In this paper we examine the means of building gender identity in the political discourse. With the aim of examining the political leaders' rhetoric, certain aspects of gender-specific speech behavior have been defined (length of speech, interruptions, emotional expression, emphatic expression of an opinion, and the criticism towards an opponent).
According to the findings, female politicians' speeches supported the conclusions of other researchers on gender specificities of women's communicative style.
However, a tendency of using masculine communicative strategies of dominance under the influence of pragmatic communication settings and status-role profiles of politicians is also observed in the speech behavior of women politicians.
Keywords: gender, gender characteristics, political discourse, political speech, speech acts, communicative behavior, political interactions.
Introduction
Not only do the individual qualities of people manifest themselves in their behavior and lifestyle, but also in their use of language.
Different people use their language for many different motives. The language serves as a way of expressing our emotions and convincing others, yet it is also another form of our self-expression. Gender-specific studies is currently in high demand in various fields of science, such as sociology, philosophy, psychology, politics, and linguistics.
Until very recently, as was common experience before women claimed the right to freedom of choice, power was concentrated in the hands of men.
After gaining recognition, women have actively asserted their rights to participate legally in political affairs. It is not a secret that in today's world there are still debates about gender and political power. But there is also a positive picture of balance and an increase in the number of women running for and being elected to national parliaments.
The American political scientist and political psychologist claims that in most studies concerning men's and women's speech characteristics of speech display dramatically lower impact of women than that of men [Sapiro,198, p 42].
Linguistics focuses on gender as a particularly interesting area of research. The main emphasis of this approach is placed on the linguistic differences between men and women. In contemporary linguistics, exploring communicative behavior as an integral component that characterizes the activities of a political leader in the professional sphere is one of the priority tasks in the study of political discourse.
Gender specific communicative behavior of political leaders has always attracted the attention of scholars. Gender-specific communicative behavior are one of the types of socially conditioned communicative behavior, which requires a systematic description in political discourse.
How male political figures speeches differentiates from their female counterparts
Looking generally at the problem of differences between men's and women's speech, it is worth noting that women's statements are ignored and interrupted because women are taught to «speak like a lady», in other words, to use conditional statements, rather than harsh statements. And, within their speech are traced various markers of politeness:
This cannot be accurate, but...;
Good Lord;
Oh my God, it is not possible… etc.
And lastly, female speech contains affirmative questions, which express insecurity rather than assertiveness:
The campaign is quite successful, isn't it?
If women avoid using these tactics, they may be accused of not being feminine enough. However, if they «speak like a lady», hey run the risk of not being taken seriously [Merrill & Borisoff, 1998, p 65].
Since politics is seen as predominantly men's area of expertise, women do not often play an important role in decision-making processes.
The analysis of political leaders' speeches in my dissertation gives us an opportunity to examine whether there are any differences in verbal communication depending on gender.
Thus, public speeches of politicians can have a targeted impact on male or female audiences if they use the features of a gender-oriented approach.
The analysis of the speeches of political leaders that was conducted within the framework of my master's thesis, allows us to suggest that there are two main approaches towards the use of gender characteristics of speech.
The first approach: Using the specific speech behavior of women and men, which is necessary to create a certain image. The gendered approach to speech is realized by means of rapid changes and correction of speech behavior.
The second approach: Direct appeal to a male or female audience provides the use of communication tactics and various types of gender stereotypes and metaphors.
The first gendered approach is realized in H. Clinton's speeches: she gave a very expressive speech on the attack of the U. S. Consulate in Benghazi. Her speech is very emotional, typical of a woman's speech, expressing condolences to the four American families affected by the attack. The politician was empathetic and tried to support them.
Example: Istood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag draped caskets off the plane at Andrews . I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons, and daughters [Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Hearing].
Overall, women are more sensitive to the problems and misfortunes of those close to them. By saying « I put my arms around… " Hillary Clinton expresses solidarity with her fellow citizens and shows that she fully supports the victims of that attack by naming all members of their families: “ mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons, and daughters”.
Clinton seems to be trying to express the pain and demonstrate the condolences of the entire nation. As a woman politician, she does not hide her feelings, she does not hold back tears, and she shares the grief of those four American families, tragically affecting the entire nation.
Gender-specific speech characteristics are evident here in her attempt to create an image of a female leader who serves her country and feels the pain of every tragic event because she acts as a mother to the entire nation.
The Secretary of State supports her fellow citizens and takes responsibility for what happened, typical behavior for a woman politician:
As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility [Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Hearings].
She courageously takes full responsibility, implying that she is not only a responsible politician, but also a citizen committed to her country.
The frequent use of the pronoun I confirms that the politician separates herself from others and shows herself to be an independent and experienced politician.
The I pronoun, as a gender marker, allows the politician to define and strengthen his position in the political arena, as well as to assert him/herself in this role.
This approach is typical for female politicians, as they have to constantly fight for securing their status, for their right to be an equal participant in the political life of the country.
Take a look at Hillary Clinton's speech, where she calls on George W. Bush to coordinate all actions with Congress on the Iranian nuclear weapons issue. She highlights that the main goal of the U. S. is to extend sanctions on Iran, and expresses her point of view as follows:
As I have long said and will continue to say, U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal. We cannot, we should not, we must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons. And in dealing with this threat, as I’ve also said for a long time, no option can be taken off the table [Hiliary Clinton on Warand Peace].
The use of modal verbs adds a commanding tone to the statement, and the repetition of verbs creates an atmosphere of worry.
Moreover, the syntactic structure of the simple sentence makes the statements easy to understand.
Considering the linguistic features of H. Clinton's speech, it should be noted that her goal is to maintain her position as an influential woman. She skillfully combines features of men's and women's language.
Indeed, several political texts reinforce masculine models of communication with metaphors of aggression.
Speakers are advised to «arm themselves» against the «arguments» of their opponents; to «defend» their point of view by «attacking» the «weaknesses» of their «opponent's« statements. Perceptions of common stereotypes of this kind are highly subjective.
There are cases in which women imitate masculine communication patterns by using aggressive and humiliating language. For example, in the South Carolina debate, H. Clinton is portrayed as an aggressive speaker:
I personally think that they had ideas but they were bad ideas , they were ideas like privatizing social security , like moving back from a balanced budget to a surplus of deficit and debt [H. Clinton in South Carolina Debate].
Here Senator Obama's administration's ideas appear to be bad. The main strategy is to criticize the opposition candidate and at the same time praise a candidate of their own.
The debate shows that the common stereotype of male aggressiveness and female tolerance does not always reflect reality. Particular attention should be paid to the issue of interrupting your opponent's remarks. According to Deborah Brisoff, most studies prove that in conversations between representatives of different genders, for instance, spouses, colleagues and complete strangers, men interrupt women and break the lines much more frequently [Borisoff, 1998, p 76].
However, the example of debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton shows that this statement is not always true. Obama seems to be more patient and attentive to Clinton's remarks. Despite the fact that Clinton tries to smear Obama and accuse him of lying, he never interrupts her.
...it is sometimes difficult to understand what Senator Obama has said, because as soon as he is confronted on it, he says that's not what he meant. The facts are that he has said in a last week, that he really lied [H.Clinton in South Carolina Debate].
In the case of Clinton, she behaves differently, rather inappropriately towards her opponent: she often interrupts Obama, trying to defend her point of view.
By analyzing a few Hillary Clinton's speeches, we can clearly say her speech has both masculine and feminine elements.
One of these feminine features is the use of lexico-grammatical euphemisms to smooth out a statement. Robin Lakoff argues that «lexico-grammatical euphemisms» denote indecisiveness and distrust [Lakoff, 2004, 72].The frequent use of words like well, you know, I mean, and I think in Hillary Clinton's speeches makes a good example of that.
Well, I am glad you raised that... and I think that... [Chatham House Prize 2013]
And you know — In all of the states, you voted because you wanted a leader who will stand up for the deepest values of our party... [H. Clinton in New York City].
You know , I’m here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat [H. Clinton
at the Democratic National Convention].
In terms of Clinton's intonation, it is an assertive intonation.
Clinton often uses the "«well»" at the beginning of her statement, allowing herself time to thoroughly think about her answer. Occasionally she uses the constructions «well» and «I think» in the same sentence, helping her to express confidence and to convince the listener that she in fact was right.
Now the next example illustrates Obama's attitude and speech behavior during the election campaign:
We are counting on you to help fix a health care system that’s leaving too many Americans sick or bankrupt or both. We are counting on you to bring this planet back from the brink by solving this crisis of global climate change. We are counting on you to help stop a genocide in Darfur that’s taking the lives of innocents as we speak here today [Barack Obama’s Commencement Remarks].
The above mentioned example demonstrates the manipulation of mass consciousness by referring to the negative situation. On the other hand, Obama is pointing to hidden opportunities to improve the situation. It seems that he is saying, «Choose me, and we will fix everything. In this example, the gender marker creates an image of a confident male politician who acts as a leader.
Compared to women, male politicians do not try to assert their rights to participate in political life. Instead, they emphasize that they are in a privileged position, in other words, they stand up for their views without trying to prove to anyone that they have the right to participate in the political life of the country.
From one perspective, the use of the pronoun «we» allows us to contrast Obama with a youthful alumni audience who should be in a position to make decisions for themselves. In another context, the politician uses the tactic of covert criticism, which is expressed in indirect forms of negative assessment of the current situation in the country and the world.
Applying gender-specific approaches to the construction of speech addressed to male and female audiences can also be accomplished through other tools. Here is a striking example from Tony Blair's speech at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on Women's Institutions. Tony Blair purposefully constructed his speech in order to be received in a positive way by his listeners. He touches on issues specific to females like family, children, breast cancer, discrimination against women, etc:
...we all share the anxieties of today’s world: the fear that our child will be bullied or worse offered drugs in the playground. The worry that children are exposed to too much sex and too much violence too young. The struggle of balancing work and family....On our own the majority of us are powerless. Together we can shape our destiny. To become the mas- ters of this change, not its victims, we need an active community (Women’s Institutes’ Triennial General Meeting).
He puts himself in women's shoes, discusses their problems with them, and adds emotionality to his speech by using words with a figurative meaning.
Former U. S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright constructed her speeches using gender stereotypes of the family:
I will always love and honor my parents and will always respect their decision, for that most painful of choices gave me life a second time (Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright).
Conclusion
To sum up, the analysis shows that the appropriate application of gender specific approach to speeches brings expressiveness to a politician's language and keeps the listener interested, thereby maintaining the impact of the speech on the audience. In some cases, the boundaries between masculinity and femininity are blurred or appear implicitly.
Sometimes female politicians attempt to step out of line — this is due to the fact that they imitate the masculine manner of speech in order to maintain and protect their positions.
References:
- Sapiro V. The Political Integration of Women: Roles, Socialization, and Politics. — Urbana; Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Pr., 1983.
- Borisoff, Deborah; Merrill, Lisa. / The Power to Communicate: Gender Differences as Barriers. 3rd ed. Prospect Heights, ILL: Waveland Press, Inc, 1998. 151 p.
- Lakoff, R. T. (1975). Language and woman's place.
- Clinton spars with Republicans during Benghazi hearing. URL: http://www.newsy.com/videos/clinton-spars-with-repub licans-during-benghazi-hearing (month of access: December 2013).
- Hillary Clinton’s best Benghazi hearing lines. URL: http://www.politico.com/gallery/2013/0l/hillary-clintons-best- benghazi-hearing-lines/000744–010630.html (month of access: December 2013).
- Hillary Clinton’s remarks at a rally on Tuesday in New York City. URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ democrats/2073000/Hillary-Clintons-speech-Full-text.html (month of access: December 2013).
- Hillary Clinton on Warand Peace. URL: http://www.onthe issues.org/2016/Hillary_Clinton_War_+_Peace.htm#Iraq_War (month of access: December 2013).
- Women’s Institutes’ Triennial General Meeting. URL: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20060715135117/num ber10.gov.uk/page1526 (month of access: January 2013).
- Senator Clinton calls for cap on U. S. troops in Iraq. URL: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june07/clinton_01- 18.html (month of access: January 2014).
- Obama and Clinton Heated Exchange in South Carolina Debate. URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgQnTA2jE98 (month of access: January 2014).
- Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Speech at the Democratic Na- tional Convention. URL: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/pre sident/conventions/videos/20080826_CLINTON_SPEECH.html (month of access: December 2013).
- Sen. Barack Obama’s Commencement Remarks. URL: http://www.snhu.edu/6885.asp (month of access: January 2014).
- Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright Remarks at Jewish Museum Prague. URL: http://1997–2001.state.gov/www/state ments/970713b.html (month of access: January 2014).
