Different identities between males and females: an analysis of critical discourse between male and female writers

Abstract

Studies on different identities between males and females have nowadays been a focus in various disciplines, be it sociology, anthropology, and even language and linguistics. The work can be found in both research papers and articles. In language and linguistics, the emphasis is usually on language use and sexes. However, studies on critical discourse that reflect different identities between males and females in the Thai academia are few and far between. Critical discourse is the study of a systematic set of meanings that appear in messages, pictures, symbols, general practices as well as beliefs, values, and identities during communication so as to generate meanings, values, regulations, and conditions that affect individual, institutional and social regulations regarding what should be presented or conveyed or what should be believed or implemented. A discourse plays a crucial role at the individual and societal levels because it influences various aspects of human expressions. Additionally, it is also hegemoneous and abstract, indicating an ability or social practice in controlling or being above other individuals or institutions. Fairclough and Wodak (1997) state that critical discourse analysis (CDA) investigates social, cultural, idealistic, historical and media issues as well as other social reactions through the power of discourse. Van Dijk (1998) views critical discourse as an imposition of opinions over a discourse structure and social contexts to express individual's opinions, knowledge and idealism. CDA can also change opinions of the society. CDA is divided into micro and macro levels. An investigation at the micro level focuses on language use, interactions among speakers, or general verbal and non- verbal communication. At the macro level, it deals with language use in relation to social groups and interpersonal relationships among group members, which may change opinions of social members. An instance is advertisement language in mass media. In CDA perspectives, the language is used for mind control of the viewers, hegemony unseen by naked eyes but implicitly conveyed through language. Currently, CDA is involved with language use and sexes to find out whether different sexes are equally treated in society and politics. Tannen (1994) analyzed work-related and political discourses to uncover sexual equality at workplace. In 2001, the author investigated male and female conversation patterns by collecting the data from conversations of men and women of different relationships, such as husbands and wives, male and female playmates or colleagues. The findings reveal that women talked more about personal issues and were more concerned with their counterparts than men. Men talked more about conducted by Conrick (1996) concerning stereotypes of language use between men and women. sports issues and changed topics more often than women. Another interesting research was Conrick believes that conventional perspectives about more negative stereotypes of women than Cose of men were unfair. It is in fact not generally true. Negative stereotypes of women include using language to express emotions, making judgments based on emotions, using more indirect and ambiguous language than men, and the love of gossip. Conrick believes that these aspects should not be categorized as female stereotypes. The aspects occur due to circumstances of language use, for instance refraining from using emotional language with their bosses or keeping silent during emergencies. From the concept and belief that language use between men and women depends on their roles and powers defined by society, it is interesting to investigate critical discourse of male and female writers. The focus is on whether sexual differences affect their critical language use, how the writers use language to critically express their roles and powers, how language use expresses male and female identities, and how different language use conveys different identities of both sexes. The study will analyze critical discourses of 40 pieces of writing by male and female writers in magazines.