What are the important contextual features of this text?
The very well known company Sony were on the receiving end of a hacking scandal which resulted in leaked information. Among the information leaked was figures of money that individual film stars earned in the film 'American Hustle'. By viewing the earnings it was easy to see that the very famous actress Jennifer Lawrence had earned considerably less money than her male colleagues that she filmed with. This sparked outrage between the people who saw this leak but also Jennifer Lawrence herself and this controversial issue led to the star posting her views on Facebook about this particular subject. Because of her reply and peoples great interest in this issue it has came to no surprise that this became one of the most talked about topics about gender equality in recent years.
Comment on the 'male' and 'female' language features in this text. What is the effect on the reader?
Jennifer Lawrence supports and contradicts the theory of Robin Lakoffs theory that men and women speak differently throughout her response. This is because she uses both female and male language and by her using male language shows that women talk the same as men also. The first paragraph shows Jennifer noticeably speaking in a 'female' way. There is a tense feeling as she starts and she uses phrase "fingers crossed'' this may suggest that she cares about her fans and is speaking to them like they are together as a unit. It could also be seen as her showing her feelings towards her fans or anyone else viewing this to feel a type of emotion towards her views. The emotion created supports Lakoffs theory that women are more emotional than men. Jennifer also shows she cares what people think of her. "I didn't want to seem difficult" could be identified to be a weakness in her personality and also supports the stereotype that women would rather please everyone, This suggests that females do talk differently than men because it is seen that men do not care as much as women in what they say and they don't mind if people disagree.
Jennifer Lawrence also contradicts the theory of Lakoffs in a variety of ways. As you get further in the post it becomes less clear to what gender is actually writing this if you had not already seen it was Jennifer Lawrence. It could be interpreted to be a males Facebook post because of the strong language and tone used. The phrase 'Fuck that' may show she is angered by the situation but also she doesn't really care about offending anyone which is a totally different way of expressing herself than i the first paragraph. She is seen to use swear words a few times in the post which is seen as odd. The reason i say this is because words like 'fuck' are usually assumed to be used more by the male gender.This why Jennifer Lawrence contradicts Lakoffs views.
Do you agree with her conclusion?
I do agree with her conclusion. I believe is true that men can use their dominant language to negotiate deals that they want and women step back as they don't want to make unneeded controversy. Woman can be portrayed wrongly if they acted like men during negotiable situations which i feel is a big problem today which is why i agree greatly with Jennifer Lawrence's ideas and overall conclusion.
This is a very good piece, including tentative analysis of the text and use of theories, however you can improve by using more terminology relevant to the question and focus more on GRAPW
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ReplyDeleteGreat contextual understanding. The use of theories proves you have a good pragmatic understanding of why Lawrence tries to regain power through the use of the post. To improve: use more relevant terminology
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