Kate Segall 'Womanly Man,' 'Feminine Bloke': Reported Dialogue as Gender Stereotype

University of Surrey Roehampton
School of English and Modern Languages
Digby Stuart College
Roehampton Lane
London SW15 5PH
UNITED KINGDOM
kate.segall@kcl.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper investigates the link between the perception of gender and the use of reported dialogue. An increasing amount of research highlights the importance of reported dialogue as a means of negotiating social identities (Schiffrin, 1996; Hamilton, 1998). It is suggested that women use more reported dialogue than men (Tannen, 1989; Johnstone, 1990) and that some reporting frames perceived as 'feminine', such as be + like, serve to distance the narrator from the narrated opinions (Romaine and Lange, 1991). The study used tape recordings of informal conversation between single and mixed sex pairs. Quantative analysis indicates that there is a marked difference in the amount and type of reported dialogue used by males and females. Gender would therefore appear to be a key variable. One male participant has even highlighted this variable by often overtly criticising another male participant for being 'feminine' - unaware that analysis of their transcript would appear to support this stereotyped view. But, does perception of gender identity have a real link with gendered behaviour? Why is 'feminine' so negatively evaluated in terms of male identity whereas 'masculine' is rarely mentioned, and what is innately 'masculine' about a lack of reported discourse? Qualitative analysis shows that this 'gender' difference could, instead, be attributed to other factors such as the sensitivity of the topic being discussed or the age of the speaker. Such analysis raises significant questions as to the place of gender in understanding social identities.

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