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Language and Gender 1
Gender Politeness as a Stereotype: An Investigation
Uzma Khan
Forman Christian College

ENGL 290
Sir Abdullah
Dec 10, 2014

Gender Politeness as a Stereotype: An Investigation

Language and gender is an interesting field of study which investigates the varieties of speech associated with genders. The study promotes shunning stereotypes and discriminating genders especially in relation with language. There has been quite a lot of research work done in this field and yet there is a lot more to work upon and certain gaps to be filled. One interesting side to work upon is analyzing whether certain notions are true or widely exists as stereotypes. So this research is intended to analyze gender based language stereotypes; how gender plays a role in determining politeness and to what extent politeness is socially constructed. We have seen people stereotyping and discriminating genders on those bases at schools, homes and workplaces. My concern about the way these stereotypes exist and do harm led me to investigate more upon it and come up with concrete findings. So, this study also aims at finding out whether certain beliefs actually exist or lay there just as stereotypes.
It is true to say the society we live in is full of stereotypes and people love to make perceptions based upon what they see rather going deep into the reality and analyzing how things tend to happen. Not only stereotypes corrupt our minds but they truly exist as a huge problem since a lot of individuals feel shame in doing certain activities due to the existing stereotypes. It is the society itself which is very good at putting labels about how a person should behave according to his sex, personality, culture and certain other associated things.
There are a lot of stereotypes associated with genders and one such of a stereotype is that women are politer than men. Although, one would think that this is a kind of positive stereotype

but it is also a fact that positive stereotypes


References: Cameron, Deborah, Feminism and Linguistic Theory; Second Edition; Macmillan; London; 1990. Coates, Jennifer, Women, Men and Language; Longman; London; 1986. Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2013). Politeness. In Language and Gender (2nd ed., p. 121). Lakoff, Robin, Language and Women 's Place; Harper and Row; New York; 1975. Mills, S. (n.d.). Rethinking Politeness, Impoliteness and Gender Identity. In L. Litosseliti & J. Sunderland (Eds.), Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Mills, Sara (2003). Gender and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mills, Sara (2005). Gender and Impoliteness. Journal of Politeness Research. 1 (2): 263-280
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