Gender Speech Style Definition of Terms
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feminine man. As cited in Holmes and Meyerhoff 2003, Cameron 1998 states that “Men and women are now in competition of the same kind of power, status as
opposed to taking up complementary roles. Although, when they can adapt the language successfully, they will be seen as arrogant
women and unfeminine.” Cameron‟s statement shows that although women can successfully use men‟s
language and adapt successfully, they will have some risks of being judged as abrasive and asexual. “Women who successfully adapt to characteristically male
linguistic norms run the risk of being perceive as aggressive and confrontational, as unfeminine
– in other words, there is a class between what is expected of a person in a high status in the public spheres
” Coates, 1998. The study that is conducted by McElhinny as cited in Larner, 2009
reveals that the female police officer defeminize their language and behavior in order to reconcile others and themselves to their presence in the police
department. Women need to change the way they speak because they want to reconcile and they want to be recognized not as a weak woman, but as a partner
that can be relied on. “Even in the politics, the difference in the way men and women talking not
bring any benefit for women in the politics life. Different from man‟s language, women‟s language or feminine language are considered too passive in politics”
Larner, 2009, p. 5. From Larner‟s statement, it can be seen that although women
work in politics field they are still considered to be unimportant just because of the way they use language.
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In society, there are some women who prefer using masculine language rather than feminine language and vice versa. The factor that affects the usage of
the language is the speech community where men and women belong. “What follows describes gendered speech communities into which most women and men
are socialized ” Woods, 1993b. Wood notes that the way men and women speak
are the result of the community where they belong. In her article, Wood mentions that there are two kinds of speech communities, namely feminine speech
community that used women‟s speech and masculine speech community that used men‟s speech.
L arner 2009 states that men‟s speech is competitive, dominating, and
antagonist, on the contrary, women‟s speech is always confined to the private domain as caregivers, hence, they have developed preferences for establishing
intimacy and maintain unity. In short, Larner emphasizes that woman‟s speech is more supportive and inclusive. It is different with the masculine rhetoric in the
man‟s speech that reflects their behaviours and predominates. Based on Larner 2009, masculine rhetoric is an assertive and informative way of speech. Larner
also states that feminine speech acts conversely, that reflects women‟s behaviour,
such as cooperative and sensitive.