The figure of the woman: (im)politeness and image construction of the woman in the blog Testoterona

  • Adriana Regina Dantas Martins Universidad Estadual de Ceará
  • Geórgia Maria Feitosa e Paiva Universidade Federal do Ceará
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17710/tep.2015.1.2.8dmartins
Keywords: politeness, impoliteness, ideology, blog

Abstract

Traditional constructions of gender eventually generate in many cases, a system of stereotyped behaviors. This work aims to investigate how the blog post “What women need to know about relationships” uses (im) politeness strategies to build the image of women. This research was conducted in two stages: a) In the first phase, we considered the correlating modes of manifestation of power proposed by Thompson (2000), politeness strategies postulated by Brown and Levinson (1987) and the studies of (im)politeness of Bousfield (2008); b) after that, we identified the (im)politeness strategies in the comments to the post, which were analyzed according to the contextual and ideological elements suggested by Thompson, 2000. The results have shown that the author of those publications and the audience use off-record politeness strategies and positive/ negative impoliteness strategies to express different forms of power, these include dissimulation, fragmentation and unification. Based on this model, we conclude that the image of women is trivialized by a sexist discourse, which infiltrate politeness strategies.

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Author Biographies

Adriana Regina Dantas Martins, Universidad Estadual de Ceará

Adriana Dantas Martins.  MA in Applied Linguistics from the State University of Ceará (UECE). In 2011 she became an expert in Applied Linguistics in Foreign Languages at the same University. In 2009, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Portuguese and English from the Integrated School Integrada Grande Fortaleza (FGF). She is a teacher in the course of Arts, Management, Accounting, Social Management, Physical Education, and a teacher in the training course for teachers at the FGF; Visiting Professor of the Specialization UECE. Her research activities focus on pragmatics and politeness, social research, and violence against women.

Geórgia Maria Feitosa e Paiva, Universidade Federal do Ceará

Georgia Maria Feitos e Paiva. PhD in Linguistics from the Federal University of Ceará, where she also earned a MA in Linguistics in 2008. In 2007, she became an expert in Portuguese Language Teaching at the State University of Ceará. In 2005, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication in Advertising from the University of Fortaleza. Currently she teaches in the courses of Architecture, Psychology, Journalism and Advertising at the University- FIC in Fortaleza. Her research activities focus on: conversation analysis, sociolinguistics, digital genres, communication, pragmatics and politeness (her major area of interest).

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Published
01-12-2015
How to Cite
Dantas Martins, A., & Feitosa e Paiva, G. (2015). The figure of the woman: (im)politeness and image construction of the woman in the blog Testoterona. Texts in Process, 1(2), 418-440. https://doi.org/10.17710/tep.2015.1.2.8dmartins
Issue
Vol 1 No 2 (2015): Ten studies on (im)politeness: Attenuation, identity, social image and argumentation
Section
Working papers

Copyright (c) 2015 Adriana Regina Dantas Martins, Geórgia Maria Feitosa e Paiva

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