Jelena Potapeiko

Is Language Getting Unisex?: Gender Discourse Democratization Jelena Potapeiko

Back in 1975 Robin Lakoff in her book Language and Woman's Place (1975, Harper & Row, New York) illustrated the situation of social disparity between sexes reflected in the use of language. She also hoped that once her book would be read by people whose society would have transcended the issues she described. The present investigation is an attempt to prove that our society is, indeed, on its way to transcending social inequality attached to the traditional concepts of femininity and masculinity. The author of the study monitors the process of gender discourse democratization as manifested in such widely-read life-style magazines as Men's Health and Cosmopolitan. As a final result of her research, the author of the study exposes and classifies the evidence of co-penetration between what is known as ?traditional' male and female topics/situations, as well as language choices. This research could be interesting to both researchers of the field and general public due to its fresh outlook on the issue of language and gender as, instead of polarizing male and female discourse, it offers the evidence of unisex character that language appears to be acquiring currently.