engleski

Male and female rhetoric – are there any differences? The analysis of TED talks

The difference between male and female language use was first described in the book by R. Lakoff (1975) noting major gender stereotypes in language. Further research focused on political discourse and the content of the political messages, strengthening stereotypical differences in male and female communication. Major differences between male and female rhetoric were related to the emotional content of the messages, which was more evident in female discourse. The most significant conclusion of those studies was that if women used “male” forms in communication, they would be perceived as dominant, masculine, unkind, mean or even cruel. Both, the content and the delivery, can hardly be compared within the dominant research paradigms, since the context (political discourse and the analysis of male/female political statements), as an important parameter of communication, significantly differs. The aim of this study is to compare male and female rhetoric within similar context. TED talks present prestigious contemporary public speaking context and are thoroughly prepared by all speakers and therefore seemed to be an appropriate context such comparison. The analysis in this study included 25 most popular TED talks of all time. Since the list included 15 male and 10 female speakers, it was expanded with additional five female talks analyzed in the book by C. Anderson (2016). The analysis included both the content and the delivery. The content does not differ significantly between male and female speakers. The only slight difference between female and male speakers was found in the way they used story as a supporting material. The story was coded either as a general story or a personal story. Female speakers included slightly more personal stories in their talks, however, they were topic related, and similar examples could be found in some of the male talks if the topic of their talks required such examples. The major difference was found in the modes of delivery. Both paralinguistic and non-verbal elements included in the display of emotions were more expressed among female speakers. This could support the stereotype about female discourse being more emotional, and it, undoubtedly, confirms the gender differences in communication styles based on different cognitive organization and learned communicative behavior. To conclude, contemporary rhetorical analysis should move away from the linguistic and discourse stereotypes and explore particular patterns in public speaking context. This study has shown that the differences in content do not support the difference in male and female public speaking forms, however, a research area from which we can attempt to pinpoint different and universal male and female communicative patterns are the vocal elements in delivery, leaving the bombastic, but very tentative, conclusions about differences in male and female rhetoric aside.

TED talk ; male and female rhetoric ; story ; stereotypes

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