TEENAGE GIRLS' PERSONAL WEBLOG WRITING

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the construction of female gender identity in British and Spanish personal weblog writing. More precisely, this study offers an insight into the way white female adolescents conceptualize gender roles in twenty-first century society, especially in terms of self-expression. Inspection of this British and Spanish blog corpus suggests that British and Spanish teenage females' gain of self-esteem is still at an early stage as far as interpersonal relationships are concerned. The results highlight that both cultures seem to head towards a particular schema of androgyny which throws further light on gender role parameters. In addition, this culturally based redefinition reveals two different social phenomena resulting from the fight for gender equality in both societies.

Keywords:

• discourse analysis
• ideology and gender identity
• social constructivism
• androgyny and femininity
• self and other presentation strategies

Acknowledgements

The present study was financially supported by a grant (ID No: 37/06-01) from the Spanish Women's Institute. This study is part of a long-term research project: Effects of the Anti-Sexist Language Policies and the Process of Femininization of the Language in the Media, University of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.

Notes

We are aware that this once-widespread view has been questioned by many researchers since the mid-1990s, with some important recent empirical work (notably Holmes 2006 and Goodwin 2006) as well as more theoretical arguments (e.g. Cameron 1998) casting doubt on the validity of any possible generalization.

It is worth pointing out how difficult it is to translate these expressions. For instance, the translation of common slang in Spanish such as ‘Me estás tocando los huevos’ meaning ‘You're bothering me’ or ‘You piss me off’ does not reflect the real nature of the Spanish expression (‘You're touching my balls’). In this sense and even though we are aware that most of the expressions are not idiomatic in English language, we have decided to reflect the real meaning in Spanish language in an attempt to show the androgynous language use. However, an explanation of the Spanish expressions will be given whenever needed to help the reader.

‘Don't make me angry’. This expression comes from the male counterpart ‘To make my balls sweat’.

‘They piss me off’. This expression comes from the male counterpart ‘You're touching my balls’.

‘I don't care’. This expression comes from the male counterpart ‘to make my balls sweat’.

‘I was fed up with everything around him’. This expression comes from the male counterpart ‘I had it up to the balls’.

‘I'm fed up with him’. This expression comes from the male counterpart ‘I'm up to my balls’.