Morality and Gender Discourse in Humanitarian Discourse

Authors

ČECHOVÁ Hana

Year of publication 2019
Type Article in Proceedings
Conference Silesian Studies in English 2018 : Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of English and American Studies (6th-7th September 2018)
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Keywords gender; morality; humanitarian discourse; male speakers; female speakers; rhetoric
Description This paper stems from a doctoral research of gender in humanitarian discourse regarding the use of language means employed by good-will ambassadors in humanitarian speeches. Five categories of status, morality, evidence, action and power emerged through the process of coding. The presented paper elaborates on the use of typically male and typically female rhetorics in gender in the category of morality. More specifically, how do male and female speakers express themselves in terms of employing the rhetorics typically associated with their own gender, i.e., own speech community or the opposite speech community. While seeking revenge, justice and fairness, pointing fingers, placing blame, looking for a perpetrator is regarded as the typically male rhetoric, female rhetoric manifests nurturance, compassion and care as moral obligation, fronting the victim, and it lacks in search for agent. A statistical data processing software SPSS Statistics has been used to determine whether there are significant differences between male and female speakers. In order to ensure objectivity, a second variable of professional status was introduced dividing the two main gender groups further into male/female politicians, professional orators, natural speakers, e.g., celebrity humanitarians.
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