, shadowing diferent participants and writing ield notes openly in English. I used interviews to discover the meaning of the events and behavior that I had observed from the insider’s point of view or positionality. By analyzing the observations and the interviews together, I was able to follow-up on or cross-reference what I had observed or asked about in ield notes, and to contextualize the

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events. he interviews gave richer detail to the data I collected by simply observing and are the crux of my analyses. I conducted these formal interviews in French, on-site and during the participant’s work shit (participant’s choice), recorded (with permission) on a Sony digital recorder and transcribed according to a modiied version of Schifrin’s (2001) transcription methods (see Appendix 1). For the purposes of this paper, I have translated the excerpts from French to English (see original French transcriptions in Appendix 2) and have used standard orthographic conventions in the translations. A similar set of questions was used for each interview as a guide to the conversation, to which I referred only when necessary. he questions were divided into categories such as participants’ educational backgrounds, their present jobs and the goals of those jobs, other staf jobs and those goals, women in emergency medicine, and family life. he participants actively co-constructed the conversation by initiating topics and ultimately answered my questions without further prompting. Once I had typed out all of the raw ield notes and interview transcripts, I started the initial coding by looking for patterns, themes, and concepts informed by my observations, unrecorded interviews, interactions via email, and hospital literature either on-line or given to me by participants, that might be used for categories. During this process, I wrote in the margins, highlighted words, and asked questions. I tried to be as holistic as possible, by considering each piece of data relative to each other. I then grouped common patterns and regularities under topics; in other words, I developed a list of coding categories according to Bogdan and Biklen (2003). he labels of the topics came both from the data itself, such as un beau groupe, and from general overarching themes, such as gender. Initial coding revealed patterns in the setting that it under the larger category of gender. I further divided the perspectives of the female physician, which focused on parenthood and maternity leave, from those of the male physician, which focused on the importance of teamwork and Francophone identity and systems. he analysis also showed that my participants used stories to recount gendered work-related events in their careers or narratives of personal experience (Ochs 1997). It is mainly within their work narratives that I saw how gender relations at work are accomplished, challenged, or upheld. It was also in their work narratives that I saw a pattern of themes that assumed maleness as normal and preferred in the hospital settings, for example, stories about solidarity created in the emergency physician in-group.

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4. he research setting and participants 4.1

Aubigny, Quebec

he city of Aubigny is located on the shore of the Saint Lawrence River in eastern Quebec. Two bridges and a ferry connect Aubigny to Quebec City, where I lived during the course of my research. Quebec province, located in the extreme northeast, is Canada’s largest province (slightly larger than the state of Alaska). French is the oicial language of Quebec (under the Charter of the French Language or Loi 101 passed in 1977) and is the only Canadian province whose population is mainly French speaking. 4.2

University ailiated hospitals

he settings for the current study are Saint Jean Hospital (SJH) and Holy Cross Hospital (HCH), both teaching hospitals. A teaching hospital is ailiated with a nearby university and is the typical setting for a medical residency, a post-graduate training program for physicians in North America, which gives in-depth training within a speciic branch of medicine. SJH was my primary research site and where all of my participants (except Dr. Lasalle) worked on a permanent basis. 4.3

Dr. Belmont

At the time of the interview, August 2, 2006, Dr. Belmont was in his forties and married with two children. He describes emergency medicine culture at SJH in terms of Francophone and Quebecois culture (stressing its distinction from Anglo language and culture). By positioning himself and the emergency medicine system in SJH as Francophone/Quebecois, he reinforces his idea of equality and team membership, without hierarchy, which, to him, was an Anglo trait. 4.4

Dr. Lasalle

he only senior female emergency physician who agreed to work with me was Dr. Lasalle, who was on staf at HCH (located in a major city in Quebec province). At the time of the interview, June 20, 2006, Dr. Lasalle was forty-four years old and married with two children. In her interview, she becomes a spokesperson for conforming to masculine norms of the workplace to new female members in order to set herself apart from other women in the workplace and from certain

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identities that are associated with them. She also chose not to wear make-up and kept a short hair cut, yet maintained her feminine identity by drawing on other paralinguistic and discursive resources in order to position herself as feminine, which she had stated was important to her, such as rising intonation, laughing (for mitigation), smiling and gesturing with her hands.

5. Analysis he analysis compares two interviews that took place between two emergency medicine physicians and me on two separate occasions, which I have cross-referenced with my expanded ield notes and other data sources. he analysis explores how these two participants position themselves and others in this traditionally masculine gendered workplace. It then examines how they discursively construct and negotiate their professional identities and the roles gender and status play in the negotiation of these identities. Not surprisingly, the main, recurring themes coded for in Dr. Lasalle’s workplace narratives were overtly gendered, such as female physicians, maternity leave, and related to family issues, such as planning parenthood. hese themes were embedded in the negotiations Dr. Lasalle made when faced with these events and other prevalent non-gendered themes such as work demands, pressure, scheduling, and issues related speciically to emergency departments in Quebec province such as lack of doctors in the region. hese themes overlapped in both interviews and included interactions with and perceptions of nurses and working with men. Other non-gendered and less signiicant themes focused on educational background and research, which were let out for the purposes of this paper. Dr. Belmont’s workplace narratives focus on stories that could be characterized as normatively or stereotypically masculine (Holmes 2006: 205) and contribute to the construction of this community as relatively masculine. I chose the interview with Dr. Belmont because of its representativeness of the other male participants in the study. he themes in his interview data show how work shits and the character (e.g. team work and equality) of this particular department have been organized covertly by and through gender. Travail d’équipe or team work is central to the emergency medicine workplace at SJH. Access to membership (or, in other words, the decision to accept a recently graduated resident on staf to the emergency department) is strongly predicated on whether the group has seen that an individual can integrate easily into the team. he male emergency medicine physicians describe the team in positive terms (un beau groupe = “a ine group”) and similar to a family, and they say that one of the things they like the most about their job is the group dynamics.

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In Dr. Belmont’s interview he uses stories to describe the qualities of the team from the perspective of a member who is conident in both acting in and speaking on behalf of the main in-group at SJH. Dr. Belmont makes assertions for the group using the personal pronouns on, nous or nous autres (“we”) and outlines the group values and contributions such as innovation, equality, and modesty. He draws heavily on the hero story, a “stereotypically masculine narrative of contest, where the hero overcomes great odds to succeed” (Holmes 2006: 176) in order to construct his group’s work identity in this community of practice. Before I make a case for male privilege in SJH’s community of practice of physicians, I will describe some of the challenges that emergency medicine departments in Quebec and Canada face that serve as important background information to the narratives in the following interviews. 5.1

Overcrowding

Both Quebecois emergency departments at SJH and HCH are faced with the problem of overcrowding. he Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) states in their Emergency Department Overcrowding Position Statement of 2000 that the health care system in Canada has undergone signiicant change in the last decade by shiting its focus from institution-based care to home and communitybased care, which has had a direct impact on hospital emergency departments, namely their overcrowding (CAEP 2008). he CAEP deines overcrowding as “a situation in which demand for service exceeds the ability to provide care within a reasonable time, causing physicians and nurses to be unable to provide quality care” and measures overcrowding by monitoring patient waiting times – the time it takes to be seen by the emergency physician, to be seen by a consultant, and to move the admitted patient to an in-patient bed (ibid.: Introduction, para. 1). In order to accommodate accidents, the emergency department never closes. It must provide continuous service to care for its dynamic patient population, which ranges from the critically urgent to the ‘worried well’ since it has the convenience of providing unscheduled and ater-hour treatment. Dr. Belmont points out that the ER ends up being a sort of catch-all for patients who have nowhere else to go, which includes the growing populations of patients with social cases, such as the homeless, those with mental illness, and the aging. According to Dr. Belmont, the combination of overcrowding and commitment to serving patients calls for better patient management, one of the main goals of emergency medicine. Since the emergency department’s social cases and aging populations are increasing, eiciency has gone down and the staf ’s workload has increased. In constructing his work identity, Dr. Belmont makes reference to these

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main challenges in emergency medicine and shows how his team addresses these issues through creating the role of coordinator. Two emergency medicine physicians are stafed per work shit. However, in order to better organize patients, their team had petitioned to the administration for the position of coordinator to be added to their emergency department. he coordinator role was created in order to satisfy the new, diferent needs of patients coming to the emergency department by a iner division of the labor of treating the patient. By removing from the two main physicians the responsibility of (1) administrative work, such as transferring a patient who needs psychiatric treatment and of (2) emotional labor, such as dealing with the family of a patient with social issues, or being the “social godparents” (see Dr. Belmont’s interview, below), the two emergency medicine physicians are free when a life-threatening case is presented in the resuscitation room. By creating this role, the emergency medicine physicians are also making a statement: their role is restricted and does not and should not include emotional labor or administrative work. In other words, they are preserving their historically patriarchal role in the hospital. heir dress relects these difering roles as well: while the two emergency medicine physicians continue to wear scrubs, the coordinator dresses in civilian clothes and a white coat. A iner division of labor appears to relect an ideology of better hospital management when the patient population increases, but it also maintains a traditionally hierarchical division of labor that privileges men at the top. 5.2

Dr. Belmont’s interview

Dr. Belmont constructs a group identity of emergency medicine physicians with whom he works (including himself) of innovators and pioneers in introducing the coordinator role to facilitate organization within the specialty of emergency medicine. By using the proactive personal pronouns nous (autres) and on (“we”) he illustrates that they had agency in working hard at the task of convincing those who control the budget that their way of organizing would be more eicient. As innovators and pioneers, Dr. Belmont’s narrative presents itself as a hero story, in which he and his (male) colleagues “succeed despite formidable hurdles” (2006: 178). hey came up with a way to better organize the division of labor in the emergency department. When I asked him if it was normal that all hospital emergency departments have a coordinator role he responded: (2) No, not all, no. We at SJH are rather innovative. It has been almost two years since we have had it now and so we are one of the irst in Quebec there. [ok] In fact, not all of the hospitals have it. he large, major teaching hospitals there will oten have one of them but uh still, in fact not all the teaching hospitals

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have one [ok] hat makes a diference, I think. here are problems there, like this morning I prepared seven, eight patients that the doctor on the loors, they don’t have the time to see.

As stated in the above quote, Dr. Belmont positions the role of coordinator as accomplishing the goal of satisfying the patient. Drawing on the theme of sacriice to explain how, as innovators, his group works for the patient, Dr. Belmont states in reference to working with other medical staf: (3) It’s not easy; that’s another problem which is more diicult because, as a group of emergency physicians, we assert ourselves a lot for the quality of the patients. [mm] We started doing the social work. We were there inside (with) the pharmacists. We were pioneers also, the fact that we are oten called specialists; that we have telephones on us – mobile phones – no matter where, no matter who can call us anywhere. We are like pioneers also in that way.

he demands of work on the emergency physician are framed as a sacriice that needs to be made to ensure quality care: (4) hat’s right. So, that requires a lot there when your patient keeps you busy, you have to manage … patients … the thirty-four patients; manage all the nurses who come to ask us questions at every end of (the shit) [yes], manage the pharmacist who comes to see us with cases and manage the social worker who also sees us for cases then manage the telephone which rings … [ah yes] So, that’s a lot [ah yes] uh at the doctor’s level there, who, at a given time (says), well, hey! it’s not easy seeing patients there!

Dr. Belmont uses repetition when describing the demands of work on the emergency physician. he restatement of expressions of quantity (beaucoup / “a lot”, trente-quatre / “thirty-four”, toutes les inirmières / “all the nurses”), and expressions of necessity (il faut / “you must” or “one must”) as well as the repetition of the verb “manage” (gères) in the subjunctive, which introduces each work demand presented in a seemingly unending list, culminate in his conclusion that the role of emergency physician is not easy. He encourages the acceptance of this idea by repeating it throughout the interview. heir requests for the position of coordinator, a social worker, and pharmacist in the emergency department resulted in their having to manage more medical staf, which is presented as a sacriice that needs to be made for the patients. However, Dr. Belmont places emphasis on uniform thinking and group solidarity in order to make the demands of work more tolerable: (5) For sure we are autonomous workers. here are no inancial bonds with others … hat’s why I told you we are uh we are really a cohesive group …

Constructing masculine work identity through narrative

we are a good group there. We always succeeded in getting through all the small problems there and it’s because we are twenty-three strong heads there, twenty-three doctors. We are absolutely autonomous strong heads. So all of the leaders … also there, so, it’s oten that we are able to get along. We’re ine. We’re doing well.

In the above quote, Dr. Belmont points out that his in-group plays an active role in its own solidarity, since they are not tied to or supported inancially by unions or any other groups, which would link them together, thus building on agency in the hero story. His description of each individual member as a “strong head” (têtes fortes) taking the part for the whole, alludes both to the image of stubbornness and of leaders who, as a uniied group, used their intellect to help solve the overcrowding problems in their own emergency department. Dr. Belmont further extends the hero story in the following segment in which he describes the historical legacy of his group. He draws attention to its founding fathers, Dr. Prideaux and Dr. Franc, who arrived in 1990. he doctors from the old school let and … (6) Gradually it was the group of Dr. Franc and then Dr. Prideaux, who asserted a bit, uh, a certain way of doing emergency medicine [ok] so, it’s in fact a natural selection, then what happened is that all the newcomers those who want to come here, residents, interns, they all pass through, we see them all working as students [ok] so we’re able to decide: him, we’d like that to have him, him, this guy or this girl there, works well. We get along well with (this one). We’ve seen him work and he has a good personality. And when these people there called, from that moment on, we already had some idea [ok] and so we know we have to choose we have to choose a bit these people there. hey’re not all the same. You don’t choose someone who has a bad personality or somebody who doesn’t work to become part of your team. So the future candidates we know them all, we see them all pass through here.

he rite of passage for potential new members takes place during their rotations in SJH’s emergency department. he screening process involves observation of residents to see whether they would it into the group’s way of doing emergency medicine. As a member of this community of practice, Dr. Belmont seems to want to preserve the group dynamics, which is their way of doing emergency medicine established by his forefathers and carried on by him and other members. hey must observe whether the resident has a good personality and works well, especially with others. In the next section, Dr. Belmont gives a more detailed description of why a good it is important for the team.

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(7) Well, I think you have to love it, emergency medicine … to last a long time [mm]. We are really lucky here in this setting here; we are really a ine group; we are a good group … what is characteristic of us it is that … those who start … this year have the same number of on-call shits, same number of nights, same number of weekends as someone who, for twenty years has been here [ok]. Everyone has equal parts, no matter your seniority, which is not the case in … all the other ERs. In ERs those who have iteen, twenty years of practice will work way less weekends, will do way less evening or night shits [ok]. So … everyone is ok, everyone is on the same basis [mm]. So it’s fun for the young people. Young people, they want to come here [yes] then … the oldest, well, we manage there; but it’s still not as bad as far as nights. We work one night every nine, ten days, which is not so bad. Certain ERs sometimes it’s two or three night (shits) per week there.

he division of labor also entails an equal distribution of shits for the emergency physicians. he even distribution of less favorable shits allows for each member to work that shit less oten. When the frequency of less favorable shits goes up, it is less tolerable for the group and Dr. Belmont revisits his original premise, which is that at these moments the team member must love the work beyond the shits. So although the shits are spread out equally among them, which is attractive for the new recruits, the high frequency of less favorable shits is still a diicult reality to the system. he importance placed on an equal distribution of labor within the team became more relevant in my analysis of female emergency physicians’ interviews, whose dominant themes of planned parenthood, maternity leave, and pregnancy become viewed as disruptions of this equality (see below). As stated earlier, the emergency department has capacity problems. here are not enough facilities and manpower to accommodate the growing number of patients entering the emergency department. Budget constraints allow only a certain number of hires per year, which is not proportionate to the number of patients received. When manpower is lost because a doctor becomes pregnant and takes maternity leave, the division of labor shits and the remaining team members must pick up the work. With an already strained system this small adjustment could be perceived as a large burden to the remaining workers who must add more long hours and inconvenient shits to their already unconventional schedule. As a consequence, a new, young, female doctor may be considered a less desirable team member. Dr. Belmont recognizes that this system is especially hard on family life: (8) Especially when you have children at four, ive years old, who get up at six in the morning every day there. You too have to get up at six in the morning there. Imagine if you went to bed at two in the morning.

Constructing masculine work identity through narrative

Dr. Belmont conirms that emergency medicine does not accommodate those who have familial responsibilities. It was not surprising then that SJH’s emergency department planned on taking on board two male physicians for the upcoming iscal year. I asked Dr. Belmont how his work afects his family life. In the following excerpt, Dr. Belmont describes how he reconciles the two. (9) … I’m lucky to have a wife who isn’t very careerist there. She is a nurse. She works two days a week. So we found our balance a little bit. With me, the schedules are more diicult but it’s certain that if she worked ive days a week then that doesn’t work, that wouldn’t work for us. here are people (for whom) that works, where both are doctors, are on-call and they manage. Uh, on the other hand perhaps they don’t see their children as much as I do. No, for me it’s … inding a perfect balance. For four, ive years there it’s gone very well.

Dr. Belmont easily manages both a family and professional life because his wife does not work nearly as much as he does, only two days a week. I imagine that it is she who wakes up at six in the morning with their children when he has worked until two in the morning. Yet his schedule is still not conducive to being with his family: with me, the schedules are more diicult. If Dr. Belmont’s spouse had to work a conventional workweek, it would not work for them, but he does recognize that there are couples in which both parents have a doctor’s schedule. However, they do not see their children as much (and here he says) as he does. Given the work schedule he has outlined throughout the interview, I do not imagine that he sees his children any more than a physician couple would, but his wife probably does, and this may be what makes the arrangement acceptable to him. So the “perfect balance” for him is for one parent to be less career-oriented. He knows this to be true because it has worked in his personal experiences. Dr. Belmont didn’t have to adapt his personal life to his work demands because his spouse did. Dr. Belmont frames this as his own ability to see his children more oten even when his hours have not changed. He admits that his wife is not as committed to her nursing career but he does not seem to recognize it as a sacriice and as supporting him to thrive in his. Instead, he appears to be living vicariously through his wife and even claims to see his children more oten than other emergency physicians, which contradicts his earlier statements on equal distribution of work shits. While all emergency physicians are required to work unconventional shits, sometimes one ater another, not all of them are able to reconcile a balance between their commitment to these demands and to their family. Female physicians must reconcile with the additional cultural demands shaped by the ideal of the patriarchal nuclear family, which positions her as mother (as described within the patriarchal nuclear family discourse) and therefore the primary caregiver to her

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children. Weedon states it best in her chapter on feminism and poststructuralist theory (1997: 33): he recognition that feelings of inadequacy or failure are common among women in similar positions, that the current organization of childcare is the result, not of nature, but of social and historical developments in the organization of work and procreation, and that contemporary deinitions of women as mother conlict with other subject positions which we are encouraged to assume, ofers the frustrated mother a new subject position from which to make sense of her situation, a position which makes her the subject rather than the cause of the contradicting discourses which she is living. As a subject of a range of conlicting discourses, she is subjected to their contradictions at great emotional cost.

Dr. Belmont and the team of emergency physicians were successful at creating the position of coordinator, which takes on the responsibility of administrative and emotional labor and Dr. Belmont is able to reconcile family and work life by marrying someone who takes on the responsibility of child rearing, through which he is able to experience parenting vicariously. In both cases, the division of labor frees up the physician to do emergency medicine. Female physicians who want families are dealing with contradicting subject positions, which have the same demands on their time. Social pressures from the masculine work culture and social pressures from a patriarchal domestic culture are more critical of women who allocate more of their time to one at the expense of the other. A new, young female may be considered a less desirable team member to a group of emergency medicine physicians because she carries the potential of getting pregnant and weakening the group dynamics by redistributing a greater workload to other members. At the same time, when she voluntarily devotes herself to a demanding work culture she is denying the cultural expectation of primary caregiver. So in both instances she can be perceived as not pulling her weight for either job. I asked Dr. Belmont what he thinks is going to happen when sixty to seventy percent of graduating doctors are female. He responded: (10) hat will slow (things) down, it changes, it’s already changing you see … it’s because of the uh the quality of the life. It’s young people who are coming out of the Faculty of Medicine who are doctors who no longer want to work seventy hours per weeks [ok]. It’s thirty-ive hours. he quality of life is important, more – there are even more women so women want to have children. It’s normal. So there are maternity leaves, so that, I wouldn’t say that that destabilizes the teams of doctors but that weakens them a little bit, and that slows down the projects.

Constructing masculine work identity through narrative

Within Dr. Belmont’s group value system, female physicians fall short. he group’s ultimate goal, which is to attain eicient patient management, also depends upon group management. When those treating the patients perform their work tasks predictably and continuously, then accidents that cannot be predicted may be better managed, as well. A female physician – who may not want to become pregnant or take maternity leave – is still seen as having the potential to do both (more so than a male physician, although he may want to take paternity leave) and is, thus, also seen as having the potential to weaken the group and slow down the work. 5.3

Dr. Lasalle’s interview

Some female physicians, such as Dr. Lasalle, can be successful at not disrupting the masculine norms and values of the community in which they work. In Dr. Lasalle’s interview she positions herself as not a typical example of a female physician in a heavily male dominated work place. Rather, she adapts to the demands of a workplace that accommodates a lifestyle without familial obligations. Dr. Lasalle’s interview questions were in line with those asked to Dr. Belmont, but they became increasingly speciic as to how and why Dr. Lasalle decided to pursue a career in emergency medicine – for example, if she had female role models – in order to probe whether she experienced gender stereotyping, gender prejudices or any obstacles in her pursuit. In the following excerpt, Dr. Lasalle positions the various gendered groups in her workplace and then herself as a gendered person within and compared to these groups. (11) Dr. Lasalle: But indeed throughout my whole residency there uh, uh, I cannot say that I had female mentors [into chuckle] uh … Stella: But (you had) male mentors? Dr. Lasalle: Male yes, yes, deinitively and when I inished my residency I was here at Holy Cross where there were only men. [Yes] And the nurses would say to me, “but what are you doing there!”

In the irst part of this excerpt, Dr. Lasalle identiies four groups, all gendered: female mentors and male mentors from her residency, and men (male physicians) and (female) nurses at HCH. Earlier in the interview she stressed the absence of female physicians throughout her residency (she mentioned two with whom she had little contact) and, as a result, the complete absence of female mentors. She thus aligns herself with male physicians in two moves: through deinitive access to male mentorship and separation from other women, the nurses, who question her status.

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(12) But I didn’t really have a problem with that. For example, [yes] I admit that – but I hope to be feminine nevertheless – but, uh, working with men, I (am) very comfortable with that. [Ok] And, I admit, sometimes even more than – and even though I shouldn’t say it there – [yes] sometimes more than with women [into laughing].

Dr. Lasalle denies the questioning of her doctor role by the nurses by stating that she didn’t have any problem with holding an unexpected and unconventional position in the workplace. She uses as an example what she repeats throughout the rest of the interview: that she is comfortable working with men. his statement of attitude, more so than the acts of pursuing and occupying a traditionally male profession, is framed as a gender transgression. In this section, she introduces this statement as a speech act of admission, not unlike a confession, which grants as true this comfort with men and then hedges it, perhaps perceiving that acknowledging such a deep comfort level calls into question her femininity, an obviously important part of her identity that she hopes to convey to others, as stated above. She qualiies her comfort further – irst mirroring the same sentence structure by introducing through admission and then hedging – by using a comparison of superiority: that she is more comfortable working with men than with women. I want to point out that I understand women in this statement to be equivalent to nurses, since these statements are embedded in her story, whose history considers nurses as the only women (besides herself) at HCH. Dr. Lasalle then laughs and I ask her to clarify what she has said: (13) hings are said directly [ok] and then no – there isn’t any hypocrisy … and no – it seems to me that there is respect between people. here isn’t any [breath in] that is – I’m generalizing [of course]. It is not good to generalize [yes, no]. his is my experience in general in uh – thus I am very comfortable working with men.

In clarifying why she is more comfortable working with men (physicians) than with women (nurses), Dr. Lasalle draws on some gender stereotypes, which she frames as male (as opposed to female) ways of conduct in the workplace: (1) things are said directly, (2) there is no hypocrisy and (3) there is respect. hese statements are characterized by self-repair and false starts, as Dr. Lasalle seems to be consciously and carefully choosing how to make the comparison without ofense. I have tried to convey in the English translation her use of the passive of say (“things are said”) and dummy subjects (il y a = literally “it there has” or “there is/are”). She does not actually give agency to the acts of speaking directly, being hypocritical, and showing respect. I consider this lack of assigning agency as another way she mitigates her claims. She hedges these claims by stating that

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she is generalizing, which she judges as not good. his section is concluded by the themes that she repeats through the course of the interview: that this is her experience (this is what she has lived) and that she is very comfortable working with men. he emphasis she puts on her comfort level positions her as a legitimate member of the all-male community of practice. Later in the interview she expands on this legitimacy by illustrating how she herself says things directly, is not hypocritical, and shows respect. Ater stating that she had no female role models due to an absence of women in her ield, she volunteers her own relection on whether she herself serves as a role model for her female residents and medical students. (14) I always say to them one of the important things that I put uh – indeed … (that was not done or said) to me, uh, but uh is that when one becomes part of a group of doctors and then when one is a woman that whether it is in emergency medicine or elsewhere but in particular with schedules like those in emergency medicine where we are all (close together) [mm] uh it’s – we are all there to uh to be on-call.

In the above excerpt Dr. Lasalle sets up one of the main roles that constitutes being part of the community of practice of emergency medicine physicians, being on-call, especially during the demanding work shits of the emergency department. She frames this role as something central that she points out to her female residents. (15) You have to be really, really sick because it has to be – it has to be – it should be replaced, this shit there. You have to, you have to be there and uh and when one leaves, whether it be for maternity leave, illness, well there is somebody who covers our nights, there is somebody who covers our evenings, on weekends, so that must be foreseen in advance.

he centrality and importance of being available to cover shits is evident in the above excerpt where Dr. Lasalle draws on several linguistic resources for emphasis. In this section, as well as others, expressions of necessity or obligation appear more frequently (il faut = “it is necessary”). Repetition and use of discourse markers as intensiiers (très = “very”) as well as other forms of emphasis (moi, je2 = “I”, with emphasis) are amplifying forms (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003) that she draws on to strengthen her argument and position herself. On the phonetic level, intonation and emphasis give further meaning to certain utterances as well.

2. In French, the disjunctive pronouns can be used in addition to the conjunctive pronouns in order to emphasize the personal pronoun.

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his section illustrates how Dr. Lasalle becomes a spokesperson for masculine values, which claim that work comes irst, especially before personal matters such as family, which should not interfere in the workplace domain. It also implicitly highlights the distinction Dr. Lasalle eventually makes between what she deems can be foreseen and cannot be foreseen. his distinction allows for Dr. Lasalle to group maternity leave and illness into the category of that which can be foreseen (although later she deems illness as less predictable than pregnancy) as opposed to emergencies, which cannot be foreseen and which thus require physicians’ continuous presence and for them to constantly rotate shits twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. What ensue are the themes of control of reproductive rights and of a woman’s agency over her body. I, at irst, interpreted this idea position (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003) she takes up as feminist, since she is positioning the idea of planned parenthood as acceptable and possible within this community. From her perspective, it is common background knowledge that if female physicians want to get pregnant, they have access to contraception, and have choices when it comes to having children, when to have them, and how many. However, this is a feminist perspective that its within a masculine environment. It seems expected that these women then choose to use contraception thereby choosing the moment of their pregnancy in order to plan their pregnancies at times that accommodate the demands of their work and in terms of how many children, which translates into how many times on maternity leave and the length of each maternity leave. Dr. Lasalle puts forth this solution to avoiding group tension as non-problematic, and that, in order to keep the healthcare machine running smoothly, women healthcare providers must plan their pregnancies according to a demanding work schedule. In order for women to keep their standing in the group, they must abide by this rule. (16) And it is what I always say to them: what is important when one becomes part of a group is not to wait until the situation arises then to be pregnant then to say “I want to have a leave of this many months” and uh it’s rather – that is foreseen in advance.

In the above excerpt, Dr. Lasalle positions herself as one who speaks directly. She emphasizes making explicit, making known, and making clear well in advance one’s plans for pregnancy as far as when and for how long she will be on maternity leave. Speaking directly about one’s maternity leave is framed as an important aspect of becoming central to the (mostly male) group, and thus Dr. Lasalle frames the theme of planned parenthood as a major potential conlict or point of tension between a female physician and the group of men with whom she works.

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(17) And uh to say if it is marked four months is that ok with you? Is that ok with you? If it is marked one year: Is that ok with you? Is that ok with you? But it has to, it has to be clear and everyone has to agree uh on it and in that way, at the time when it happens well, uh, it’s already foreseen it’s an expectation and so there is no pressure, there is no hard feelings, there is no surprise.

In the above section, because Dr. Lasalle insists that female physicians remain faithful to the maternity leave length agreed upon, she is positioning herself as both respectful and not hypocritical towards the other team members. She states that if one decides to take four months as the time of then she should take just that, four months of maternity leave, but that she should get the consent from each person in the group irst before committing to any time frame. he enactment of the three qualities, which she had earlier framed as “male” or “masculine,” allows a female physician to avoid the consequences of pressure, hard feelings and surprise that would frame her as acting counter to one of the main physician demands, that of being on-call. She herself did abide by her own rules: (18) And here it was clear, it was – I took four months; that was foreseen that worked for me.

Again, she articulates that not only did it work for the group, her four months maternity leave worked for her as well, implying that there was no pressure on her and that she did not sufer, either. Dr. Lasalle said towards the end of the interview that she is probably “not a good example” of a female physician. She concludes her argument in this way: (19) We also have, uh, a certain number of holidays per year, uh, one cannot stop emergency medicine for one or two years; it is impossible [yes, yes, yes] uh [yes] there are unstable situations. You have to be on-call; uh, you don’t have a choice.

Dr. Lasalle draws on certain linguistic resources to frame pregnancy as a choice and as controllable whereas emergencies are not. Dr. Lasalle positions herself as taking up, speaking for and agreeing with the demands of her workplace, which accommodate neither women nor men who wish to spend time with their children, but especially women who want to become pregnant. She also positions herself as being at ease with these demands. I interpret her utterances of ease as sincere yet belying the tension or possibility of tension that women, and especially the workforce of new, young women, experience in a historically and traditionally male dominated workplace. I understand planning parenthood as evidence of one of the ways women are expected to conform to the masculine structure of the workplace.

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6. Conclusion In her study on female (and male) business leaders, Baxter found that female leaders consciously employ a range of diferent linguistic strategies in order to self-regulate how they appear and sound to their colleagues; that is, they make use of “diferent and competing subject positions in order to fulill a range of transactional, transformational and alternative business goals” (2008: 217). Baxter concludes that the extra efort it takes for their use of double-voiced discourse “is also potentially stressful, time-consuming, undermining for the self, and ultimately, harder to hear … one very powerful reason why females are under-represented at leadership level” (2008: 217). he data from Dr. Lasalle’s interview support Baxter’s indings that there may be linguistic reasons why females are under-represented in male dominated professions. Dr. Lasalle discursively positions her professional identity farther away from that of nurses and other female professionals who experience tension in the workplace because of a gendered experience. he extra care female physicians must take in order to plan their pregnancies and maternity leaves constitutes the extra work that they spend in order to adjust to the male-friendly structures of the emergency department. his analysis further shows that the work narratives of Drs. Belmont and Lasalle describe the emergency department as a masculine gendered workplace. In the context of emergency department overcrowding and a lack of emergency medical staf, Dr. Belmont argues for a division of labor into traditional genderappropriate roles and tasks, continuing the tradition of the hospital as a guardian of a dichotomous hierarchical gendered system. Similar to Meân’s indings on her study of the football (soccer) ield, this medical department is a “site for the construction of masculine identity” and “especially linked to masculinity, national, and local identities” (2001: 789). On the football pitch, the increasing number of female footballers signaled a threat to this masculine space. In SJH’s emergency medicine department, an increasing number of female physicians may signal a similar threat. Preserving a male dominated and male majority workplace may seem to be a way to avoid intensifying one of the most important issues in emergency departments throughout Quebec in general as well as in my research site, which is that of overcrowding. A combination of factors have led to overcrowding of emergency rooms, as outlined above, and to the shortage of doctors in Quebec, including the provincial government’s ofer of early retirement in the 1990’s and admissions cuts to medical schools in order to balance the budget ater federal cuts. he realities of overcrowding and understafed emergency departments are the local contexts in which a growing number of women in medical school are deciding upon a medical specialty. he dominance in numbers of a male workforce, which promotes

Constructing masculine work identity through narrative 241

male norms and ways of behaving, in combination with a heavy workload that requires unconventional work shits further create a work environment that disadvantages some working women, and, I imagine, discourages a great percentage of the dominantly female group of medical students from entering the specialty. here is no doubt that the majority of medical students are young women and that this percentage is increasing. It seems as though there is an increasing need for the workplace to accommodate the needs of a female population who may want to be both doctors and mothers. By considering Dr. Belmont’s agency in changing the way work is organized in the emergency department, it seems that it is possible to organize a division of labor which makes time for parenthood despite lack of manpower, long work hours, and a heavy workload. Emergency departments, like SJH’s and similar institutions, may be unprepared for pregnancies among members of medical staf, however, senior members of the medical staf and administrators should now expect pregnancies with the increasing number of new female physicians. One of the irst steps in initiating the dialog on scheduling and parenthood in these workplaces would be for the Canadian Medical Association to openly address the issue of pregnancy and parental leave and to call for reevaluation and reform of organizational structures within institutions’ and residency programs’ on-call schedules that do not accommodate the changing needs of their employees. Part of accepting women (and men) who want to start families during their medical careers is to acknowledge this desire as not in conlict with the promotion of health and well-being but as directly in line with it. For example, the Canadian Medical Association could assign a committee to write recommendations for institutions and residency programs on how to tailor their pregnancy and parental leave policies to these changing demographics. In each department, it would be up to the individuals to plan their pregnancy/parental leave into the on-call scheduling each year in accordance with and depending on the needs of other members of the physician team. A small study such as this shows that the ethnographic approach to language and gender studies can easily be replicated in other emergency medicine departments throughout the province of Quebec or again, at the same setting, perhaps ten years from now, when more women have become emergency medicine physicians. In replicating this type of study, the researcher can compare the narratives of the participants, focusing on their gendered identities, points of tension in the workplace, and institutional structures in order to assess in what ways the department is gendered and what language practices support or resist its gendered institutional structures. Similar studies could also be carried out on positions of power in other traditionally male-dominated workplaces or in very similar medical workplaces.

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Nonetheless, workplaces are increasingly becoming less gender-segregated, which is validation, on some level, that in some places people are becoming more open to the luidity of gender roles and gender practices. I encourage further investigation of the gendered institutions and structures in diferent societies that discriminate against women and put them at a disadvantage in their careers.

References Baxter, Judith. 2008. “Is it all tough talking at the top? A post-structuralist analysis of the construction of gendered speaker identities of British business leaders within interview narratives”. Gender and Language 2 (2): 197–222. Bergvall, Victoria. 1999. “Towards a comprehensive theory of language and gender”. Language in Society 28 (2): 273–293. Bogdan, Robert C. and Biklen, Sari K. 2003. Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble. New York: Routledge. Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. 2008. Emergency department overcrowding position statement 2000. In Position Statements. Retrieved January 6, 2008, from: http:// www.caep.ca/. Canadian Census. 2001. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/ census01/home/index.cfm. Canadian Medical Association. 2004. CMA Code of ethics. In CMAPolicy/Advocacy. Retrieved, January 6, 2008, from: http://policybase.cma.ca/PolicyPDF/PD04-06.pdf. Commission de l’équité salariale. 2000. Pay equity: A matter of fairness for working women in Quebec. Retrieved May 7, 2008, from: http://www.ces.gouv.qc.ca/documents/ publications/forwork.pdf. Davies, Bronwyn and Harré, Rom. 1990. “Positioning: he discursive production of selves”. Journal for the heory of Social Behavior 20 (1): 43–63. Eckert, Penelope and McConnell-Ginet, Sally. 1992. “hink practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice”. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 461– 490. Eckert, Penelope and McConnell-Ginet, Sally. 2003. Language and gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hamilton, Graeme. 2002, November 8. Medical dean laments ‘the absence of men’: Most Quebec med students are women. National Post. Retrieved June 22, 2006 from http://www. fathers.ca/quebec.htm. Holmes, Janet. 2006. Gendered talk at work. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Ivanic, Roz. 1998. Writing and identity: he discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Kondro, Wayne. 2007. “hinking of med school? Where do you live?”. Canadian Medical Association Journal 176 (2): 157–158.

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Lave, Jean and Wenger, Etienne. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. Martinez, Stella M. 2008. Gender at work: A sociolinguistic ethnography of emergency medicine in Quebec. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis. ProQuest / UMI Number: 3329646. McElhinny, Bonnie. 1993. “ ‘I don’t smile much anymore’: Gender, afect and the discourse of Pittsburgh police oicers”. In Locating Power: Proceedings of the Second Berkeley Women and Language Conference, K. Hall, M. Bucholtz and B. Moonwomon (eds), 386–403. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group, University of California, Department of Linguistics. Meân, Lindsey. 2001. “Identity and discursive practice: doing gender on the football pitch”. Discourse & Society 12 (6): 789–815. Norton, Bonny. 2000. Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Limited. Ochs, Elinor. 1997. “Narrative”. In Discourse as structure and process, T. A. van Dijk (ed.), 185– 207. London: Sage Publications. Quebec Medical Association. 2007. he positive efects of feminizing medicine: visible changes that modify the profession. Retrieved November 2, 2007 from http://www.amq.ca/ang/ PDF/feminisation_communique.pdf. Schifrin, Deborah. 2001. Handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. Spindler, George, D. 1982. “he criteria for a good ethnography of schooling”. In Doing the ethnography of schooling: Educational anthropology in action, G. D. Spindler (ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson. Weedon, Chris. 1997. Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. A revised and extended second edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Appendix 1: Discourse transcription conventions [word(s)] [word(s)] [word(s) word(s)] (words) wordword:(:::) word/ word\ X:

describes metalinguistic communication other’s discourse while speaker still holds loor overlapping this is what I think is said truncated elongated vowel (Quebecois accent) rising intonation falling intonation incomprehensible word

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Appendix 2: Original transcripts in French Excerpt 1 J’ai pas senti aucune, aucune pression puis il y aurait pu y en avoir parce que quand on regarde la situation par la suite on se dit bah oui on aurait pu peut être m’appeler puis (dirait) tu peux pas euh entrer deux semaines avant, trois semaines avant ? Parce que vraiment là ils étaient euh ils étaient pas mal loadés [into laughing] … alors c’est ça ben j’aurais l’impression qu’il y en a qui vivent des situations euh des pressions. Moi, je ne suis pas peut-être un bon exemple pour ça. [into laughing] Excerpt 2 Non [ah ok] pas tous, non. Nous autres à SJH on est assez novateurs. Ça fait deux presque deux ans qu’on l’a maintenant/ et puis c’est un on est un des premiers au Québec là à la x [ok]. C’est vraiment pas tous les hôpitaux qui en ont là. Les gros hôpitaux universitaires majeures vont souvent en avoir un mais euh encore là c’est pas tous les hôpitaux universitaires qui en ont un [ok] (.) Ça fait une diférence, je pense. Il y a des problèmes là comme ce matin je lui ai préparé sept huit patients que le médecin sur le plancher eux ils ont pas le temps de voir [ok] est occupé en salle de choc avec de des patients instables [ok] ça x des problèmes sociaux puis tout le monde est ça content tout le monde est satisfait là [ok] mm [oui oui] Excerpt 3 C’est pas facile ; c’est un autre problème qui est plus diicile parce que ici en tant que groupe d’urgentologues on s’in x x imposer beaucoup pour la qualité des patients. [mm] On s’est mis à travailleur social. On était des x là dedans les pharmaciennes. On était des pionniers aussi le fait qu’on appelle souvent les spécialistes ; qu’on a des téléphones sur nous- portables- n’importe où n’importe qui peut nous appeler n’importe où. On est comme des pionniers aussi là dedans. Excerpt 4 C’est ça. Fait que, ça demande beaucoup là quand ton patient t’occupe il faut que tu gères … des patients … les trente-quatre patients ; gères toutes les inirmières qui viennent nous poser des questions à tout bout de x [oui] gères la pharmacienne qui vient nous voir des cas et gères le travailleur social qui nous voit pour des cas aussi puis gères le téléphone qui sonne … [ah oui] Fait que, ça fait beaucoup de choses [ah oui] euh au niveau du médecin là qui, à un moment donné, bon, hey c’est pas tranquille voir des patients là. Excerpt 5 C’est sur qu’on est des travailleurs autonomes. On n’a pas de liens inanciers avec des autres … C’est pour ça que je t’ai dit on est euh on est vraiment un groupe cohésif … on est un bon groupe là. On a toujours réussi à passer à travers toutes les petits problèmes là et que c’est parce qu’on est vingt-trois têtes fortes là, vingt-trois médecins. C’est absolument têtes fortes autonomes. Fait que toutes des leaders … aussi là, fait que, on arrive souvent à s’entendre. Ça va, ça va bien.

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Excerpt 6 … progressivement c’est le groupe de F puis P qui ont imposé un petit peu euh une certaine façon de faire l’urgence. [ok] Fait que c’est en fait une sélection naturelle puis ce qui arrive c’est que tous les nouveaux arrivants ceux qui veulent venir ici là des résidents des externes ils passent toutes on les voit toutes nous autres fonctionner en tant que étudiant. [ok] Fait que nous autres on est capable de décider lui on aimerait ça l’avoir lui ce gars là ou cette ille là fonctionne bien, on s’entend bien avec, on l’a vu fonctionner, puis il a un bon caractère. Et quand ces gens là appelaient qu’après ici on a déjà une petite idée [ok] puis on sait faut choisir. Il faut choisir un petit peu les gens là. C’est pas tout pareil … tu choisis pas quelqu’un qui a un mauvais caractère ou quelqu’un qui est afonctionnel bah est rentré dans ton équipe là. Fait que les futurs candidats on les connais toutes on les voit toutes passer ici. Excerpt 7 Bon, je pense qu’il faut aimer ça, l’urgence, … pour durer longtemps [mm] nous autres on est vraiment chanceux dans le milieu ici là ; on est vraiment un beau groupe ; on est un bon groupe … ce qui est caractéristique de nous autres c’est que … ceux qui commencent … cette année ont le même nombre de gardes même nombre de nuits même nombre de ins de semaines que celui qui ça fait vingt ans qu’il est ici [ok]. Tout le monde a des parties égales, peu importe ton ancienneté, ce qui n’est pas le cas dans … toutes les autres urgences. Dans des urgences ceux qui ont quinze, vingt ans de pratique vont faire beaucoup moins de ins de semaines, vont faire beaucoup moins de shit de soir ou de nuit [ok]. Fait que … tout le monde est correct, tout le monde sur la même base [mm]. Fait que c’est le fun pour les jeunes. Les jeunes, ils veulent venir ici [oui] puis … les plus vieux, ben, on s’arrange là ; mais c’est quand même pas si pire au niveau des nuits. On fait une nuit sur dix, neuf jours, ce qui n’est pas si pire. Certaines urgences des fois c’est deux ou trois nuits par semaine là. Excerpt 8 Surtout quand tu as des enfants à quatre cinq ans qui se lèvent à six heures du matin tous les jours là. Il faut que tu te lèves à six heures toi aussi là imagine si tu te couche à deux heures du matin. Excerpt 9 … Moi j’ai la chance d’avoir une conjointe qui est pas très carriériste là elle est inirmière elle travaille deux jours de semaine [ok] fait x on a trouvé notre équilibre un petit peu moi les horaires sont plus diiciles mais c’est sûr que si elle travaillait cinq jours semaine donc ça marche ça marcherait pas pour nous il y a des gens qui ça marche où les deux sont médecins sont gardes puis s’arrange euh par contre peut être ils voient pas leurs enfants autant que moi [oui oui] non pour moi c’est x trouver l’équilibre parfait depuis quatre cinq ans là ça a très bien. Excerpt 10 ça va ralentir ça change ça déjà est en train de changer tu vois … c’est à cause du euh la qualité des vie. C’est les jeunes qui sortent de la faculté de médecine qui sont médecins qui veulent plus travailler soixante-dix heures par semaines [ok]. C’est

246 Stella M. Advani

trente-cinq heures. La qualité de vie est importante, plus il y a encore plus de femmes fait que des femmes veulent avoir des enfants. C’est normal. Fait qu’il y a des congés de maternité, fait que ça je dirais pas que ça déstabilise les équipes de médecins mais ça les fragilise un petit peu, puis ça ralentit les projets. Excerpt 11 Dr. Lasalle: mais efectivement dans toute cette formation là euh euh je peux pas dire que j’ai eu des mentors féminins/ [into chuckle] euh: Stella: mais masculins/ Dr. Lasalle: masculins oui oui déinitivement et quand j’ai terminé ma résidence/ je me suis () ici à la croix sainte où est-ce qu’i(l n’y) avait que des hommes\ [oui] et les inirmières me disaient mais qu’est-ce que tu fais là mais [oui] Excerpt 12 mais j’avais pas gros problème avec ça par exemple [oui] moi j’avoue que: mais j’espère être féminine quand même/ mais euh travailler avec des hommes/ je (suis) très confortable avec ça [d’accord] et j’avoue même des fois plus que et même si je ne devrais pas le dire là/ [oui] des fois plus qu’avec les femmes\ [into laughing] Excerpt 13 Dr. Lasalle: ben des choses se disent directement/ [ok] puis pas de il n’y a pas d’hypocrisie puis des () puis de: il me semble que puis il y a du respect entre les gen:s il n’y a pas de [breath in] ça c’est je généralise là [bien sur] c’est pas bon de généraliser [oui non] c’est ce que je vis en général dans euh- donc je suis très confortable de travailler avec des hommes/ Excerpt 14 … moi je leur dis toujours une des choses importantes que je mets euh- efectivement (x x ne m’était pas fait dit)/ euh mais euh:: c’est de quand on rentre dans un groupe de médecins puis quand on est une femme que ça soit médecine d’urgence soit d’ailleurs mais en particulier dans des horaires comme dans la médecine d‘urgence où on est tous (tricotés serrés)[mm]euh c’est- on est tous là pour euh manquer une garde Excerpt 15 il faut être très très malade parce que il faut il faut il faut la remplacer cette garde là il faut il faut être là et euh et quand on part/ que ça soit congé maternité maladie () ben il y a quelqu’un qui fait nos nuits/ il y a quelqu’un qui fait nos soirs en ins de semaines donc ça doit être prévu d’avance/ … Excerpt 16 et moi c’est ce que je leur dis toujours ce qui est important quand on rentre dans un groupe c’est [] pas d’attendre que la situation se présente puis d’être enceinte puis dire “moi je veux avoir un congé de tant de mois” et euh c’est plutôt de- que ça soit prévu d’avance

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Excerpt 17 et euh qui dit si c’est marqué quatre mois/ ça te convient ça te convient si c’est marqué un an ça te convient ça te convient mais il faut que [] ça soit clair/ et/ que tout le monde soit/ euh d’accord là dessus\ et comme ça/ au moment où ça survient/ bah euh c’est prévu/ déjà/ c’est un- c’est une attente/ et: donc il n’y a pas de pression il n’y a pas de de malaise/ Excerpt 18 et: ici/ c’était clair/ c’était moi j’ai pris quatre mois/ c’était ça qui était prévu\ moi ça me convenait/ Excerpt 19 on se donne aussi euh un certain nombre de vacances par année euh on ne peut pas arrêter la médecine d’urgence pendant un an ou deux ans c’est impossible [oui oui oui] euh: [oui] il y a des situations instables/ il faut se garder euh on n’a pas le choix\

Stereotyping gender Discursive constructions of social identities in a Danish bank Inger Lassen Aalborg University, Denmark

his chapter takes its starting point in the problem faced by a speciic Danish bank that women are grossly underrepresented in management positions, in spite of the great measure of initiatives taken over more than a century to ensure equal opportunities in Denmark. Danish women got the vote in 1915. Since then emancipation has been encouraged through public policy, symbolized more recently by the establishment of a Ministry for Equal Opportunities in 1999 and the passing of the Act of Equal Opportunities in 2002. However, although these initiatives have led to a situation of formal gender equality, there is still some way to go before genuine gender equality and emancipation may become reality, in spite of Denmark’s image as egalitarian society. To try to explain this paradox, the chapter explores gender perceptions by analysing how men and women talk about gender in focus group discussions and how the two gender categories evaluate themselves and the Other in their quest for social identities. Analysis of the focus group data indicates that, more oten than not, the interviewees resort to stereotyping in their construction of identities. Using the Appraisal framework (Martin and White 2005) for analysing stereotypical categorizations made by the interviewees, the article argues that employees in the bank tend to reproduce and perpetuate a patriarchal management system in spite of various forces pulling in a new post-patriarchal direction where gender is just one of many identities. Keywords: gender equality, social identity, subject position, discourse, stereotyping, appraisal

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1.

Introduction

No date seems to be more suitable for writing the introductory words of a chapter about gender issues than 8th March, which has been celebrated as international women’s day since the early 20th century. Every year on the 8th, the gender issue is put on the agenda by Danish media, surveys are reported and interviews made that indicate the status and level of emancipation of Danish women. One such survey was made in 2009 by the important international women’s magazine Cosmopolitan, and the results are rather alarming, given the fact that over the years various pieces of legislation have been adopted to ensure and encourage equal opportunities for men and women in Denmark. Moreover, in 1999 he Ministry for Equal Opportunities was established and the Equal Opportunities Act was passed in 2002. However, in the Cosmopolitan survey (2009), a sample of 1,000 Danish respondents answered questions about their perception of gender equality in their childhood and adult lives, and 85% of young Danish women did not ind there to be gender equality in Denmark. he results of the survey indicate that inequality has many faces and takes on many forms. Of the total sample, 47% reported that they remembered primary school as a place where girls and boys were treated diferently. Girls were expected to be more mature and responsible than boys of the same age. his pattern is reported to have been repeated when they studied and later on in their professional lives. hus, 53% of female students have had the experience of being talked down to in derogatory ways by fellow male students, colleagues or bosses, and 36% ind they have been deprived of opportunities to do speciic tasks in their jobs because of their sex. A similar trend is shown in a survey carried out in 2008 by an equality committee at Aalborg University, Denmark. According to this survey, the percentage of women in academic positions (assistant, associate and full professors as well as doctoral students) has decreased between 1980 and 2007 and only 9% of 127 full professors were women (compared to 11% in 1980) (Voldgaard 2009: 20). Along with statistical information indicating that Danish men earn 18% (ibid.) more than their female counterparts and that this income gap is Europe’s second largest, the survey results described above strongly indicate that the gender issue needs to be put on the political and public agenda again to re-open discussion about what genuine gender equality is and what it requires. Interestingly, today’s face-book generation that was strongly represented in the Cosmopolitan survey seems to consider equality a private matter and feminism is looked upon negatively as a remains of old-fashioned red-stocking activism of the 70s (Cosmopolitan Survey 2009). At the same time there seems to be a

Stereotyping gender

certain pressure on women to be engaged citizens. Such pressure may come from legislation that promotes gender equality (Ligestillingsloven1 2000 and 2007), it may be articulated by people in observance of societal norms, or it may originate in women’s own sense of human and societal obligation. Diverging attitudes of this kind invariably make for a blurred picture of the gender scene in Denmark, and prospects of gender equality in a not too distant future are none too bright. No doubt, as exempliied through reference to the Facebook generation, the post-modern human being is individualistic and fragmented in approaching issues, which would indicate that the struggle, if ever there was one, has become individualized. his of course gives the individual freedom but at the same time makes it more diicult to go against the tide and pursue speciic career choices if they are not considered mainstream and politically correct. A woman (housewife and the mother of six children), who was interviewed by the Danish newspaper ‘Information’ (2008), explained that it takes some courage to make the choice of being a housewife because in Danish society it is the norm that women enter the labour market and send their children to institutions. However, in her view, feminism was to follow what she felt was the right thing to do and not to be restrained by social norms. Another women, who is the Mayor for Leisure and Culture in Copenhagen and mother of two children, explained to the same newspaper (ibid.) that she depended a lot on her husband (manager in a bank), her au-pair from the Philippines, her parents-in-law and friends to be able to pursue her political career. She had oten been asked, disapprovingly, by people how she manages to have children and a challenging job at the same time – a question not usually posed to male politicians. Moreover, she had noticed people’s surprise when they saw her drink draught beer and wearing dresses in spite of her position as Mayor. Examples like these indicate that we are a far cry from gender equality, even in a so-called modern society like Denmark in spite of its long history of democracy and principles of equal rights.

2. Contextual background and purpose of the study he examples referred to in the introduction illustrate a situation recognized by a majority of women in Danish society. here might of course be some variation in the picture if looking at diferent sectors, but surveys carried out in the Danish inancial sector seem to corroborate the general impression of inequality, not

1. Danish Law on Gender Equality.

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least when it comes to management positions. In a survey funded by the Danish Bankers’ Association and carried out across four banks, women were found to make up 52–55% of all employees; however, only 16–29% of the employees held a middle management position, and as few as 7–13% of employees had made it to a top management position (2006: 14). hese results have been seen as an ineicient use of resources, and therefore a number of initiatives have been taken to redress the situation in the inancial sector. he research reported in this chapter is a case-study focusing on a speciic Danish bank (henceforth referred to as the Bank) which experiences a similar problem of women being grossly underrepresented in management positions, despite the fact that the bank has a declared policy of ofering equal opportunities to men and women. To try to alleviate the problem, he Bank has established a career track, inviting both male and female staf members to participate in inhouse management training courses. However, although the initiative has opened up to new ways of doing gender, there still seems to be some way to go before genuine gender equality and emancipation may become reality in he Bank. As will become more evident in what follows, this overall impression is reinforced by the oten stereotypical perceptions of gender expressed by aspiring bank managers, who participate in the career track and whose constructions of their own and the ‘Other’s’ social identities and values are the focus of this study. In other words, it is part of the endeavour of this study to explore which subject positions – or in Weedon’s (1987, 1991: 3) words – ways of being an individual – are aforded by the discourses, meaning which roles the discourses may ofer to or impose on the interviewees.2 To elucidate this problem complex, the following research questions are addressed: a. Which gendered subject positions are constructed discursively by employees in the Bank? b. How are some of the discourses and underlying values contributing to stereotypical gender perceptions and roles in the Bank? By answering these questions I hope to substantiate the claim that Danish bank employees, exempliied through voices from a speciic Danish bank, contribute to upholding a patriarchic system within the organisation.

2. he conceptualization of subject position is inspired by Foucault (1989).

Stereotyping gender

3. Method and structure he data analysed in this chapter was generated in four focus group interviews conducted in he Bank in 2007. (For a study of the role played by metaphor in gendered constructions of career possibilities for women in he Bank, based on the same set of data, see Holmgreen 2009). he focus group approach to data collection was chosen in order to be able to analyse discursive interaction and negotiation of meaning among the participants. By interviewing both single-sex and mixed-sex groups we hoped to generate more variation in the results. Of the four focus groups, there was a group of six women, a group of six men and a group of eleven men, all employed in the Bank and participating in the management training course. he fourth group was a mixed gender group (six women and four men). Four of the women and all the men in the group already held management positions in the Bank. At this point it is worth noting that a qualitative approach was used for studying how identities and values are expressed by diferent employees in the Bank when they interact with their own and the other gender, respectively. It is thus beyond the scope and interest of this study to look at quantiications of e.g. stereotypical utterances made by each gender.

4. heoretical approach In what follows, I shall briely introduce the theories used. hese include in particular theories on stereotyping, a concept that seems to play a salient role in the data analyzed. I then ofer an overview of the Appraisal system as a suitable approach to studying (stereotypical) values. he theoretical sections are followed by analysis, where some of the themes raised by the focus group participants are studied and stereotypes are explored from the perspective of Appraisal. his leads to a discussion section, followed by conclusions. 4.1

Stereotyping

Whether belonging to what I shall refer to as ‘the multiple identities camp’ or to the ‘diference camp’, it seems that most recent gender research subscribes to the view that gender is socially constructed. However, as mentioned by Alvesson and Billing (2002: 86), researchers do not always approach the issue of gender complexity in a consistent manner and still use the biological distinction of ‘men’ and ‘women’ without intending to be essentialists, perhaps because the distinction is commonly used in everyday language where categorization helps us organize our

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complex world. Human beings tend to categorize everything, including people, and oten do it in simpliied ways that relect automatic thinking and generate naturalized views of the world (Goddard and Mean 2000, 2009; Fairclough 1992). In other words there is a strong temptation to engage in stereotyping when referring to ‘men’ and ‘women’ and when describing their behaviour and discourses. Stereotyping has been studied from various perspectives such as social psychology, cultural theory and social anthropology (e.g. Lippmann 1922; Allport 1954; Tajfel 1981; Pickering 2001; Schneider 2004), and since the 20s more than 5,000 empirical studies have been undertaken within these ields under a variety of labels such as ‘Prejudice’ (Allport 1954), Categorization (Sacks 1992), Other and Othering (Simone de Beauvoir 1984), Social Identity (Tajfel 1981) or Stigmatization (Gofman 1963; Schneider 2004: 14). However, while most perspectives seem to agree that stereotyping represents cultural practices imbued in naturalized ideological values (Pickering 2001: 3), there seems to be a lack of consensus as to the deeper nature of stereotyping (Schneider 2004: 17). A review of deinitions suggests disagreement as to whether stereotypes are generally inaccurate, whether they are always negative and to what extent they need to be shared by a group of people in order to be labelled as stereotyping. To avoid being caught up in contradictions and constraining assumptions, Schneider (ibid.: 24) instead suggests to deine stereotypes as ‘qualities perceived to be associated with particular groups or categories of people’. However, this rather openended deinition fails to include the important aspect that stereotypes tend to exaggerate and assign generalized traits to all individuals belonging to a speciic group. It thereby ignores the ideological efect of ‘freeze-framing’ our thinking about others. Stereotyping is thus discriminatory and damaging to social change and personal identities (Pickering 2001: 10) and excludes alternative ways of seeing and understanding (ibid.: 43). As suggested in the introductory chapter, research on gender issues seems to be gradually moving away from essentialist views and the binary distinction between what Alvesson and Billing (2002) have referred to as bio-men and biowomen. However, despite feminists such as de Beauvoir, who – anticipating ideas launched in second-wave feminism – observed that ‘One is not born a woman; rather one becomes a woman’ (1984: 295, cited in Pickering 2001: 63), human beings still categorize and make stereotypical statements about the ‘Other’. Bio-men stereotype bio-women and vice versa, but bio-women and bio-men also stereotype their own genders. According to de Beauvoir (ibid.: 64) ‘women are not only Other to men but also to themselves in as much as they have accepted male objectiications of them – their essentialist versions of femininity and their conceptions of women’s innate inferiority – thus airming men in their sovereign masculinity’. If we follow this line of thought, women play a signiicant role in the

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social exclusion of their own gender, by discursively constructing themselves as ‘Other’. hese are some of the ideas to be explored in what follows. 4.2

Discourse studies

To supplement and enable in-depth analysis of stereotypical utterances in the data discussed in this chapter, I shall apply a discourse theoretical perspective, more speciically Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and combine this perspective with Appraisal analysis, which is a branch of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that focuses in particular on the interpersonal metafunction. he approach is inspired by Fairclough (1989, 1992, 1995, 2003), Halliday (2004) and Martin and While (2005). In CDA, power relations and ideology are central issues, ‘reality’ being presented by those in possession of power (Renkema 2004: 283). Discourse is seen as representing and reproducing social relations and belief systems, which CDA attempts to de-naturalize. In other words CDA explores what Fairclough (2003: 82) has referred to as ‘common-sense’ assumptions used by people in discursive interaction without being conscious about their efect. As suggested earlier, common-sense assumptions may lead to stereotyped value judgments and generalizations with possible adverse consequences for social practice. An approach that is capable of uncovering stereotyped value judgments in the discursive construction of gender is therefore needed, and the Appraisal framework developed by Martin and White (2005) has turned out to be very suitable for the purpose. 4.3

Appraisal

Grossly simpliied, the Appraisal framework embraces resources available in language for expressing stances, sharing feelings or normative assessments, positive or negative (ibid.: 1). hese resources are interpersonal and their use is determined through the tenor parameters of Afect, Distance and Power, as described in Halliday’s early work (e.g. 1978). In an overview of Appraisal resources, Martin and White (2005: 35f.) include Engagement, Attitude and Graduation. Engagement subsumes various kinds of modality, negation and attribution, which in various ways open or close dialogue. Attitude subsumes the three value categories of Afect, Judgment and Appreciation. Afect is an umbrella term for resources that describe emotions such as security/insecurity, happiness/unhappiness or satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Judgment covers resources for assessing and categorizing people and their actions according to societal beliefs about generally accepted moral principles. Sub-categories under Judgment are Normality, Capacity,

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Tenacity, Veracity and Propriety. Appreciation is concerned with resources for assessing things, and although the category is not usually used about people, it may at times be relevant when describing a person’s aesthetic values such as appearance, shape, etc. he third appraisal category, Graduation, is a resource available for amplifying or toning down attitudes and voices of Engagement and thus cuts across the other categories. Importantly, people and things may be evaluated in implicit (evoked) or explicit (inscribed) terms. A simpliied overview of the appraisal framework is found in Appendix 1.

5. Analysis and discussion In what follows, a number of salient themes raised by the focus group participants will be taken up. hese will be discussed under the two perspectives introduced in the theoretical part of this article, which I shall refer to as ‘the diference perspective’ (biological sex) and ‘the multiple identities perspective’ (the individual person as carrier of traits from both gender categories). To ofer an overview of how bio-men and bio-women, respectively, construct gender identities for themselves and the Other, stereotypical utterances from the three groups consisting of aspiring managers will be introduced, and examples of themes raised by these participants will be discussed and seen in relation to salient themes in a mixed group of bank managers. As will appear and possibly in consequence of the way in which the overall topic was presented for discussion in the focus groups in the form of the question ‘why are women under-represented in management positions in the Bank’, the diference perspective seemed to carry the most weight in the four focus groups, and only when an individual employee narrated a personal experience or in the more relective parts of the mixed gender group did we ind examples of a perspective inviting more than one gender identity. 5.1

he diference perspective: Enabling and constraining factors

When the participants tried to identify explanations of why women are grossly underrepresented in management positions in the Bank, they focused on a number of enabling and constraining factors in connection with obtaining a management position. hese factors, which spanned over a broad spectrum of beliefs about human as well as organizational behaviour, may be condensed to the question of whether job requirements should be redeined to accommodate what – according to stereotypical statements by bank employees – is believed to be female interests

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and talents, or whether women should change their approach to better it the job on a line with men, given that the vast majority of managers in the Bank are men. Factors that both gender categories believed to be important for obtaining a management position included self-conidence, professionalism, support by the bank and the family, men and their network, ambition, time lexibility, a natural talent for leadership, individual goal-orientation and social intelligence. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the male interviewees gave priority to self-conidence, professionalism, family support, men’s networks, ambition, time lexibility and individual goalorientation, while the female interviewees saw social intelligence and a natural talent for leadership as crucial qualiications. In addition, when describing the good leader’s most important competencies, women stressed the importance of honesty, an open mind, showing trust in colleagues, a positive attitude and taking an interest in motivating and developing other staf members’ competencies. In Appraisal terms the men seemed to give priority to Social Esteem, judging features such as Capacity (professionalism and goal-orientation) and Tenacity (self-conidence and ambition) favourably, while the women valued the Social Sanction categories higher, including Veracity (honesty, an open mind) and Propriety (showing trust, a positive attitude and showing interest in others) (see Appendix 1 for an overview of the Appraisal system). When asked about factors that might possibly constrain career possibilities for women, the majority of male employees mentioned lack of trust in own capabilities, lack of professional qualiications, women entering men’s networks, while the majority of women saw women’s exclusion from men’s networks and common prejudice against women in management positions as major constraints. Both gender categories agreed that lack of support from the Bank or the family, lack of time and lack of reward and recognition were important constraints. Besides, the wellknown principle in Danish culture that one should be modest and not show of was seen as an obstacle to individual pursuit of ambition, constraining both gender categories. 5.2

Stereotyping – men’s construction of men and women

A salient feature among participants was their approach to describing what they saw as diferences between men and women – diferences that were characterized by excessive generalization. Interestingly, the groups of men expressed stereotypical views of their own gender, which in many ways matched their description of what they saw as good and competent leadership. Stereotypes by men about men included views such as men have inluence, men are focused on business, men are goal-oriented, men have self-conidence, and men want to set the agenda, all of

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which are features that suggest a strong drive. Example 1,3 which quotes one of the male participants in group M1,4 succinctly illustrates this point. he value Judgments are added in square brackets with ‘+’ symbolising positive Judgment and ‘–’ symbolising negative Judgment: (1) Y1: I do not see why … it is diicult for me to see why I should not reach the top [+Capacity, implicit] so I see more possibilities than constraints. […] I want all the time to move on in my job [+Tenacity, implicit]. Not because I cannot stay in the same place for years [+Tenacity, implicit] but I need to move ahead [+Tenacity, implicit] in the job I have. hat is important for me. […] What are my expectations of a management career? I expect to be able to shape my own job and to shape the group I am part of. I can hardly stop myself, so using my own and my colleagues’ resources … I think I am very good at that [+Capacity, explicit] […]

Prompted to explain why they want to have a management position, the interviewee, Y1, characterizes himself as a person with a drive. By implicitly foregrounding personal features such as endurance and capability, he constructs a positive identity for himself – an identity that matches the men’s preferred proile of a competent leader. When prompted about their views on women as colleagues and potential managers, male participants used stereotypes of a rather diferent nature. hese were not generally negative, but on the other hand did not match the men’s descriptions of what is required of a manager. Women were constructed as possessing soter values than men, and they were seen as less career-minded and lacking ambition; however, they were also described as less conlict-averse than men and in a sense dangerous because of their high professionalism and skills perfection. Some of these values are illustrated in Example (2) (M2): (2) Y2: […] Some time ago I had a female assistant manager, who was simply excellent at her job, but the top manager was so afraid of her taking over his job [–Afect/insecurity, explicit; –Capacity, implicit] that he changed her job description and made her a specialist advisor instead. And this is sort of the well-known cliché that if a woman shows expertise and knows her job, then

3. he original examples are shown in Appendix 2. he examples shown in the analysis are close translations of the original examples with the emphasis on semantic and stylistic equivalence. 4. M1 refers to focus group 1 consisting of men; M2 refers to focus group 2 consisting of men; W1 refers to focus group 3 consisting of women; M/W refers to the mixed gender group. Y refers to men and X refers to women.

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some men are very likely to see her as competition and are afraid of her [–Afect/ insecurity, implicit].

In a sense Example (2) indicates a deviation from the attitude expressed by many of the men that women are generally neither suited for nor interested in management jobs. he interviewee, Y2, relates a situation when his boss felt insecure about the assistant manager, using the example to illustrate how men tend to see competent women as a threat. he underlying, implicit meaning that may be deduced from the example is that according to Y2, many men, in spite of oten constructing themselves as highly capable, tend to feel insecure and incapable, compared to some women, thus evoking a negative attitude concerning their own gender. However, in addition to being constructed as highly skilled competitors, women were also described as perfectionists who do not believe in their own qualiications. his is illustrated in Example (3) (M2), where Y3 reacts to a prompt based on the cliché that women need to have a competency level of 120% while men feel conident with a competence level of only 80%: (3) Y3: Well, I also think that when you say that men only need to be 80% sure [–Veracity, implicit; –Afect, security, implicit] then they just go ahead, while women need to be 120% sure [+Veracity, implicit; –Afect, insecurity, implicit]. Well, when I think of those I have met over time and back in school – you know, these hard-working girls who worked day and night doing their homework and they got top grades, [+Tenacity, explicit], and then the rest of us (boys) – we always made it by chance, [+Normality (‘lucky’), implicit], thinking that – I’ll manage this. And we did [+Capacity, implicit].

he appraiser in Example (3), Y3, implicitly judges women as being more honest and dependable (Veracity), observing that women do not go ahead until they are 120% sure that they can manage, despite their strong Tenacity (perseverance). In Appraisal terms such restraint could be seen as implicit negative judgment of women’s self-conidence, possibly causing negative Afect and insecurity. By contrast, the appraiser characterizes boys and men as depending on their luck, when succeeding. hey thus have a high score on positive Normality, which indirectly leads to high success rates (‘and we did’ [succeed]), which implicitly evokes positive Capacity. In other words, men are seen as being competent in making it by chance, thus indirectly showing courage and scoring high on the Tenacity scale. In addition to the values mentioned above, the issue of pregnancies was seen as yet an obstacle to women wishing to pursue a career. his is illustrated in Example (4) (M2) where the facilitator prompts the participants to talk about the issue of pregnancy:

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(4) Facilitator: Tell me, is it so that if … a manager … needs an assistant manager, will he then prefer not to employ a woman in her 20s or early 30s because then, if she gets the job, she is likely to give birth to three babies in a row, and then that portfolio is open? Y5: You are not allowed to say that aloud, but that is how it is.

he reaction by Y5 indicates that employers might have hidden (and unlawful) agendas when it comes to appointing new staf members. Women in their 20s and 30s are likely to become pregnant and go on maternity leave. According to the Danish Law on Gender Equality, both parents are entitled to parental leave when they have a child; however, many organisations have not yet established a practice of fathers going on paternity leave, which is a well-known problem as indicated by Y5’s reaction. A further point of interest is that in Example (4), although the generalizations made by the facilitator may not at a irst glance appear as stereotypes, there are underlying stereotypical beliefs about how women perform and behave, like e.g. ‘women become pregnant and go on maternity leave’. Such stereotypes ignore the fact that some women decide not to have children and that there are, ater all, husbands who share the maternity leave with their wives, a point raised by Wodak (1997: 367), who – on the basis of data from diferent school committee meetings – concluded that ‘dichotomies – be they in regard to language behaviour speciic to gender, or regarding female styles of leadership – cannot be maintained’. 5.3

Stereotyping – women’s construction of men and women

Like the focus groups consisting of men, the focus group of women seemed to be reproducing some common stereotypical beliefs about the Other, when prompted to characterize men as colleagues and potential managers. hey suggested that men are direct and have a drive, they focus on abilities rather than inabilities, and they are goal-oriented. his is illustrated in Example (5) (W): (5) X1: In some areas men are way behind women. But they [men] are just much better at being noticed [+Judgment/Capacity, explicit; –Judgment/Propriety, implicit; –Afect/dissatisfaction] […] hey have more drive. […] and then they just elbow their way [–Judgment/Propriety, explicit] because they are so focused on results, they are so goal-oriented [–Judgment/Propriety, implicit].

In Example (5), men are appraised at two levels. On the surface, the appraiser states that men are ‘much better at being noticed’, which would pass as a positive evaluation of personal capacity if the general orientation of the text were ignored.

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However, by saying that ‘they just elbow their way’, X1 explicitly categorizes men’s behaviour as negative and unethical. In addition, through intensiication of the force of being goal-orientated by using an intensifying adverb ‘so’, X1 implicitly graduates ‘goal-orientation’ negatively as unethical social behaviour. Other negative generalizations made in the group of women suggested that men are conlict-averse, unemotional and afraid of admitting weaknesses; moreover they were characterized as strategic, which among other things made them appoint their own gender for management positions, and inally they were said to be unscrupulous. Some of these values may be seen from Example (6) (W): (6) X2: And that is then something I have learnt, not trusting everybody and inding out whom to trust [–Judgment/Veracity, implicit]. […] I am not saying that men are liars [–Judgment/Veracity, implicit] that is not what I am saying, but I just want to suggest that men have hidden agendas to achieve other things [–Judgment/Veracity, explicit].

he appraiser in Example (6) (X2) focuses on whether men are credible or deceitful. In essence, X2 shows a general distrust in men as experience has shown that some men tend to be strategic in reaching their personal goals. Men seem to score low on X2’s scale of veracity even if she tries to graduate her stance through mitigation. Her utterance ‘I am not saying that men are liars’ does not serve to categorize men as ‘not liars’ but as ‘liars to a lesser degree’. he use of Graduation as an evaluation device combined with negation thus intensiies the implicit meaning of the utterance. However, the stereotypes above, which focus on men, stand in stark contrast to the women’s construction of women as colleagues and potential managers. According to the female interviewees, women are more human and emotional, they are caring and show empathy, they are not afraid of admitting weaknesses; in other words they possess social intelligence; besides, they do not have hidden agendas. Some of these values are illustrated in Example (7) (W): (7) X3: Well, I have sometimes cried [–Afect/unhappy, explicit; +Afect, showing unhappiness, implicit] when I had to say good-bye to somebody; I am bloody sure that men would not do that [–Afect/unhappy, implicit] […] X4: I think women are generally better (at appreciating others) [+Judgment/ Propriety, explicit]. Of course I have seen men who could do it, but they are few and far between.

In Example (7), the appraiser (X3) constructs herself as an emotional person. he wording here inscribes the feeling of unhappiness that she feels when having to say good-bye to a colleague. On the surface this might indicate weakness and thus be seen as negative; however, if we look at the meaning beyond the statement, X3

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actually appraises the ability to show emotions when a colleague has to leave, and the utterance may thus be seen as evoked positive Judgment of this ability. his is further substantiated by her comment that men probably would not do that [cry]. In a similar vein, X4 appraises women for their ability to appreciate others, which is another aspect of showing empathy. By suggesting that women ‘are generally better’, she evokes a negative Judgment of men while she inscribes a positive Judgment of women’s Propriety. However, the women also construct women’s leadership potential through more negative stereotypes that seem to match and reproduce the stereotypes made by male colleagues. According to these, women express themselves in indirect, roundabout ways, they are vulnerable and lack self-conidence, they focus on inabilities rather than on abilities, and they are perfectionists, as shown in Example (8) (W1): (8) X5: And then again this thing about being a woman. One tends to be a little timid and vulnerable. Are we competent enough, are we adequate [–Judgment/ Capacity, explicit].his is something I still work on a lot. […] X6: … I think that men tend to just jump into it, ‘cause I think we sufer from this … ehm … I know I can only speak for myself, but we tend to think that we need to be able to do it all, and do it well – also what we are not very good at: the perfectionist [–Judgment/Capacity, implicit] you know?

In Example (8), the appraiser gives voice to a stereotypical view of women as being timid and uncertain about their qualiications; in other words they are seen as lacking self-conidence. his identity is constructed through inscribed negative Judgment, where inadequacy and lack of capacity are brought to the fore. Related to the low self-esteem is the feeling that women seem to have, viz. that they can never do anything well enough, – a feeling expressed by X6, who evokes negative Judgment of women’s capacity through the word ‘perfectionist’, which indicates a need to show impeccable performance. his is also the essence of the utterance ‘we need to be able to do it all and do it well’. In spite of the negative stereotypes, understood as what men possess and what women lack, the features emphasized by women as being important for good leadership, viz. social intelligence, empathy and a natural git for leadership, are features that the group of women ind characteristic of the female gender. Presumably this is where the battle begins as both gender categories seem to think that some of the characteristic features presumably inherent in their speciic gender would make for the most competent managers in the Bank, and the question might thus boil down to an issue of leadership styles. In spite of everything, the women have to recognize that what they have described as their particular leadership qualiications have not so far been taken into account when the Bank

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has promoted staf members to management positions. However, in addition to the intrinsic stereotypical features, there may be other factors at play, which also present obstacles to equal opportunities for men and women in the Bank. 5.4

he diference perspective – stereotypes by a mixed group of managers (M/W)

To obtain knowledge about the bank managers’ attitudes towards gender equality in management positions, a mixed group of managers consisting of four men and six women were interviewed. his interview was carried out on the assumption that the management level has greater inluence on promotions than ordinary staf members. he participants were asked to discuss whether the Bank would be a better organization with more female managers than is the situation today and whether gender is an important issue in relation to promotion. Interestingly, also this group produced stereotypical statements, even if there were many examples of more nuanced attitudes. However, it is rather symptomatic that the diference perspective was salient in this group, too. his is illustrated in Example (9) (M/W): (9) Y1: Basically, then I believe that if there were an equal proportion of men and women in the Bank, then I think that would be a good thing. As I said last time we discussed this, we cannot deny that men and women are diferent, both gender have qualities and that means that the two genders can supplement each other. […] I mean this can only happen if women are qualiied for the jobs, and I think they are, or rather I am sure they are. But do they actually want the jobs? [–Judgment/Tenacity, implicit] […] his is the stumbling block, I believe.

he diference perspective is expressed in very direct terms in Example (9). Men and women are seen as diferent with diferent, but complementary qualities. However, by intensifying the force of the epistemic modality from ‘I believe’ to ‘I am sure’, the appraiser implicitly evokes the issue of whether women are qualiied for the job by countering the unspoken argument that women may not have the qualiications [self-conidence, courage] needed to manoeuvre on top of the hierearchy in a man’s world. By saying that he is ‘sure’, he actually hints that he is perhaps not so sure, thus creating doubt about his genuine attitude; this is further underscored by his question as to whether they [women] actually want management jobs. he question implicitly evokes a negative Judgment of women’s level of ambition and tenacity and is thus illustrative of the diference perspective, which is also brought to the fore in Example (10) (M/W). Here the discussion has taken

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a turning from diferences between men and women to diferences between jobs and how jobs could be redeined to attract more women. (10) X1: […] ’Cause I believe it [the job] could easily be redeined, to make it attractive to women, for women have other priorities […]

he appraiser in Example (10) is a woman, but the perspective expressed by the male voice in Example (9) is reproduced, viz. that men and women are diferent and women have diferent priorities from those of men, indicating that for women to be attracted to a management position, the job would have to be redeined. In Example (11) (M/W) the diference perspective is further elaborated – here through an interaction between a man, Y2, and a woman, X2, who answers a question from Y2 by stereotyping features that she inds characteristic of women. By giving examples of positive Appreciation of language that, in her view, would be attractive to women, she makes implicit positive Judgments of women’s ethical approaches to management. Women are thus implicitly characterized as being devoted to a management style of good moral behaviour (in Appraisal terms: positive Propriety). his stance is strengthened through a clear demarcation line with what men are believed to do, viz. ‘going it alone’, ‘using elbows’ or ‘being ambitious’ (in Appraisal terms: negative Propriety). (11) Y2: But then I would like to retort and say, what exactly would make you (women) come forward? X2: hat could for instance be by using language such as ‘managing through others’, perhaps ‘team-based management’, reaching goals through one’s colleagues’ [+Judgment/Propriety, implicit] – these are things that appeal to women. We do not ind it attractive to go it alone, to use elbows or to be ambitious, I don’t think we do.

5.5

he multiple identities perspective

It is noticeable that in the focus groups consisting of men only or women only, the diference perspective is predominant and stereotyping is a salient feature in all three groups of aspiring managers. Interestingly, although the mixed gender group of managers also make numerous stereotypical statements, the participants in this group seem to be more relective and there are more examples of utterances indicating a multiple identities perspective, primarily produced by the men in the group. As illustrated in Example (12) (M/W), rather than focusing on diferences between men and women in management positions, Y1 suggests redeining the job proile instead of redeining gender.

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(12) Y1: […] I still think … what matters are the values we want our managers to have, and then to ind the people who represent these values, no matter whether they are men or women […] his would include such values as showing empathy and being able to listen, in other words the capacity for showing consideration of other people. If a man has those qualities, he may be as good a manager as the woman, and if the woman has goal-oriented genes, then she may be as good a manager as the man. I don’t think gender is a determining criterion.

Point to be noticed here is that Y1 adds values such as showing empathy and consideration of other people to the palette of values that the women saw as important in good management. In this optic, the job would require goal-orientation as well as empathy, thus inviting a multiple gender perspective into the Board room rather than an equal proportion of men and women. A similar attitude is expressed in Example (13) (M/W), where Y2 calls for a recruitment procedure that should not employ managers on the basis of a quota system, but instead identify the right person for the job, regardless of gender. hat way, employees with skills matching a management style predeined by the bank would be suitable candidates for an in-house management training course. (13) Y2: […] I do not understand that in a bank like this one where we work with NLP and meta programmes and all those good things, how come that we do not try to identify the qualities we want in a human being? What are the components we want in a person for the person to become a good leader who promotes the ideas we want to promote in the Bank? And then simply go out and spot these people and say, there is one, and there is one and there is one. hen perhaps there are seven men and ive women, or the other way round, but then they are the ones we ofer very speciic training to become managers.

However, the women participating in the mixed gender group generally do not comment on the suggestions presented in Examples (12) and (13) about redeining the job in accordance with what is needed in the Bank. Instead they tend to argue from a diference perspective, perhaps as a result of the, arguably unequal distribution of men and women in the Bank. his issue is raised in Example (14) (M/W), where X1 points to an inconsistency in the male interviewees’ argument that women are as qualiied for the jobs as men: (14) X1: Well but then let us say, for instance if we say that men and women must be able to demonstrate equal qualiications to get a management position, then … I think … how come then that there are so few women, because you also say that women and men are equally competent, meaning that men and

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women have the same qualiications, and that the person best qualiied gets the job. hen I can’t help thinking how strange that there are only four women at management level who are as qualiied as the 74 male managers we have in the Bank. I ind that very strange indeed!

In spite of the discussions and some of the men recognizing that women are as well qualiied to become managers in the Bank as their male colleagues, the group does not reach consensus as to why women are under-represented. Nor do they seem interested in the idea of redeining the job so as to attract gendered applicants, possibly because this might mean a perpetuation of the unequal proportion of bio-men and bio-women in management positions.

6. Conclusions In this chapter I have explored gender perceptions articulated in interaction in focus groups of diferent gender balances. As might be expected, the participants in the four groups generated and negotiated numerous stereotypical attitudes towards their own and the other gender, however without being entirely oblivious to the possibility of an individual performing more than one gender identity. he latter stance was more salient in the mixed gender group while the single-sex groups seemed to be conirming and reconirming conventional ideas of feminine and masculine values. In this sense and from all perspectives, women were generally seen as lacking Tenacity (courage, drive, self-conidence and ambition), while characteristic features included moral and ethical Propriety (empathy and care). Men, on the other hand, were believed to have low levels of Veracity (trustworthiness) and Propriety, but a high level of Tenacity. However, in all groups there were attitudes that deviated with the general pattern, which would indicate that gender is a much more complex issue than accounted for in the many stereotypical statements found in the data. No doubt the reproduction of stereotypical dichotomies – as we have seen – of so-called feminine and masculine values inherent in and articulated by biomen and bio-women in the Bank contribute to the order of discourse established in the organization. It is through the freeze-framing of these stereotypes that the employees ascribe meaning to gender and contribute to and perpetuate a common-sense understanding of gender as two homogeneous groups divided into bio-men and bio-women. For although there are individuals in the Bank, who contradict common-sense gender dichotomies by narrating their own personal experiences, then the majority of voices seem to uphold the claim that women are mostly feminine and men are mostly masculine, and there are very clear ideas

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as to what it means to be feminine or masculine. Perhaps, rather than pursuing the idea of gender balance in management jobs, it might work out better if the nature of speciic management jobs were redeined to attract exactly the proile needed for the speciic job, as suggested by some of the focus group participants. However, this would require a new order of discourse in the organization, focusing less on gender dichotomies and more on other types of staf relations in an attempt to replace common-sense, stereotypical perceptions about gender with new value systems.

References Allport, G. W. 1954. he Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison Wesley. Alvesson, M. and Billing, Y. D. 2002. Beyond body-counting. A discussion of the social construction of gender at work. In Gender, Identity and the Culture of Organizations, Aaltio and Mills (eds), 72–91. Beauvoir, S. de. 1984. he Second Sex. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Dagbladet Information. 7th March 2008. Fairclough, N. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Oxford: Polity Press. Fairclough, N. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge. Goddard, A. and Mean, L. 2000 and 2009. Language and Gender (Intertext). London: Routledge. Gofman, E. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Clifs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Foucault, M. 1989. he Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge. Halliday, M. A. K. 1978. Language as a Social Semiotic: he Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold. Holmgreen, L. H. 2009. Metaphorically speaking: Constructions of gender and career in the Danish inancial sector. Gender and Language 3(1): 1–32. Laneth, P. F. Noget ud over det sædvanlige. Dagbladet Information 7–8 March 2008 (Daily), Section 2, p. 3. Lippmann, W. 1922. Public Opinion. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Magisterbladet, August XX 2008. Martin, J. and White, P. R. R. 2005. he Language of Evaluation. Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave. Pickering, M. 2001. Stereotyping. he Politics of Representation. London and New York: Palgrave. Renkema, J. 2004. Introduction to Discourse Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Sacks, H. 1992. Lectures on Conversation. 2 vols. Edited by Gail Jeferson with introductions by Emanuel A. Scheglof. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

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Schneider, D. J. 2004. he Psychology of Stereotyping. New York and London: he Guilford Press. Tajfel, H. 1981. Human Groups and Social Categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Voldgaard, V. A. Magisterbladet, nr. 4 af 27 February 2009. Ligestillingen, der blev væk: 20–22. Weedon, C. 1987, 1991. Feminist Practice & Poststructuralist heory. Oxford: Blackwell. Wodak, R. (ed.). 1997. Gender and Discourse. London and New Delhi: Sage.

Internet sources Cosmopolitan. Ingen ligestilling I Danmark. 06 March 2009 (http://msnstyle.dk/article/30416, retrieved on 8 March 2009). Analyse af Kønsfordelingen blandt forskerne på Aalborg Universitet (http://www.ligestilling. aau.dk/web_AAU_ligestilling.pdf). Køn og Karriere på Aalborg Universitet. Interviewundersøgelse. (http://www.ligestilling.aau. dk/koenkarriere.pdf). Ligestillingsloven (he Danish Law on Gender Equality), adopted 2000; amended 2007 (https:// www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=20929) retrieved on 6 November 2010.

Stereotyping gender 269

Appendix 1. he Appraisal system Main categories

Subcategories

Further delicacies

Further delicacies

Examples

ENGAGEMENT For details on the Engagement system, see Martin and Rose (2005) Afect

Judgement (Positive or negative; implicit or explicit)

A P P R A I S A L

Un/happiness

Sad/happy

In/security

Timid/conident

Dis/satisfaction

Fed up/absorbed

Social esteem

Normality (how special?)

Normal, familiar, predictable or odd, unpredictable, peculiar, etc.

Capacity (how capable?)

Powerful, gited, competent or weak, helpless, incompetent, etc.

Tenacity Brave, meticulous, (how resolute or timid, dependable?) weak, disloyal, etc. Social sanction

ATTITUDE

Appreciation Reaction (Positive or (Afection) negative; implicit or Composition explicit) (Perception) Valuation (Cognition) GRADUATION

Force Focus

Source: Martin and White (2005).

Veracity (how honest?)

Honest, credible, direct or deceitful, manipulative, blunt, etc.

Propriety/ integrity (how far beyond reproach?)

Good, ethical, caring, altruistic or immoral, arrogant, selish, etc.

Emotional Beautiful, ugly, impact on us appealing, revolting, etc. Proportionality and balance

Harmonious, unbalanced, etc.

Social signiicance

Challenging, insigniicant

Adds to or subtracts force from the other categories in the Appraisal system

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Appendix 2 Original data examples in Danish. he examples presented in the analysis are close renderings of the original examples. (1) Y1: Jeg kan ikke, jeg kan have svært ved at se hvorfor jeg ikke skal kunne nå til toppen, så jeg ser lere muligheder end jeg ser begrænsninger […] Jeg vil gerne videre hele tiden. Ikke fordi jeg ikke kan sidde det samme sted I mange år, men det skal være fordi jeg så lytter mig I det job jeg sidder i. Det er vigtigt for mig. […] Hvad er mine forventninger til en ledelseskarriere. Det er at kunne være med til at præge eget job og den koncern jeg sidder i som helhed. Jeg har faktisk svært ved at lade være, så at udnytte de ressourcer som jeg selv og mine medarbejdere har, og det synes jeg faktisk jeg er god til. (2) Y2: […] på et tidspunkt der havde jeg en kvindelig souschef og hun var simpelthen knaldhamrende dygtig, men chefen han var så bange for hende at han gjorde hende simpelthen til specialist i stedet for, for hun skulle i hvert fald ikke gå eter hans job. Og det er da også lidt den der kliche, at hvis der er en kvinde, der virkelig er fremme i skoene og kan sit kram, så er der i hvert fald en tendens til, at der er mange mænd, som bliver bange for hende. Fordi hun altså kan noget, som vi ikke kan. (3) Y3: Jamen jeg tror også, det du nævner med at mænd de skal kunne 80% og så kører de bare derudaf og kvinder de skal have 120%, det tror jeg faktisk lidt på. Sådan når jeg tænker tilbage på dem, jeg har mødt igennem tiden, og også helt tilbage til skoletiden. Altså de der littige piger, der laver lektier dag og nat, de ik sgu også 11, og så var der os andre, vi var sgu altid så heldige, at vi trak lige det spørgsmål, vi skulle have og tænkte, at det her, det skal jeg nok klare, og så klarede vi den. (4) Y4: Jamen er det sådan, at man som chef siger, at hvis jeg skal have en rådgiver, så skal jeg helst udenom sådan en kvinde i den fødedygtige alder, for så ender det nok med, at når hun får jobbet så skal hun føde tre unger i røven af hinanden og så er den portefølje åben? Y5: Det må du jo ikke sige, men sådan er fakta. (5) X1: […] På nogle områder der når mændene ikke kvinderne til sokkeholderne i kompetencer. Men de er bare bedre til at manifestere sig på den måde. De har et andet drive. Men altså selvfølgelig har det da også noget at gøre med hver der kan det, det har det hele vejen rundt, altså hvem der tør det. Men mændene de er bare mere målrettede, de har … [side 15] (6) X2: […] Men det har jeg så lært at inde ud af, det der med ikke at stole på alle og man skal inde ud af hvem man egentlig kan stole på. […]. Jeg siger ikke her at mænd er løgnagtige, altså det er ikke det jeg siger, men jeg siger bare at nogen har skjulte dagsordener for at fremme andre ting. [side 15] – W (side 23) (7) X3: […] Altså jeg har grædt når jeg har skullet tage afsked med nogen, og det tror jeg sgu ikke mænd de ville. […] X4: Jeg tror kvinder generelt er bedre [til at give ros]. Jeg har da oplevet mænd som jeg også synes kan gøre det, men ikke ret mange.

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(8) X5: Ja, og så det der igen med at være kvinde. Man er lidt skrøbelig, kan vi nu nok og er vi nu nok, det er sådan noget jeg arbejder meget med. X6: Jeg tror mere at mændene de springer ud i det, for jeg tror vi har det der, jeg godt jeg skal tale for mig selv, men man vil gerne opfylde det hele, selv det man er dårlig til, altså perfektionisten ikke!? (9) Y1: Grundlæggende så tror jeg, hvis det var, at der var en lige fordeling mellem mænd og kvinder i ledelsen i Spar Nord, så tror jeg det vil være positivt. Som jeg også sagde sidste gang, jeg har her, der er jo forskel på mænd og kvinder, og der er kvaliteter på begge sider, og det vil sige, at man kan komplimentere hinanden. […] Men jeg mener det skal ske, hvis kvinderne er kvaliicerede til det, og det tror jeg nok at de er, eller det er jeg sikker på. Men har de lyst til det? Jeg tror nemlig det er der […] at det halter. (10) X1: For jeg tror også sagtens det kan lade sig gøre at redeinere, netop gøre det attraktivt at tilgodese at mænd og kvinder er forskellige, og kvinder prioriterer altså anderledes. (11) Y2: Men så vil jeg så skyde tilbage og sige, hvad er det egentlig der skal lokke jer ud af busken? X2: Det er f.eks. at bruge et sprogbrug med det at lede igennem andre, team-baseret måske, det at nå resultater via sine medarbejdere og sådan nogle ting, det tænder kvinder på. De tænder ikke på det der med at gå enegang og gå forrest, og nu skal vi ud og være ambitiøse, det tror jeg ikke på. (12) Y1: […] Jeg synes stadigvæk det er vigtigst, altså hvad er det for nogle egenskaber, som vi vil have, at vores ledere de skal repræsentere, og så inde de personer, der repræsenterer dem uanset om de er af det ene eller det andet køn. […] Der er man også inde på det der omkring, at det er egenskaberne til at være indfølende og lyttende og være opmærksom i det hele taget. Hvis en mand har de egenskaber, kan han jo være en ligeså god leder som kvinden, og hvis kvinden har det resultatskabende i generne, så er vedkommende også ligeså god leder som manden, så jeg synes ikke kønnene er det afgørende kriterium. (13) Y2: […] Jeg kan ikke forstå, at når vi nu i sådan en bank som denne her arbejder meget med NLP og metaprogrammer og alle de her gode ting, hvorfor vi ikke prøver at inde ud af, hvad er det egentlig for nogle egenskaber vi vil have i et menneske? Og hvad er det for komponenter, vi vil have i et menneske, for at det her menneske bliver en fantastisk god leder i det vi gerne vil i Spar Nord? Og så simpelthen målrettet går ud og spotter dem og sige, der er én, der er én og der er én. Så kan det godt være, at det er syv drenge og fem piger eller modsat, men så er det dem, vi sender igennem et meget målrettet karriereforløb. (14) X1: Jamen så lad mig sige, f.eks. når I sidder og siger, at det skal være de samme kvaliikationer man skal have mænd og kvinder, så tænker jeg, at hvordan kan det så være, at der ikke er lere kvinder, fordi I siger samtidig, at kvinder og mænd er lige dygtige, altså at man har de samme kvaliikationer, og så skal man vælge den der er dygtigst. Så sidder jeg og tænker, at det er da underligt, at der kun er ire kvinder på direktørniveau, der er ligeså dygtige som de der 74 mænd vi har, det er da mærkeligt.

271

Living in therapeutic culture Feminine discourse as an agent of change Joanna Pawelczyk and Eva-Maria Graf Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland / Alpen-Adria University, Klagenfurt, Austria

Self-relexivity and self-identity have turned into core projects of modern times. As a result, women and men of diferent cultural backgrounds increasingly oten seek support in therapy and counseling. However, talking through things, being open in relationships and seeking happiness as psychotherapeutic values and modes of talk also iniltrate everyday activities and professional tasks (Fairclough 1992; Cameron 2000a; McLeod & Wright 2003). Indeed, members of late modern societies live in what is commonly referred to as ‘therapeutic culture’ (cf. Giddens 1991; Furedi 2004). In this paper we make a link between self-identity in modernity, the discourse of psychotherapy and coaching and symbolic feminine discourse to claim that the psychotherapeutic strategies and modes of constituting the self are in fact gendered, i.e. they rely on aspects of symbolic feminine discourse (cf. Lakof 1975; Coates 1996; Holmes 1998). And since a successful modern communicator, both in private and professional settings, needs to rely on discourse norms as well as interactional and communicative strategies which are at the heart of various forms of ‘talking cure’, feminine discourse can function as an agent of emancipation and social/professional advancement. his is a particularly socially-charged issue since public sphere in most societies still predominately belongs to men. Keywords: symbolic feminine discourse, agent of change, therapeutic culture, institutional and cultural dimension of the therapeutic, psychotherapy, coaching

Introduction According to Williams and Davis (2007: 3), change is the norm in (post-)modern society. In our paper we will address the issue of change in relation to symbolic

274 Joanna Pawelczyk and Eva-Maria Graf

feminine discourse.1 We use the term ‘symbolic feminine discourse’ to refer to a set of stereotypical assumptions about how women speak (cf. Lakof 1975; Holmes 1998; Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak & Pawelczyk 2006). hese assumptions entail cultural and social expectations as well as representations of women’s talk. hus symbolic feminine discourse relates to “representations of gendered language” (Cameron 2006: 15) rather than the reality of “women’s linguistic practices” (Cameron 2006: 15). In this sense it is a symbolic construct (cf. Litosseliti 2006) and not an empirical category (cf. Cameron 2006). As we will claim, this particular interactional style functions as an agent of change both in its concrete application in psychotherapy and coaching, where clients’ change is facilitated by particular therapeutic modes of talk based on intimacy, non-judgmental support and empathy, and in the larger social arrangements of late modernity, i.e. the therapeutic culture, where a new stylistic ideal based on norms of feminine talk encourages self-relection and self-identity in the individual and sharing, collaboration and empowerment among members in private and public settings. Symbolic feminine discourse then functions as an agent of change in both the institutional and the cultural dimension of the therapeutic (McLeod & Wright 2009). People go to therapy not only to resolve their traumas, but also to learn techniques that enable them to better cope with a ickle reality. his is to say that therapy is no longer treated as a method to deal with, and ultimately resolve, the traumatic past, but more and more frequently, men and women embark on therapeutic trajectory to live more fulilling and satisfactory lives in the here-and-now. Such therapeutic journeys are facilitated by counseling professionals and their particular therapeutic, as will be claimed here, feminine modes of talk. Psychotherapy and coaching then constitute one of many social and professional contexts where aspects of symbolic feminine discourse enable individuals to perform professional tasks. Another such professional context is the area of management and leadership. Eagly and Carli (2003a/b, 2007) comment on how the US articles in newspapers and business magazines divulge a cultural realignment that proclaims a new era for female leaders, who are in popular, binary perception linked with feminine discourse. his is extremely interesting as historically, leadership has been construed as primarily a masculine enterprise, and many theories have focused on the desirability of stereotypically masculine qualities (cf. also Cameron 2006). In the past, leaders based their authority mainly on their access to political, economic, or military power; in postindustrial societies leaders share power far more and establish many collaborative relationships (Lipman-Blumen 1996). Yet, nowadays 1. We will use the terms ‘symbolic feminine discourse’ and ‘feminine discourse’ interchangeably in the discussion to follow.

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stereotypically feminine qualities of cooperation, mentoring, and collaboration are even more important in leadership (cf. Appelbaum et al. 2002; Eagly & Carli 2003a/b, 2007; Holmes & Marra 2004; Mullany 2007). Contemporary views of good leadership encourage teamwork and collaboration emphasizing the ability to empower, support, and engage workers (Eagly & Carli 2003a; Holmes & Marra 2004). Moreover, the contemporary approaches to leadership not only recommend a reduction in hierarchy, but also place the leader more in the role of coach or teacher than previous models of leadership. he observations made in older studies (for instance Coates 1995; Kendall & Tannen 1997) of workplaces speech norms being masculine norms are now out-dated. Currently, the predominance of feminine discourse in private as well as in public settings can be observed. Its presence in the latter context implies then that feminine ways of talking function as an agent of change breaking the constraints of patriarchy in post-modern societies. It would also indicate that the so-far devalued symbolic feminine discourse is now taking on a positive evaluation. We believe that in order to understand the emergence, presence and social status of feminine ways of talking in the professional/business contexts, they need to be juxtaposed with the new social arrangements that (late) modernity has introduced and enforced on individuals on a daily basis. hese are the therapeutic culture we live in, in general, and the professional settings of psychotherapy and coaching in particular. he aims of this paper are twofold: Firstly, applying the methods of discourse analysis, we would like to identify what speciic interactional norms and strategies used in the dialogues between psychotherapists, coaches and their clients overlap with features of symbolic feminine discourse. More speciically, we want to demonstrate how the therapists and coaches are discursively constructing the gendered style of this communicative context. his analysis will single out the salient features of “a new linguistic ideal in late modern societies” (Cameron 2003: 458). For this purpose we have analyzed the recordings of actual psychotherapeutic and coaching sessions. Secondly, we wish to critically address the potential re-appraisal of stereotypical feminine speech in view of the rise of therapeutic forms of talk. We hope to evidence how symbolic feminine discourse – as an agent of change – has moved from suppression to emancipation.

1.

herapeutic culture in late modernity

Members of (most) contemporary modern societies live lifestyles imbued with confessional narratives and strategies for better understanding the self. In order to

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comprehend the existence of the new reality of contemporary therapeutic culture, this phenomenon must be contextualized in the landscape of late modernity. Giddens (1991: 14) refers to modernity as a post-traditional order “in which the question ‘how shall I live’ has to be answered in day-to-day decisions about how to behave, what to wear and what to eat – and many other things – as well as interpreted within the temporal unfolding of self-identity”. his is to say that the social conditions of late modernity enforce on people a process of ‘inding oneself ’, but, unlike in previous times, this process takes the form of active intervention and transformation. Generally, late modernity emerges as a very dismal period characterized by persistent doubt, and personal meaningless resulting from a repression of moral questions and acceptance of risk involving the recognition that “no aspects of our activities follow a predestined course, and all are open to contingent happenings” (Giddens 1991: 28). One of the fundamental concepts of the late modernity is the phenomenon of the so-called expert systems, which are not merely limited to areas of technological expertise. Rather, in the post-traditional order, they are very much applicable to social relations and to the intimacies of the self. According to Giddens (1991), therapy constitutes one of the most important expert system in late modernity with the assistance of which the self can be explored and constructed “as part of a relexive process of connecting personal and social change” (1991: 33). his is to say that in this post traditional landscape deined by abstract systems “the self undergoes massive change” (Giddens 1991: 80). As Giddens expounds, therapy not only expresses that change, but also ofers programs of realizing it in the form of self-actualization. One could assume that in view of the diiculties and tribulations that late modernity brings, therapy can be construed as a means of coping with (novel) anxieties, as a kind of survival strategy. Yet, as Giddens asserts, therapy in post modernity takes on a new function, i.e., “an expression of the relexivity of the self ” (1991: 34). What are then the links between the construction and maintenance of the modern self and practice of therapy? he relexive modern self is accomplished by the continuous self-observation which in turn enables him or her to experience every moment relectively. he self-observation involves “heightened awareness of thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations” (Giddens 1991: 71). As Giddens explains, the diicult ability of “being in the now” (1991: 71) engenders self-understanding, which is indispensable to plan the future and construct a life trajectory consistent with the individuals’ inner wishes. he development of a coherent biographical narrative by holding a dialogue with oneself enables an individual not only to overcome the traumas of the past, but also prepares him/her for future events. he biographical continuity can be ensured by a stable sense of identity which can be understood relexively and also communicated to others. Giddens

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(1991) regards psychotherapeutic strategies as indispensable for ‘a methodology of life planning’, allowing an individual to consciously and deliberately shape his/ her own biography. To sum up, the modern self incorporates psychological knowledge and expert system discourse to understand oneself, i.e., to achieve and advance awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings not only in private, but also innovatively in the public contexts. Modern self is a relexive project blurring the private and public spheres.2 his concept of new modern self has signiicantly contributed to the therapeutic character of contemporary cultures and lifestyles. As Furedi (2004: 22) outlines, a culture becomes therapeutic when this form of thinking expands from informing the relationship between the individual and therapist to shaping public perceptions about a variety of issues. At that point it ceases to be a clinical technique and becomes an instrument for the management of the subjectivity. hus, there exists a very strong correlation between psychotherapeutic clinical practices and therapeutic culture and as McLeod and Wright (2003: 2) explicate, they “must be understood as discreet entities that are nonetheless intimately connected”. McLeod and Wright (2009: 123) following Becker (2005), Furedi (2004), Lasch (1979) and Rief (1966) deine therapeutic culture as an array of social practices and cultural discourses “uniied by the imperatives of talk and self-disclosure, the privileging of the psychological and emotional realms, and a heightened concern with the self and interior life”. In their cross-generational research on emotional and relationship experiences, McLeod and Wright (2009; cf. also McLeod & Wright 2003) observed a repetition of psychotherapeutic themes which can be assumed to represent the core characteristics of therapeutic culture. hese characteristics are: the desire of ‘talking’, the value of talking things through, being open in the relationships as well as the linking of disclosure and intimacy with the desire for happiness. hese tropes can be interpreted as instances of the iniltration of the therapeutic into the everyday (McLeod & Wright 2003). Also Rose (1999) claims that currently, the psychological ‘know-how’ structures the way in which people understand and ‘know’ themselves as well as their social and personal lives. As McLeod and Wright (2003, 2009) exemplify, talk is experienced by their subjects as emancipatory and agentive, it is the medium through which friendship and intimacy are experienced. Signiicantly, opportunities for talk have been found to be signs of ‘good relationships’ and, at the same time, indices of happiness. he therapeutic turn extols openness, frankness and emotional self-absorption.

2. Fairclough (1992) refers to foregrounding ‘private’ linguistic genres relative to ‘public’ ones, i.e., the informalization or conversationalization of Western public discourse.

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Yet, the ascendancy of the therapeutic culture has also been perceived as “fostering cultural decline and enabling new forms of social control” (Wright 2008: 321). In brief, negative interpretations of the therapeutic turn range from its incitement of cultural decline (Rief 1966) through narcisstic concern with the self (Lasch 1979) to a rise of victim culture (Furedi 2004). Furthermore, the heightened concern with ‘private problems’ as well as the rise of ‘culture of emotionalism’ have been approached negatively (Wright 2008: 326) with the common denominator being the amoral character of the therapeutic culture. Wright (2008: 333) however admonishes that scholars need to recognize the multidimensionality of the therapeutic culture: “without dismissing the potential for narcisstic self-absorption, it is important to acknowledge that valuing the self also entails recognition of sufering, which has a thoroughly moral dimension”. hus, what needs to be acknowledged is a greater recognition of the ambivalent legacy of the therapeutic turn. However, most importantly for the current discussion, late modernity’s self needs to be a skilled interpersonal communicator in order to keep a dialogue with the self as well others. Ater all, self-identity entails an ongoing narrative (cf. Giddens 1991) and self-talk has been found by McLeod and Wright (2003) as a strategy used for getting through diicult periods, thus forging a stronger sense of self. As Cameron (2003: 458f.) explains, the skilled interpersonal communicator embodying a new linguistic ideal is someone “who excels in such verbal activities as cooperative problem-solving, rapport building, emotional relexivity and self-disclosure, ‘active’ listening, and the expression of empathy”. he relexively constructed self needs to be communicated continuously to the signiicant others rather than remaining a private entity (cf. Cameron 2003: 459). hus, post-modernity also upgrades the importance of communication (Cameron 2000a), yet not any kind of communication, rather communication that aims to manage feelings and personal relationships. hese two realms are culturally coded as female domains, “and have been throughout the modern era of the West” (Cameron 2003: 461; see also Cameron 1998). In contemporary Western societies the recent social changes (such as the changing nature of work and personal life (cf. Cameron 2003)) prioritize linguistic styles that tend to be associated with femininity.3 Concurrently, such communication geared towards the management of emotions and personal relationships underlies the interaction between psychotherapist/coach and client.

3. As Cameron (2003: 457) states today “women are regularly represented as model language users: their verbal skills are seen, moreover, as central to what is portrayed as the fulillment of that old prophecy ‘the future is female’”.

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We believe that the ‘therapeutic turn’ promotes communicatively gendered self. We want to claim that psychotherapeutic/coaching strategies upon which therapeutic culture is largely based are gendered, i.e. they extensively rely on aspects of symbolic feminine discourse. hus, it is interesting to see how the strategies used in the psychotherapy room overlap with the discourse of symbolic femininity.

2. Feminine discourse and the discourse of therapy and coaching Our aim of this part is twofold. We commence with features of female talk, discuss their origin in the private sphere of women’s friendship as well as their transference and application – under the heading of ‘symbolic feminine discourse’ – to other, less private, yet stereotypically gendered discursive environments. Next, we introduce core characteristics of the particular discursive exchange that evolves between psychotherapists/coaches and their clients. hese discursive features are both relective of and constitutive for counseling interaction, a communicative context of growing social importance in the public sphere. By juxtaposing the characteristics of these two communicative contexts, we aim to identify which of the speciic interactional norms and strategies applied in dialogues between psychotherapists, coaches and their clients overlap with features of symbolic feminine discourse. 2.1

Women’s talk and feminine discourse

Female friendship represents the idealized setting for talk, intimacy, disclosure and confession (McLeod 2002). Friendship among women is considered the renowned social context for the construction and celebration of feminine identity. Constructing and celebrating feminine identity thereby ensue in the particular talk that emerges between women friends: “(t)he two most important things being accomplished in the talk of women friends are friendship and femininity” (Coates 1996: 232). Female friendship is talked into being while, concurrently, basic characteristics of female friendship such as giving mutual support, creating a self space and non-judgmental sharing allow for and generate this particular type of discourse (McLeod 2002). What is more, in the emerging talk between women friends we witness the construction and performance of women’s gendered identities, i.e. feminine identities: “Gender is realized as the activities and talk in context that engenders gendered lives. It is in the process of engaging in gendered talk that gender speciic interaction happens” (Cook-Gumperz 1992: 177).

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Female friendship is rooted in the symmetrical relationship between equals (cf. Coates 1996: 42), “(…) which provides us with a safe enough space to talk in ways we might not be able to elsewhere. I mean to talk in ways that are exploratory and contingent. In our talk with our friends, we both conirm or resist our existing sense of our selves and our world, and also explore new ways of knowing or apprehending the world” (Coates 1996: 280f.). Unlike in stereotypical male interaction, playing the expert and thereby communicatively constructing an asymmetrical interaction is neither aspired nor welcome. Instead, conversations between female friends are based on an “ethic of reciprocity” (Coates 1996: 93). hey hinge on balancing, mirroring and mutual self-disclosure via the non-judgmental sharing of matching stories. Such sharing refers to what happens in the lives of female friends and – of equal, if not greater importance – how they feel about the things that have happened (cf. Tannen 2003: 190). Such talking through things creates a climate of intimacy and a sense of connection and closeness, which allows for the topicalization of emotionally-laden issues and the disclosure of less-dominant topics such as negative feelings towards one’s own children (cf. Coates 1997). Women experience their friendship as an opportunity to practice existing knowledge and to discover new knowledge and as such to develop further due to a more profound understanding of themselves and the world around them. heir friendship ofers an ideal environment for learning and consequently, changing. Spending time with their women friends and engaging in talk is experienced as empowering and “absolutely like the blood of life”.4 Unlike shared action or activities as the (stereotypical) glue that underlies male friendship, talk is part and parcel of female friendship. Despite critical voices who question the signiicance of female conversation and who dismiss talking and the related disclosure as trivial or inefective practices (cf. McLeod & Wright 2009: 136), “(…) talk is a very powerful form of social action. It is through talk that we maintain or subvert existing social structures, and through talk that we establish and maintain social relationships” (Coates 1996: 67). In addition, through managing themselves and others, women achieve a sense of competence and conidence in conducting their own lives (cf. McLeod & Wright 2009: 136). Ater presenting some features of the particular talk ensuing in the context of female friendship, we will now have a closer look at its endemic linguistic strategies. It is vital to consider the local functions of these particular linguistic forms 4. In her book “Women Talk” Jennifer Coates interviewed women on their understanding of female friendship and the conversations they had with their women friends. Equating their female conversations with ‘the blood of life’ stems from one of the interviewed women (cf. Coates 1996: 66).

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in the respective communities of practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003) as well as their goal-oriented practice: “he linguistic forms which are characteristic of women’s talk are not arbitrary, but highly functional in terms of the goals of women’s friendship” (Coates 1996: 263). According to Holmes (1998), Talbot (2003) and Holmes and Stubbe (2003) feminine interactional style5 is indirect, conciliatory, facilitative, collaborative, intimate and supportive. hese linguistic strategies are habitually realized in the concrete interaction via hedges (e.g. used to minimize social distance between the speakers, to avoid playing the expert and/or saving the other’s face), other-oriented questions (e.g. used to invite others into the talk to give and share their opinion), facilitative tag-questions (e.g. used to avoid the impression of an authoritarian style), repetitions (e.g. used to signal agreement and involvement and to weave a coherent conversation), overlapping speech (e.g. used to demonstrate one’s involvement with the other person and what she says) and co-constructing or inishing of the other’s turn, again used to demonstrate one’s involvement and active participation. As outlined above, the talk that evolves among women friends in the private sphere of their friendship thereby represents the most prominent discursive and social environment for their application and use. Yet, the strategic use of such feminine interactional style to create a supportive and relexive climate in managing interpersonal relations while performing a speciic gendered identity based on openness and sharing also prevails outside the intimate context of female friendship. Typically gendered workplaces6 such as teaching, nursing or other forms of caring (cf. Mullany 2007: 44), represent professional environments in which women employ similar strategies as part of

5. he authors stress that these attributes represent symbolic feminine discourse and as such are to be considered gendered practices found in both female and male talk as part of the “conventional toolbox for constructing gender identities and relations” (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003: 305): “… I make no claims that all women interact in ‘women’s ways’, that those who do so do so consistently, or that men rarely do so at all. hough women’s ways are apparently distributed unevenly across genders, with women being more likely to know and use them than are men, interactions documented on these largely female teams show men also being empowered by the ‘sanctuary atmosphere’ which replaced the competition with which the men said they were more familiar” (Wilson Nelson 1998: 370). 6. A gendered workplace is a profession where we ind one sex dominating among its professionals. However, more importantly, as argued by McElhinny (1998: 309), gendered workplaces refer to “the cultural interpretations of given types of work which, in conjunction with cultural norms and interpretations of gender, dictate who is understood as best suited for diferent sorts of employment” (see also Holmes 2006: 10).

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their professional discourse.7 Wilson Nelson (1998: 356f) for example reports on a university tutor training at an American university, where the interaction style among female teaching assistants (TAs) and female professors is based on collegiality, support and a relative co-equal status that creates a noncompetitive atmosphere. Such atmosphere, based on the non-judgmental openness of the team, is an ideal learning environment (cf. Wilson Nelson 1998: 366) for members to be more productive and eicient while at the same time enjoying themselves (Kohn 1986).8 To recap, women’s talk in the private context of their friendships as well as in the public context of work rests on, as well as creates, a feeling of connection and solidarity. In such a safe environment women open up and can accomplish – with the help of their shared relexive practices – a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. his, ultimately, ofers them “the possibility of resistance and change” (Coates 1996: 286). 2.2

he discourse of psychotherapy and coaching

he second communicative context we want to introduce here are the professional formats of ‘psychotherapy’ and ‘coaching’.9 One outcome of the therapeutic

7. For the purpose of this part of the paper, we restrict our argumentation to stereotypical gendered workplaces. However, symbolic feminine discourse as one practice of interaction is found more and more along more masculine forms of interaction across diferent types of workplaces and on diferent professional hierarchies (Appelbaum et al. 2002; Holmes & Stubbe 2003; Marra et al. 2006) (see also Introduction and Section 4). 8. In the words of a male TA: “I just love being in here with all you women. You make it such a nice place to work. You’re so warm and supportive (…) It’s diferent in here from how I’ve seen people do things before” (Wilson Nelson 1998: 356). 9. In spite of signiicant diferences between psychotherapy and (business) coaching with regards to the depth of the process, the primary focus on personal vs. professional issues as well as the professional background of therapist and coach (cf. Hart et al. 2001; Schmidt-Lellek 2003; Bacon & Spear 2007; Bluckert 2005), we subsume both professional helping formats as counseling activity on the basis of their shared humanistic approach and the interactional patterns that are endemic to both of them (for a similar argument see Williams & Davis 2007: xi: “We use the term therapist in our book to broadly deine helping professionals whose academic preparation and training include areas such as family therapy, psychology, sociology, counseling, and even psychiatry. When we speak of therapists, we want you to know we are speaking to all trained helping professionals”). In particular, relationship-focused integrative psychotherapy and person-oriented coaching, the underlying counseling approaches in the present analysis, both stress the importance of a strong and trustworthy counseling alliance as the necessary environment for deep emotional change.

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culture we live in is its reassessment of professional psychological support as a sign of self-relexivity and the willingness to achieve an advanced understanding of one’s thoughts and feelings (see Section 1). Seeking support and guidance on one’s way to a better self-understanding and self-management have taken on positive values on the global, socio-cultural level ater connotations of mental illness, inadequacy or failure have been let behind: “his shit might be considered a movement away from the paradigm of pathology to one of possibility” (Williams & Davis 2007: 9). As a result, psychotherapy and coaching have become professional contexts of growing importance. hese contexts are both relective and constructive of a (new) kind of social relation, the relationship between therapist/coach and client. Unlike other types of professional relations, which are more geared towards imparting an expert’s factual knowledge onto a layperson as is the case in e.g. tax counseling or doctor-patient interaction, the social relation that underlies psychotherapy and coaching is rooted in values traditionally associated with more private environments such as (female) friendship or family:10 If you were to observe a coaching session, you see that it is typically very open, often, friendly, casual, and light. Coaches laugh with their clients and, when appropriate, may even joke or gently tease. With caution, coaches may feel comfortable sharing person experiences that are pertinent to what the client is experiencing. Clients and coaches feel as though they know each other on a deeper level than is possible in many other professional relationships. Coaching clients frequently report that they appreciate that openness. (Williams & Davis 2007: 49)

Of utmost importance for successful psychotherapy/coaching is establishing a strong and trustworthy counseling alliance between the participants. It creates the necessary self-space for clients to explore and manage diferent aspects of the self. Such non-judgmental,11 emphatic self-space allows for verbalizing and constructing of less dominant discourses; talk with their psychotherapist/coach is experienced as emancipatory and agentive (cf. McLeod & Wright 2003: 6), i.e. “(h)aving a place to ‘release’ frustration or anxiety and express their deepest desires or fear, as in the coaching relationship, is very freeing” (Williams & Davis 2007: 6). Furthermore, the relationship between therapists/coaches and their clients rests on the professionals’ attunement towards their clients’ current experience and feelings, as well as their involvement in the client and his or her needs and wants (cf.

10. Carl Rogers, the founder of person-centered therapy, once equated psychotherapy with buying a friend (cf. Williams & Davis 2007: 4). 11. his goes back to Carl Rogers’ (1951) “unconditional positive regard” as one of the necessary and suicient growth conditions for clients.

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Erskine et al. 1999). In this climate of safety and trust change as the ultimate goal of psychotherapy/coaching (cf. Whitworth et al. 1998: xix) becomes possible. Besides the signiicance of the counseling alliance as the sine qua non for clients to open up and discover new options and choices, communication is the second pillar of successful therapeutic and coaching interaction: “Communication is at the heart of all counseling relationships” (Nadler 2005: 73). Clients’ self-relexivity, self-identity and, ultimately, change, presume an ongoing narrative (see Section 1) that is encouraged, supported, and co-constructed by the therapist/coach. Based on her analysis of relationship-focused integrative psychotherapy, Pawelczyk (2011) regards self-disclosure and communication of emotion as endemic discursive norms of such psychotherapeutic interactions: “Change is prompted by and accompanied by feelings” (Tolan 2003: 54). By verbalizing and sharing their thoughts and feelings with their therapists/coaches as well as by allowing for their emotions to surface, clients arrive at a deeper understanding of themselves and discover new facets of themselves and their lives. he communication with their professional partners sets of and facilitates clients’ learning and changing process and therefore is to be considered the ultimate source of clients’ empowerment. In particular, the discourse of psychotherapy and coaching rests, among other features, on linguistic strategies such as active listening via e.g. response tokens to encourage clients’ continuation or acknowledgement tokens, mitigating devices such as hedges to demonstrate empathy, attunement, and to avoid the expert role, other-oriented questions to instigate clients’ relexive processes and the use of formulations to introduce a new perspective onto clients. To sum up, the counseling formats of psychotherapy and coaching aim to accompany clients on their way to a more profound understanding of themselves and their surroundings and thus, ultimately, to change. Change becomes possible in the safe climate of their relationship with the therapist/coach and through the particular communicative interaction that transpires between them. What is more, the respective professional communicative interaction found in psychotherapy and coaching rests on practices such as facilitating others’ self-disclosure by creating the necessary self-space and asking other-directed questions or mirroring the other’s experience that also underlie and constitute feminine discourse. In analogy with Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s (2003: 305) quote that “(g)ender is a set of practices through which people construct and claim identities, not simply a system for categorizing people. And gender practices are not only about establishing identities but also about managing social relations”, it seems that strategies of symbolic feminine discourse are applied to manage those new social relations that emerge from the new habitus (Bourdieu 1991) in therapeutic culture, i.e.

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the social relations between therapist/coach and client (see also Tannen 1999; Holmes & Stubbe 2003; Mullany 2007). he following assumptions underlie our analysis of actual psychotherapy and coaching sessions: 1. Strategies of psychotherapeutic/coaching interaction can be juxtaposed with strategies of symbolic feminine discourse, thus psychotherapy and coaching represent forms of ‘gendered practice’. 2. Given that psychotherapeutic and coaching discourse aims to enable clients’ change, symbolic feminine discourse achieves the status of an agent of change in the public sphere.

3. Talking for a change: Data, methods and indings 3.1

Background of the study

he current research is based on the recordings of actual psychotherapeutic and coaching sessions (for more details see Pawelczyk 2011; Graf in prep.).12 he psychotherapeutic data stem from a corpus of 65-hours of recorded therapy sessions collected during ieldwork at two residential Integrative Psychotherapy workshops in Sweden and the US (Erskine & Moursund 1988; Erskine & Trautmann 1996; Moursund & Erskine 2004).13 All sessions were conducted by the same male psychotherapist, who talked individually with twenty-ive clients (ive males and twenty females) but in the presence of other clients. he protocol of Relationship-Focused Integrative Psychotherapy is premised primarily on four theoretical perspectives: Transactional analysis, Gestalt therapy, client-centered therapy, and behaviorism and as such “attends seriously to what has been observed by all the major schools” (Wachtel 1990: 235). It relects the current eclecticism in psychotherapy, yet concurrently “provides internally compatible understandings of personality functioning, change, and technique” (Frank 1991: 540). Integrative Psychotherapy claims that the need for relationship constitutes a primary

12. While Pawelczyk (2011) is based on English data, Graf (in prep.) is based on German data. Yet, as we strive to illustrate similarities and diferences between metalinguistic strategies of symbolic feminine discourse and the discourses of psychotherapy and coaching and not their respective token realization, such mixture of data seems acceptable for the current purpose. 13. Whereas the psychotherapeutic data was recorded by the researcher, who participated as a non-participant observer in the sessions, the coaching data was recorded by the coaches without the presence of the researcher.

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and motivating experience of human behavior, and contact between therapist and client is the means by which this need is met. his contact-oriented, relationship-focused psychotherapy is based on the methods of inquiry, attunement and involvement. Most importantly, Integrative Psychotherapy practitioners believe that “change comes and remains solid as clients make their own meaning out of their own internal and external experiences” (Clark 1996: 313f.; see also Tolan 2003). he coaching data stem from the person-oriented executive coaching approach “Emotional Intelligentes Coaching”, practiced by Ingeborg & homas Dietz and the Heidelberger Beraterkreis (Dietz & Dietz 2007). he approach follows Carl Rogers’ person-centered concept of helping relations (1951, 1961) and underlines self-awareness and self-regulation as core competencies of emotional intelligence (Salovey & Meyer 1990; Goleman 1995). It is grounded in two therapeutic concepts, the Internal Family Systems Model (IFS) by Richard Schwartz (1995) and Hakomi Body Centered Psychotherapy by Ron Kurtz (1990). Whereas the former combines systemic thought with the concept of the multiplicity of mind, the latter stresses a mindful exploration of the organization of human experience. Practiced in the context of business coaching, the approach claims that very oten interpersonal problems in the clients’ professional life originate in intrapersonal conlicts between one’s personality parts. hus its aim is to help clients turn their attention away from purely external factors towards the discovery of their (hidden) attitudes, emotions etc., which are oten communicated or given of in bodily signals. he coaches’ primary responsibility lies in keeping their clients company on their way to a better self-awareness, self-regulation, and inally and ideally, a better selfmanagement. he recorded material consists of face-to-face, one-on-one coaching sessions between two coaches, one male and one female coach, and 9 clients, both male and female. A total of nine coaching processes, each between 5 and 9 sessions á 2.5 hours, were recorded between 2006 and 2009. For the analysis the psychotherapeutic and coaching transcripts were coded according to the thematic and interactional lines (Sarangi 2002; Roberts & Sarangi 2003). An integrative discourse analysis, based on concepts from discourse analysis, conversation analysis and the broader ields of pragmatics and interactional sociolinguistics (for the advantages of such an integrative procedure see e.g. van Dijk 2001; Holmes & Meyerhof 2003; Mullany 2007), is chosen that allows both for the analysis of the local interactive business at hand and the discovery of more global discursive and social practices which underlie and form the discursive contexts under scrutiny here (for further information see Pawelczyk 2011 and Graf in prep.).

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3.2

Juxtaposing feminine discourse and counseling discourse: Examples from the data

In the following, we will present extracts from our data to illustrate parallels in feminine discourse and counseling discourse. hese examples are centered around the feminine strategies, such as ‘creation of self-space and verbalization of less dominant discourses’, ‘mirroring’, ‘(re-)focus on emotions’ and ‘expression of empathy’, which were introduced in Section 2.1. hey support our claim that symbolic feminine discourse functions as an (strategic) agent of change in the private, but also the public sphere, and thus becomes a powerful tool in modern life: “Talking things through may be dismissed as ‘merely’ therapeutic – it makes people feel better – but talk is also dynamic and can be used strategically; for example to manage inter-personal conduct and prevent anticipated diiculties – both institutionally … and intimately …” (McLeod & Wright 2009: 131; see also Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003: 305; Coates 2004: 92). 1. Creation of self-space and verbalization of less dominant discourses he irst two examples illustrate how the coach (Extract 1) and the psychotherapist (Extract 2) allow for the verbalization of less dominant discourses, i.e. lack of respect for client’s father (Extract 1, line 10) and negative feeling towards a terminally-ill daughter (Extract 2, line 10), respectively. Although in both cases it is the professionals, who voice the emotionally-laden issue, their value-free interpretations are experienced as liberating by the clients. his way, the general emphatic climate of their therapeutic alliance along with the psychotherapist/coach’s active interactional involvement create the necessary self-space for the client to disclose and accept emotions which do not always conform to societal expectations. In Extract 1, coach and client are exploring client’s family in order to ind answers to client’s problem of passing on responsibilities to her team-members at work: Extract 1 1 Cl (3) No, it doesn’t work because I have more the impression that they that 2 they have looked ater their last son too much and that they have seen to it 3 that he isn’t really able to survive, that he has very, very much potential but 4 actually hasn’t achieved anything and also hasn’t gone his own way and hasn’t 5 made his own decisions and that he essentially knows that himself. 6 Co Mh. What do you mean by ‘essentially’? 7 Cl Well, I am sure that my father knows that = 8 Co = and sufers from that.

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9 Cl

And sufers from that but he … has been drowning that for years with alcohol and distance. 10 Co Mmh. And mm somehow you don’t really have such a .. such a deep respect 11 for him, do you? 12 Cl (3) No … A very deep love, yes, but not necessarily respect ((crying)).

In line 6, the coach invites the client to elaborate on the meaning of the word and in line 8, ater the client takes up the invitation, the coach collaboratively completes client’s utterance, adding and sufers from that as an important emotional aspect to her description. his co-construction is taken up by the client in line 9, where she contributes another element following the connector and, thus completing their collaborative description of client’s father as somebody who knows, sufers from that, yet drowns that knowledge in alcohol. Ater this three-part list (cf. Potter 1996), the coach in line 9 topicalizes client’s lack of respect for her father. Using hesitation makers, hedges, short pauses and a tag-question, the coach introduces this marked assessment in an indirect, facilitative and conciliatory way, thus allowing for the client to discover and accept this up to now hiddenaway knowledge. In Extract 2 the mother is involved in talking about her terminally-ill daughter: Extract 2 1 Cl … some day it makes her sad (.) the other she says she is gla:d the puppy is 2 independent. 3 T 4 Cl Yes. 5 T Will you tell me about that? = 6 Cl = Yes, yes (.) I used to pick up the courage to go and pick her up from 7 nursery ↑school because the minute we got out she would be ’can we do this, 8 can we go there’ and then we would do this ater that, and it was all (.) you 9 know, >keep going, keep going, keep going.< 10 T here must have been times when you really wished she had stopped that.

In lines 3 and 5, the therapist, irst implicitly and then explicitly, invites the client to elaborate on the thought of demanding, an emotionally-laden concept in the context of a terminally-ill person. herapist’s other-oriented question (line 5) allows the client to share her opinion, and especially the negative feelings, with him. Yet, the client, in lines 6–9, resists such emotion-talk and instead spills out more details of her daughter’s behavior. hus, in line 10, the therapist verbalizes the marked feelings towards her daughter for the client: By using the strong airmation there

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must have been times, he thereby frames these supposedly critical feelings as an utterly normal reaction to what she is going through. hus the therapist with the statement in line 10 normalizes the client’s experience and creates conversational space for the expression of less dominant discourse of motherhood. 2. Mirroring Mirroring, the technique of demonstrating awareness of the interlocutor’s mood and relecting it back to him/her, or facilitating extended talk to build rapport (cf. Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak & Pawelczyk 2004), is found in Extracts 3 and 4. According to Sacks (1992: vol. II, 260), “one best way of saying ‘I understand what you say’ is to say ‘I’ve been through it myself ’”. Let us consider the following extract: Extract 3 1 Cl I rehearsed things in detail before something was going to happen (.) I think 2 it >sort of< spills over into my need of trying to control things which are uncontrollable. 3 T Well (.) I have me:mories of training myself, with that voice ↑inside, being 4 on a bus going to school, I trained myself with that kind of voice. 5 Cl Yeah, and even co:ming here I packed almost everything just in case 6 anything happens.

In Extract 3, the therapist comforts the client by drawing on his personal experience of ‘training’ (lines 3 and 4). By mirroring the client’s experience in this most direct way, the therapist is able to signiicantly diminish the client’s sense of feeling alienated and at the same time enhance the quality of the therapeutic alliance between them. Additionally, mirroring the client’s experience points to the luidity of the interactional roles; this, in turn, contributes to a sense of equality between the communicative partners so crucial for the therapeutic relationship. In the following example, Extract 4, the coach positively evaluates client’s changed way of talking and interacting (wonderful, line 1) as well as the fact that the client himself seems delighted with these changes (you show how delighted you are, line 2). hese compliments are mirrored by client’s own positive assessment of the new situation (I am also glad about it, line 5), i.e. we can observe another instance of the luidity of interactional roles that further strengthen the alliance between counselor and client. he shared laughter that accompanies this afective exchange also thereby functions supportively and marks a ‘good moment’ (Mahrer & Nadler 1986) in the coaching process.

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Extract 4 1 Co (3) … Good (..) yeah. Also how you said that now, wonderful! I see (..) if 2 you manage it like [that (2.5) Really. Also now, you show how delighted you are. 3 Cl [hmhm hmhm 4 Co his is simply (.) wonderful to look at as your partner ((laughing)) = 5 Cl = I am also glad of it! ((laughing)) = 6 Co = Yeah, cause (..) cause that really that is what strengthens your impression 7 immensely.

3. (Re-)Focus on emotions he next example, Extract 5, illustrates how the helping professional, out of his presence and involvement with what has been verbalized by the client so far, explicitly refocuses client’s attention towards her feelings (What happens inside of you when she says it, line 4). Via this use of other-directed question, the psychotherapist invites the client to verbalize and share her painful emotions and thus signals and justiies their importance. he client aligns with the therapist’s invitation and re-focuses on her emotions in lines 5 following (e.g. I want to be worth it). Extract 5 1 Cl Well, (1.0) when we’re in a really diicult phase and I >wanna< say to her 2 ‘Is there anything else I can do? Can I do something to make it more 3 bearable’, she says: no::, just stop, just carry on being, you know. (2.0) 4 T What happens inside of you when she says it? = 5 Cl = >I want to be worth itand he is 2 happy with that< (2.0) he thought everything would be so:lved by having 3 only more children and he became frustrated but 4 T // Does he father those children? 5 C Yes! He is very responsible. >He is an excellent father< and he is tender and 6 he could never aba:ndon them, no, I wouldn’t allow it.

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7 T 8 C 9

What’s it like for you though, to have him commi:tted to that other woman? I know her (.) she is not educated at all, >only a few years of school.< hey live in very low standard14 but he is very responsible.

he client in lines 1–3 and 5–6 refers to her speciic marital situation where her husband is involved with another woman and takes care of their two children. She does not, however, make a reference to how she feels about this (presumably uncomfortable) situation. Instead she focuses on the factual, i.e., how both she and her husband have accommodated to the circumstances. While it might be assumed that in the psychotherapeutic setting clients ind it easier (than in other everyday contexts) to fall into openly expressing their painful experiences and crushing disappointments, it follows from the data that the ‘feelings-talk’ needs in fact to be actively facilitated by the therapist. his is to say that oten the therapist must rely on the client’s prior talk as occasioning a question about feelings. Accordingly, in line 7, the therapist attempts to refocus the client’s account by taking up the issue of the client’s emotional attitude to her husband’s unfaithfulness: What’s it like for you though, to have him committed to that other woman? his highly emotionally-charged question, although direct, fails to elicit any genuine ‘feelings-talk’. If any emotion is present here, it would seem to be pride that the errant husband is ‘very responsible’ (lines 5 and 9). 4. Expressions of empathy he following extracts exemplify professional uses of empathy, i.e. “a multiphased process, involving a sequence of experiences, including the therapist’s ‘resonation’ with the patient’s experience, the therapist’s expression of empathy, and the patient’s reception of it” (Wynn & Wynn 2006: 1386; cf. also Barrett-Lennard 1981). In Extract 7, the client is apprehensively and hesitantly self-revealing his attitude towards one-night stands. his is met by the psychotherapist’s remark You sound romantic to me (line 4), which reevaluates client’s doubts and hesitations (lines 1 to 3) conciliatorily and ofers supportive feedback for him and his feeling of being diferent (people make that sound like a wonderful thing but I couldn’t do it, lines 1 and 2). Its assertive format thereby contrasts with client’s own avoidance strategies as found for example in the distance marker that (lines 1 and 2) an indicator of client’s apprehension, which adds a reassuring element to the psychotherapist’s reply.

14. his expression was originally used by the client who spoke English in the therapy sessions. However, her native tongue is not English.

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Extract 7 1 Cl >I don’t knowlike a one-night standhadn’t any warm feelings to give me< (.) and I felt downtrodden. 4 T I can’t believe there is anybody not having warm fee:lings for you! 5 Cl I don’t understand it myself.

Let us consider Extract 9: Extract 9 1 Co Oh, so that’s really something that is absolutely pressing right now. hat’s to 2 despair↑, that means there is really … no material that wouldn’t harm the kidneys. 3 Cl No. It’s not that bad. 4 Co Ah, so it’s not that bad, is it.

In this last example, Extract 9, the coach in lines 1 and 2 empathically resonates with client’s previous account of her dramatic physical situation. he coach starts with the so-called initial response token (oh) which as explicated by Jeferson (1988: 428) can mark “serial shiting from distance to intimacy”. She thereby appreciates and validates client’s preoccupation and concern. Yet, the client in line 3 turns coach’s assessment down (No), thereby relativizing the dramatic dimension of her situation (It’s not that bad). his assessment in turn is taken up by the coach

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in line 4, introduced by the acknowledging marker ah and followed by a repetition of client’s wording it’s not that bad, i.e. client’s assessment of the situation. he three-part assessment sequence (Atkinson 1984), initiated by the coach’s emphatic reaction, helps client to feel understood and accepted in her concern, yet at the same time allows for a (irst) change of perspective in client’s perception. To sum up, the presented examples from actual psychotherapeutic and coaching sessions evidence the public application of communicative strategies that have ideologically been linked to the private sphere of female friendship and symbolic feminine discourse. As clients’ self-discovery and change – both in the therapeutic and the coaching contexts – can only set of in a safe, non-judgmental environment where the verbalization of painful and socially less acceptable emotions becomes possible, large parts of psychotherapy and coaching interactions rely on strategies that foster relationship and rapport between the participants and show the professionals’ emotional engagement with the clients and their concerns. All in all, these discursive practices are intended to facilitate and support talk, intimacy, disclosure and confession (McLeod 2002) that ultimately enable clients to lead a better and more satisfying private and professional life. Yet, in no way do we seek to claim here that psychotherapy/coaching exclusively relies on those strategies which can be juxtaposed with symbolic feminine discourse. Ater all, both therapist and coach are experts to whom clients turn for answers to their questions and concerns. As such they are in charge of the process, i.e. it is their professional responsibility to skillfully accompany, but also gear, their clients towards self-discovery and change. In navigating their clients through the professional agenda, these helping professionals at times must act confrontationally to prompt clients’ self-relection or directive to advance the process. Furthermore, although the therapeutic alliance, based on empathy and nonjudgmental behavior, is at the very center of person-oriented approaches to therapy and coaching, mirroring, sharing and other features of symbolic feminine discourse ind their expected limits in the professional goal of such interactions. Successful psychotherapy and coaching then seem to rest on the skilful combination of diferent interactive strategies that are arranged on a continuum of gendered, i.e. more feminine and more masculine ways of interacting (Holmes & Stubbe 2003). A similar argument is found in Hall and Duval (2004: 18), although these authors focus on the type of counseling format instead of the interaction style: As coach, you will be called upon to step aside from coaching as such, and shit to providing some skill development (training), healing of some hurt emotion (therapy), giving suggestions about how to arrange things (consulting), and even treating the other as a protégé (mentoring). What’s important is being conscious of what we are doing, when, with whom, and why.

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4. Re-appraisal of feminine discourse? By juxtaposing commonly accepted discursive practices in psychotherapy and coaching with strategies of symbolic feminine discourse, our article aligns two diferent strands of the therapeutic ethos, i.e. the institutional one, based on professional interventions, and the socio-cultural one, based on female sharing and talking things through (cf. McLeod & Wright 2009: 126). We hope to have illustrated with the examples from our data that these particular discursive interactions extensively overlap with the gendered (feminine) speech styles in their local strife for clients’ change. Psychotherapy and coaching are just two professional settings where features of symbolic linguistic femininity function as powerful tools to accomplish certain tasks, i.e., to actually ‘get work done’. hese two contexts also exemplify how symbolic feminine discourse has moved beyond the bounds of private, intimate settings and has entered socially important public arenas. Another important professional ground where feminine discourse is purposefully applied is the business context. Indeed, communal talk or quasi-therapeutic discourse which index feminine discourse (cf. Ochs 1992) is recommended at different levels of business interactions, for instance in the interactions between call center operators with the customers (cf. Cameron 2000b) as well as for managers interacting with their subordinates (cf. Eagly & Carli 2003a). hus the question that begs an answer is whether features of feminine discourse have been (recently) positively re-evaluated and whether they are taking on power. his is an important issue to raise as a fascination with talking has commonly been considered a feminine trait, but at the same time “a passive, slight yet also pathologized activity, a symptom of the emptiness of women’s lives in which talk is counter-posed to purposeful activity” (McLeod & Wright 2009: 126). his would mean that selfdisclosure, mirroring, and emotional talk, for instance, are no longer denigrated, but in fact appreciated and intentionally applied in the public contexts. And this is a particularly socially-charged issue, since public sphere in most societies still predominately belongs to men. Mills (2003) in fact observes a recent shit in the manner in which women’s communicative strategies have been re-evaluated, relected in the workplace through certain companies’ communication training. She reports that this educational tool nowadays tends to draw upon key aspects of stereotypically feminine speech styles. However, we believe that this re-evaluation has diferent consequences for women and men and has not fully led to a more positive perception of symbolic feminine discourse (cf. Cameron 2003, 2006). Firstly, the reliance on feminine interactional style in managerial workplaces by women and men is evaluated diferently. Women’s use of symbolic feminine style is evaluated more negatively than

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men’s (cf. Mullany 2007; cf. also Litosseliti 2006). his possibly derives from the fact that business setting constitutes a social space that has not traditionally belonged to women, as well as from many diiculties and challenges that women face and which arise from the incongruity of the traditional female role and many leader roles (Eagly & Karau 2002; cf. also Eagly & Carli 2003a). Indeed, women have some advantages in typical leadership style, yet still sufer disadvantages from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders. Men, on the other hand, are seen in positive light for adopting feminine strategies15 and, as Cameron (2003) observes, they are even applauded for it or as commented by Applebaum et al. (2002: 45): “the same leadership behavior is oten evaluated more positively when attributed to a male than a female”. In fact, it is men who most oten and most closely approximate the new communication ideal by combining traditional masculine qualities of authority etc. with more feminine styles such as emotional expressiveness (Cameron 2003: 463). Secondly, as Mullany (2007: 46) claims, even though there is a great emphasis on the importance of feminine skills in public contexts, it has not been motivated by a desire to bring about equality, but rather by a desire to fulill the needs of contemporary consumerist society (cf. also Cameron 2006). his would indicate that feminine discourse is intentionally applied, yet not to the beneit of women and their strive for equality. Lastly, the term ‘feminine talk’ or ‘women’s talk’ to refer to the new postmodern linguistic ideal is commonly evaded by trainers, psychotherapists and coaches (cf. Cameron 2000a) despite the fact that this is exactly what the professionals are trained to talk like (see Sarangi et al. 2003 on categorizing practices across professional boundaries). hus, we claim that the negative social perception of the term ‘feminine discourse’ reveals existing prejudicial evaluations towards women. Yet, despite these tribulations we see feminine discourse as an agent of emancipation as well as of social and professional advancement ‘in progress’. Even in view of the persistent negative perception and evaluation, symbolic linguistic femininity is visible in the public contexts to an extent it has not been observable ever before. An individual living here and now needs to adopt features of feminine style, not only to live a happier and more fulilling life, but also to be an

15. Interestingly, Cameron (2003: 454) states that “… more and more mainstream discourse on language and gender stresses the opposite proposition – that women are actually superior to men. he problem of the unassertive or insecure woman speaker may not have disappeared entirely, but it is increasingly being eclipsed by anxiety about a quite diferent phenomenon, namely the problem of the inarticulate, linguistically unskilled man. In the new deicit model, it is men who are represented as deicient, and women whose ways of speaking are frequently recommended as a model for them to emulate.”

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efective professional who enjoys respect of his/her subordinates as well as who engages in fulilling and successful relationship with their clients.

5. Concluding remarks Features of feminine interactional style are extensively relied on by the psychotherapists and coaches in their interactions with clients striving to enhance the quality of their lives. In this sense the professional settings of psychotherapy and coaching can be conceptualized as gendered. hese two social contexts are also setting examples for individuals as to how to function in post-modern reality, i.e., how to establish one’s identity as well as how to relate to other people. his is to say that the new social and economic conditions of post-modernity are exerting substantial changes on self. he gendered values and modes of talking have substantially permeated the context of business communication where the feminine interactional style seems to be well established by now. We acknowledge the indisputable presence of aspects of feminine discourse in many public contexts (e.g., psychotherapy, coaching, and various business interactions). As we have discussed and illustrated, feminine discourse indeed functions as an agent of change enabling individuals and professionals to improve their lives, manage people, accomplish professional tasks, etc. We interpret the still negative perception of feminine discourse in public contexts as a temporary phenomenon resulting from the fact that those contexts have been for years associated with masculine enterprise. Being aware of the reservations voiced by other researchers, we do see feminine discourse as breaking the constraints of patriarchy, introducing more cooperation, equality and symmetry in the public sphere.

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Transcription conventions Presented transcripts rely on the standard conventions of conversation analysis (cf. Antaki, C., http://www-staf.lboro.ac.uk/~ssca1/notation.htm, and Hutchby, I. 2007). Cl T Co [] =

Client herapist Coach Square brackets indicate the start and end of the overlapping speech. Equal signs indicate ‘latching’ stretch of talk, i.e., no discernible gap between the utterances.

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//

(1.0) (.) (( )) () .hhh hhh ba:d .,?! ↓ ↑

Bad BAD °bad°

>bad< XYZ →

Double slashes indicate an interruption, i.e. a point in the interaction where another interlocutor takes over the conversational loor before the current speaker has inished his/her utterance, i.e., prior to a possible transition place. A number in parenthesis indicates the time, in seconds, of a gap in speech. A ‘micropause’, i.e., a pause of less than one tenth of a second is indicated by a dot in parenthesis. Double parentheses indicate a nonverbal activity, e.g., crying which usually accompanies a stretch of talk. Empty parenthesis indicates the occurrence of an unclear utterance; or a removal of a part of the utterance due to privacy policy. H’s preceded by a dot indicate audible inward breathing. H’s with no preceding dot indicate outward breathing. Colon(s) indicate(s) that the speaker has stretched the preceding sound. he more colons the greater the extent of the stretching. Punctuation symbols are used to mark intonation, not grammar. Downward arrow indicates falling pitch or intonation. Upward arrow indicates rising pitch or intonation. Underlined words/sounds are emphasized and typically louder. Capitals indicate even greater loudness than underlined words/sounds. Degree signs indicate that the material between them is quieter than the surrounding talk. Outward arrows indicate slower speech. Inward arrows indicate faster speech. hese capitals letters are used instead of the real names of people or places appearing in the clients’ talk. his is a due to privacy policy. Arrows in the let margin indicate analyst’s signiicant line; alternatively the word/ phrase is in bold face.

Appendix Original language examples (German) Extract 1 [1] Kl [v] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Co [v] Kl [v] [7] Kl [v] Co [v] [8] Kl [v] Co [v]

((3s)) Nein, das funktionert nicht weil ich eher so den Eindruck habe dass sie dass sie sich zu sehr um ihren jüngsten Sohn gekümmert haben und dass sie geschaut haben dass er nicht wirklich überleben kann, dass er sehr, sehr viel Potential hat, aber eigentlich nichts erreicht hat und auch nicht seinene eigenen Weg gegangen ist und nicht seine eigenen Entscheidungen getrofen hat und dass er das eigentlich auch selber weiß. Mhm. Was meinst Du mit ‘eigentlich’? Naja, ich bin mir sicher dass mein darunter leidet aber dass er ... es seit Jahren mit Vater das weiß und darunter leidet Alkohol und Distanz hintunterspült. Mmh. Und mm irgendwie hast Du nicht wirklich

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[9] Kl [v] ((3s)) Nein• • • schon eine sehr tiefe Liebe, das Co [v] so• • • so einen tiefen Respekt für ihn, oder? [10] Kl [v] schon, aber nicht unbedingt Respekt ((weint)). Extract 4 [1] Co [v] Kl [v] [2] Co [v] Kl [v] [3] Co [v] Kl [v] [4] Co [v] Kl [v] [5] Co [v] Kl [v] [6] Co [v] Kl [v] [7] Co [v]

((3s)) Gut. • • • ((Ja.)) ((ea)) Auch wie Sie s jetz gesagt haben, ((Ja,)) wunderbar! ((ea)) • Ahm ich sehe… also wenn Sie das so hinkriegen. Hm´hm `• ((lacht, 2.5s)) ((ea, 1.5s)) Also wirklich. Auch jetz, dass Sie ` Hmˇ Hm´hm Ihre Freude zeigen. Das is einfach • schön anzuschauen als Gegenüber. Ja, ((ea)) • • Ja, weil • • weil ((lacht)) ((lacht)) Freu ich mich auch drüber! ((lacht)) immens das tatsächlich das is, was Ihre Wirkung • • • ((räuspert sich 2x)) bereichert. • •

Extract 9 [1] Co [v] [2] [3] Co [v] K1 [v] [4] Co [v] K1 [v]

Ach, das is ja wirklich jetzt auch grade ganz akut. ((So zum Verzweifeln)), das heißt, da gibt s tatsächlich kein… • • kein Material. ̮Was was nicht schädlich is für die Nieren. Ne, so is es So schlimm nicht, ja? nicht.

Index

A abuse as love 41 abusive violence 32 advertisement 145–147, 149– 150, 152–153, 155–164 advice 93, 117, 123, 128, 130–135, 201 aesthetic 155–157 afect 255, 258–261, 269 agency 27, 94, 148, 162, 185, 209, 229, 231, 236, 238, 241 Alliance of Women’s Movement 83 Antifascist Front of Women 83 appraisal system 253, 257, 269 appraiser 259–264 appreciation 255–256, 264, 269 attitude 255, 257, 259, 263, 265, 269 attributions 86, 89, 93–94 authoritative 125–126, 187 authority 17, 39–40, 42, 56–57, 64, 66, 137–138 224, 274, 295 see also writer authority and social authority B background 18–20, 27, 145–147, 150, 175, 197, 199, 201, 222, 227, 251 Balkan tradition 81 banter 137 bio-gender 4 biological sex 1, 4, 6, 256 bio-men 4, 254, 256, 266 bio-women 4, 254, 256, 266 body copy 150, 154 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1, 9, 81–82, 84 bride price 63–65

C campaign 72–74, 78, 178 advertising campaign 9, 145–146, 160, 164, 196 canonistic 113, 129, 135 capacity 255, 257–260, 262, 265, 269 causal connection 34 CDA 6, 19–21, 27–28, 30, 49, 51–52, 54–55, 86–87, 115–116, 146, 149–150, 164, 175, 200, 255 see also critical discourse analysis clause position 132 coaching 273–275, 279, 282– 286, 289, 293–294, 296–298, 300 coding 29, 225 colour 150, 152–153 command 123, 131 ‘common-sense’ assumptions 255 communities of practice 10, 173, 219, 222–224, 281 complement clause 122, 128 composition 88, 150, 152 Confucian 9, 195–196, 198–199, 206, 212–213 consumer society 10, 145–146, 157, 159, 163 consuming body 161 context 6, 8–9, 18, 20–22, 31, 39, 42, 52–57, 59, 61, 64, 70–71, 75, 81–88, 99, 103, 106, 119, 148–149, 174, 185, 196–197, 201, 205–206, 240, 274–275, 279–282, 286, 288, 290, 294, 296 contextual constraints 172–173 corpus–driven 117–118, 138–139 corpus linguistics 113–115

critical discourse analysis 3, 7–9, 17, 19, 45, 49, 51–52, 54, 86, 113, 115, 145–146, 149, 164, 174, 195–196, 199–200, 255 cultures 1, 4, 6, 21, 40, 42, 64, 277 D deixis 89 deonticity 113, 115–117, 120, 124–125, 133 descriptivism 73 desire 9, 145–148, 153, 155–159, 161–164, 241, 277, 295 Dholuo honoriic expressions 49, 51–52, 56 dialogue 125, 127, 255, 276, 278 diference camp 253 diference perspective 4, 6, 256, 263–265 directive 116, 132–133 disclosure 277–280, 293 self-disclosure 277–278, 280, 284, 294 discourse 1, 5–11, 17–21, 25, 27–28, 30, 33, 51–52, 78, 81, 86–87, 92, 99, 105, 113–117, 119, 124, 126–127, 129, 131–132, 135–136, 138–139, 146, 148–150, 155, 157–158, 160–164, 169, 176, 181, 183, 186, 199–203, 205–206, 222, 233, 237, 240, 255, 266, 273–275, 277, 279, 282, 284–287, 289, 293–295 see also discourses dominant discourse(s) 20, 175, 283, 287, 289 gendered discourse(s) 106, 169, 174, 200 Discourse Historical 8, 49, 52, 54–56, 86

304 Living with Patriarchy

discourses 6–9, 11, 17–19, 30–31, 54–55, 75, 84–86, 88, 105–107, 113, 126–127, 137–140, 164, 173–175, 177, 183, 200, 234, 252, 254, 277, 283, 287 discursivity 146, 164 division of labor 2, 58, 86, 223–224, 229, 232, 234, 240–241 division of power 87 domestication 63, 65 domestic sphere 197, 199, 206–207 dominance perspective 6 dominant group 1, 56 dominant versus subordinate roles 56 duality 160 E education 72, 77, 83–84, 88, 90, 97, 104, 107, 180, 182–183, 186–187, 209 emancipation 3, 7–9, 11, 81, 84–85, 87, 107, 198, 200, 249–250, 252, 273, 275, 295 emergency departments 227– 229, 240–241 emergency medicine 10, 219–221, 223, 225–229, 231– 235, 237, 239–241 emic perspective 224 emotion(s) 53, 66, 94, 186, 255, 262, 278, 284, 286–287, 288, 290, 291, 293 empathy 139, 261–262, 265–266, 274, 278, 284, 287, 291–293 empowerment 87, 170, 274, 284 engagement 98, 204, 255–256, 269, 293 epistemic modality 263 equal distribution of labor 232 equality 9, 23, 59, 90, 94–96, 101, 105, 107, 170, 196, 199, 204, 206–207, 213, 226– 228, 232, 289, 295–296 ethnicity 88, 174, 243 ethnography 86, 219, 224 evoked 56, 60, 256, 262 exclude 19, 100

F family values 85 FCDA 19–20 female friendship 279–281, 293 female genitalia 69–72, 74–75, 77 female physician 219, 221, 225, 235, 238–239 female styles of leadership 260 feminine 1, 4–6, 8, 11, 41, 82, 147, 153, 159, 162–163, 172, 175, 178–182, 186–187, 221, 227, 236, 266–267, 279, 281, 284–285, 287, 293–296 feminine discourse 8, 11, 273–275, 279, 284–285, 287, 293–296 femininity 5, 8–9, 18, 22–23, 39, 41–42, 50, 66, 145–147, 160–163, 175, 179, 236, 254, 278–279, 294–295 femininity and sufering 39, 41 feminism 1, 9, 19, 69, 77–78, 81–83, 86–87, 95–96, 100–103, 107, 172, 174, 176–177, 195–196, 198, 200, 234, 250–251, 254 feminist critical discourse analysis 9, 17, 195–196 feminist language planning 69–70, 77 feminist linguistics 69, 199–200 Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analytical perspective (FPDA) 174–175 feminist theory 2, 84, 224 ixed expression(s) 123, 129, 136 ixed phrases 119 focus groups 81, 86–87, 103, 107, 253, 256, 260, 264, 266 foregrounding/backgrounding 9, 86, 139, 207, 258 French speaking 226 G gender 1–11, 18, 20–21, 27, 29, 39, 50–52, 55, 58, 66–67, 69, 74–78, 82, 103, 106, 113–117, 133, 140, 145–149, 159–160, 162, 164, 169–177, 180–181, 183, 186–188, 195–200, 203, 205–

206, 208–214, 219, 221–225, 227, 235–236, 240–242, 249– 257, 259–267, 279, 284 gender biased linguistic items 50–51 gender centres 84 gender equality 8–9, 69, 74, 76–78, 84, 197, 199, 205, 209, 211, 221, 250, 252, 260, 263 see also equality gendered discourse(s) 106, 169, 174, 200 gendered identities 199, 241, 279 gendered structures 221 gendered subject positions 252 gendered workplace(s) 227, 235, 240, 281, 282 gender equality 8–9, 69, 74, 76–77, 84, 195, 197, 199, 205, 209, 211, 214, 221, 249–252, 260, 263, 268 gender equality in the workplace 221 gender essentialism 10, 222 gender identity 49, 58, 172– 173, 175, 177, 180, 222, 256, 266 gender ideologies 183, 195–197, 206, 213–214 gender performativity 173 gender promoting policies 197 gender relations 22, 52, 65, 195, 197, 206, 225 gender research 1–5, 253 gender socialization 1 gender stereotypes 236 gender studies 5–6, 84, 107, 199, 241 gender transgression 236 graduation 255–256, 261, 269 grey economy 89 grounded theory 8, 17, 27, 29–30 H hegemonic discourses 3 hero story 228–229, 231 heteronormative 76 hierarchical 9, 29, 127, 133, 135, 137, 139, 198, 213, 223, 229, 240

Index 305

honoriic expressions 8, 49–58, 63, 66 hospital 24, 26, 220, 223–226, 228–229, 240 housework 23, 84, 205–209, 211, 213

206–207, 212, 219, 222–225, 227–228, 232, 250, 253 interview schedule 49, 52 intimacy 137, 157, 274, 277, 279–280, 292–293 irony 127, 135, 185

I identity/-ies 3–5, 9–11, 21, 49, 58, 66, 78, 82, 84, 87–88, 92, 95–96, 100, 106, 140– 143, 148–149, 160, 165–167, 169–170, 172–175, 176–177, 180–181, 187, 189–190, 196, 199, 206, 208, 219–223, 225, 227–229, 236, 240 242–243, 249, 252–254, 256, 258, 264, 266–267, 273–274, 276, 278–279, 281, 284, 296, 298 see also social identity ideology 8–9, 17–18, 20, 22, 25, 27–29, 31, 39, 42, 54, 56, 65, 74, 76, 78, 117, 185, 198, 200, 207–208, 214, 229, 255 idiom(s) 8, 49, 50–56, 62–66 image(s) 26, 41, 60, 62, 65–66, 135, 138, 146, 149–150, 155, 177, 179–180, 182–184, 200, 203, 210, 231 imperatives 124, 129, 133, 138, 277 industrialization 84 inscribed 256, 262 Integrated Corpus and Discourse Studies (ICDS) 115 intensiication 125–126, 129, 135, 158, 261 intensiiers 122, 237 International Women’s day 9, 195–196, 201–202, 213–214, 250 internet forums 8, 17–18, 24–25, 27–28 interpersonal metaphor of mood 123 interpretative approach 86 intertextuality 55–56, 92, 185 interviews 8, 10, 49, 51–52, 126, 139, 147, 161, 201, 203,

J jämställdhet 76 Japan 145–147, 150, 153, 157–161, 163–164 judgment 255, 258–264 K Kikuyu 50 kinship terms 56, 59 knowledge 35–37, 53, 55, 70–72, 85–87, 104–105, 107, 132, 145, 148, 159–160, 164, 174, 238, 263, 277, 280, 283, 288 L labour force 84 language and gender 5–6, 195–196, 199, 241 Language Council of Sweden 72 language planning 8, 69–70, 74, 77–78 late modernity 274–276, 278 leadership 175, 198, 240, 257, 260, 262, 274–275, 295 legitimation 17–19, 21, 39, 42, 128 lexical gaps 69 lifestyles 87, 219, 221, 275, 277 linguistic sexism 70 Luhya languages 50 Luo community 8, 49–51, 66 M male dominated profession 219, 221 masculine 4–6, 40, 42, 162, 172, 178–182, 186–187, 219, 224, 226–228, 234–235, 238–240, 266–267, 274–275, 293, 295–296 masculine values 238, 266

masculinity 17, 22, 39–40, 50, 56, 58–59, 66, 155, 175, 179, 240, 254 masochism 38, 41, 43 materiality 150, 152 maternity leave 220, 225, 227, 232, 235, 237–239, 260 media 21, 25–26, 33, 40, 71, 74–75, 77, 82, 100, 106, 114, 116–117, 119, 138–139, 163, 169–172, 175–176, 183, 188, 195–196, 199, 201, 203, 205, 207–209, 211–213, 250 metaphors 17, 40, 60, 71, 213 micromatriarchy 85 mirroring 82, 236, 280, 284, 287, 289, 293–294 misogyny 82–83, 85, 107 mock-impolite(ness) 113, 137 modality 113–117, 119, 124, 135, 140, 200, 205, 207, 211, 255, 263 modernity 81, 86, 273–276, 278, 296 see also late modernity modernization 84, 91, 96, 107 motherhood 23, 57, 85, 100, 181, 208, 289 multidisciplinary 88 multi-method research project 88 multiple identities 169–170, 253, 256, 264 multiple identities camp 253 multiword units 119 N na-complement 114, 128, 133, 136 narrative 219–220, 228–229, 276, 278, 284 nationalism 9, 86, 196–199, 204, 214 National Liberation Struggle 84 negation 122, 125, 129, 135, 157, 255, 261 negative 26, 66, 77–78, 94, 96, 122–126, 128, 133, 135–136, 153–154, 160, 254–255, 258–

306 Living with Patriarchy

259, 261–264, 269, 278, 280, 287–288, 295–296 negative judgment 258–259, 262–263 negative obligation 124 Nilotic group 49 normality 255, 259, 269 normalisation of VAW 21–22, 39 normative 117, 125–126, 128, 138–139, 186, 196, 255 O objectiication and domestication 63 obligation 62–63, 98, 115–116, 122, 124–125, 135, 205, 207, 211, 237 obligatory 116, 125, 130, 202 oppression 42, 85–86, 101, 199 orality 50 organizational structures 241 other-construction 124, 138 overcrowding 228, 231, 240 over-sensitivity 5 P pater familias 91 Paternalistic attitude 56 see also patriarchal attitudes 82, 85 patriarchal nuclear family 233 patriarchal role 229 patriarchal society 1–2, 8, 49, 64, 66, 197 patriarchal structure 221 patriarchy 1–3, 7, 10, 49–50, 58, 69–70, 74, 77–78, 81, 83–85, 107, 160, 162, 164, 169–172, 174, 186, 275, 296 performance 5, 7, 59, 62, 116, 147, 149, 172, 262, 279 performativity 9, 145–150, 159–160, 162–163, 173 perpetuation 83, 114, 209, 266 perspective of seeing 87 pillar of the family 98 planned parenthood 232, 238 politeness 153–154 polysemic 157

position 58, 62, 83, 89, 91, 98, 100, 103–105, 126, 129, 182–183, 185, 202, 229–230, 251–252, 256–258, 264–265 see also clause position positionality 224 post-feminist 195–196 Post-modern feminism 172, 174, 176–177 post-structuralist 173–174, 176 postwar BiH 82 power 19, 40, 51–58, 62, 64, 66, 75, 82–83, 85, 87, 93, 103, 105, 113, 115–117, 133, 135, 138–139, 146, 148, 157, 160–162, 173–175, 182, 186–187, 195, 199–200, 203–204, 207, 210, 222, 224, 241, 255, 274, 294 praise names 60–62 pregnancy 117, 129, 220, 232, 238–239, 241, 259 pregnant 64, 220, 232, 234–235, 238–239, 260 pre-school children 74–75 prescriptivism 73, 127, 140 private domain 49, 51, 53 private sphere 2, 82, 84–85, 98–99, 103, 105, 107, 138–139, 279, 281, 293 project-driven feminism 107 psychotherapy 273–275, 279, 282–286, 290, 293–294, 296 public domain 9, 51, 195–196 public sphere 25, 45, 82, 90, 98, 103, 105, 196–197, 199, 201, 203–207, 212, 273, 279, 285, 287, 294, 296 Q Quebec 219–221, 224, 226–229, 240–241 R raising awareness 105 regulative 113, 138–140 relations to men 87 reproductive rights 238 resemiotizations 3 resistance 58, 77, 81, 84–85, 87, 96, 107, 178, 188, 197–198, 202, 282

rhetoric(al) 9, 82, 114, 130–131, 133, 140 roles 1–5, 9, 22–23, 56, 58, 61, 66, 82–83, 85, 87, 100, 127, 133, 169–171, 174–176, 195, 202, 208–210, 219, 223–224, 227, 229, 237, 240, 242, 252, 289, 295 S sacriice 9, 23, 85, 99, 107, 198, 206, 211, 230, 233 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 72 Self 8–11, 66, 85, 95, 143, 148, 158–159, 187, 240, 273, 275– 279, 283, 296 self-conidence 257, 259, 262– 263, 266 self-construction 124, 138 self-identity 11, 273–274, 276, 278, 284 self-knowledge 145, 148, 159–160, 164 self-relexivity 158, 273, 283 semi-periphery 104 sexism 25, 50–51, 70, 77–78, 174, 220 sexist language practices 69– 70 shits 89, 220, 222, 227, 232– 233, 237–238, 241 snippa 69, 72–78 social and power relations 55, 199 social authority 117 social class(es) 55, 81, 87–88, 107 social constructionism 6–7, 172 social exclusion 255 social identities 3–4, 10, 249, 252 socialism 82–85, 89–90 social position of women 87 social practice(s) 54, 66, 149–150, 174, 195, 199, 201, 210, 255, 277, 286 social status 56–57, 63, 66, 224, 275 standpoint research 86 stereotyped views 62

Index 307

stereotypical gender perceptions 252 stereotyping 66, 82, 235, 249, 253–254, 257, 260, 264 stigmatization 254 story 34, 60, 146, 180, 220, 228–229, 231, 236 see also hero story subjectivities 85, 107, 157 subject position(s) 87, 106–107, 148, 187, 223, 234, 240, 252 subordinate group 56 subordinate positions 61, 66 Swedish 8, 69–73, 75, 77 Swedish Academy Dictionary 73 Swedish Association for Sexuality Education 72 symbolic feminine discourse 273–275, 279, 284–285, 287, 293–294 syntactic structures 81 Systemic Functional 142, 195, 200, 255

T taboo 71 teaching hospital(s) 226, 229 tenacity 256–259, 263, 266 tension 37, 122, 171, 207, 238–241 therapeutic culture 273–279, 282, 284 topoi 81, 86–87, 89 topoi of struggle 87 topoi of victim 87 traditional culture 50, 52 transcripts 81, 88–89, 97, 225, 244, 286 transitional 81–82, 85, 87, 93, 106, 171 U under-sensitivity 5 upbringing 98 V VAW 18–22, 24, 26–27, 32, 39, 42 verbal 19, 86, 124, 135, 137, 147, 149–150, 153, 157, 201–202, 278

victims 18, 26, 37, 65, 82, 97 Vietnamese women 195, 197–199, 202–207 violence against women 17–18 violent conlicts 31, 36 visual 28, 147, 149–150, 152–153, 157, 159, 195, 200–201, 203, 210 W wife abuse 17–18, 21–22, 24, 26, 29–32, 34, 37, 39–42 Woman and Society 84 womanhood 88, 96, 107, 169–170 women’s organization 83 women’s perceived identity 87 women’s solidarity 83, 107 working class 88–89 work narratives 225, 240 workplace narratives 227 writer authority 116, 205, 207 Y Yugoslav women’s union 83