Discursive creativity as a way of constructing a stereotype of a female politician (using the example of American and French media)

Koval' Aleksandra Arturovna Assistant, Academic Department of English, Far Eastern Federal University 690922, Russia, Primorskii krai, g. Vladivostok, pos. Ayaks, 10 koval.aleksandra92@gmail.com

Introduction

The study of gender from the standpoint of discursology today seems to be very relevant, due to several factors.

Firstly, broadcasting pragmatically set goals to a wide audience has always been one of the main tasks of the mass media. Effective influence on the audience requires a variety of discursive techniques, which makes the media discourse one of the most productive in terms of linguistic creativity. Secondly, it is impossible not to note the social significance of the problems of genderology in the modern world. The scientific community is actively conducting a multidimensional and interdisciplinary study of the gender situation in Europe and the United States, searching for cause-and-effect relationships and patterns of development of gender relations in different countries and different cultures. And thirdly, gender, being a social construct, is created in the discursive practices of language collectives, which requires linguistic competence for its in-depth study. As a result, gender stereotypes are reflected in the language, the study of which can give a whole layer of cultural knowledge about a particular language collective.

The author's appeal to the problem of representation of gender stereotypes in language was based on general theoretical studies by W. Lippman, T. van Dyke, W. Kvasthoff, G. Allport, J. Pyrroth, who substantiated the categorical status of the stereotype and its connection with human cognitive processes; N. V. Sorokina, who developed a methodological typology of stereotypes; theoretical and empirical research in the field of gender linguistics A.V. Kirilina, E. S. Gritsenko, O. Y. Chernykh, who developed a methodology for analyzing linguistic material and identified the main ways to actualize gender in language; J. Scott, who postulated gender asymmetry in various social spaces and substantiated the connection between the concepts of "gender" and "power"; studies of linguocreative discourse by T. M. Germasheva, G. A. Kopnina, N. A. Kupina, who defined the concept of "createma" and "linguocreative discourse"; L. M. Rylshchikova, who developed a typology of linguocreatems; O. V. Nikolaeva and V. Z. Demyankova, who justified the status of linguocreatems as invasive tools with manipulative potential.

The object of this research is the mass media discourse of the USA and France, represented by electronic versions of national publications. 

The subject of the study is the linguocreative means of constructing a stereotype of a female politician in the American and French media.

The aim of the work is to compare the discursive means of constructing gender stereotypes in the mass media discourse of the USA and France and to identify the socio-cultural aspect of linguocreative techniques.

The objectives of the study include:

· identification of ways to actualize the stereotype at different levels of language and linguistic-creative techniques of its construction;

· identification of the identification features of the stereotype of a female politician in the culture of the USA and France;

· conducting a comparative analysis of the stereotype of a female politician in these cultures.

The material for the analysis was the American newspapers "Boston Globe", "Chicago Tribune", "New York Times", "USA Today", "Washington Post", as well as the French "L'Humanit?", "Le Dauphin? Lib?r?, "Le Figaro", "Le Monde", "Lib?ration", "France-Soir", from which 48 American and 45 French articles were selected using a continuous sampling method from 2014 to 2021 – the period that covered the US presidential elections in 2016 and 2020, as well as the French presidential elections in 2017.

The choice of these two cultures for comparison is due to the bipolar political confrontation of the New and Old World in the modern political arena, as well as a long history of ambiguous relations between them. France is one of the countries with a huge political and socio-cultural influence in the European Union. The United States, in turn, successfully popularizing its culture all over the world, is an attractive model for the development of society for many.

Despite the existence of long-term historical and cultural ties and active economic integration, there are political, economic and cultural differences in relations between the United States and France today. Thus, Panyuzheva M. M. notes the so-called American- and French-phobias associated with differences in the worldview, state interests and traditions of these cultures. The author notes that leadership and ambition are inherent in both cultures, which becomes the basis of their competition ^{[8, 19]}. The French cultural exclusivity, expressed by the value of humanism and the so-called "art of life" (a combination of idleness and pleasure reflecting the thirst for life) is opposed to the mass consumer culture and highly competitive society of the USA ^{[8, 25]}.

Methodological principles of the study

Linguistic creativity in this study is understood as "linguistic reflection of a person's creative abilities, manifested in discourse in the form of linguistic creatimes" ^{[2, 170]}. In turn, following Kupina N. A., by linguocreatema we mean "a strategically selected, consciously realized or transformed linguistic unit, as well as an individual author's neoplasm" ^{[6, 25]}. It is worth emphasizing that with this understanding, we refer to linguocreatems not only fundamentally new linguistic units, but also non-trivial use of already existing lexical and grammatical means. The author also notes that a linguocreateme can be a word, a phrase, a sentence, a fragment of a text, or even a whole textual unity [ibid.], however, the question of the expediency of attributing the latter to a linguocreateme is debatable, therefore, such unities are not considered in this work.

Specialists in discursology note the ontological trinity of linguocreatems. Thus, Rylshchikova L. M. argues that on the one hand, it is a linguistic sign; on the other, it is a communicative unit; the third component of this triad is the intention of the influencing communicant ^{[9, 129]}.

Based on intentions, researchers distinguish aesthetic, pragmatic, appellative and practical functions of createm ^[5]. V. Z. Demyankov considers the pragmatic function to be the most significant ^{[12, 83]}. O. V. Nikolaeva and I. N. Kohan argue that "the means of linguistic creativity perform a persusive function" ^{[7, 3518]}. We share the idea that linguocreatems are tools of indirect influence that have significant invasive and manipulative potential in discourse.

Based on the postulates of social constructivism, we put forward the thesis that the mass media construction of gender in the media leads to the appearance of gender stereotypes in society. Often a stereotype is interpreted as an incorrect and negative idea about something or someone, however, we emphasize that for human consciousness, which is forced to process a large layer of information coming from the cognizable reality, stereotypes are an inevitable and necessary phenomenon that optimizes cognitive processes. The fact is that the environment is so huge and fleeting that a person simply cannot know all its aspects, which is why he resorts to its reconstruction and simplification ^{[1, 85]}. This idea is supported by other researchers. Thus, W. Kvasthoff asserts that "normal processing of information is impossible without stereotypes" ^{[10, 8]}. Therefore, the definition given by W. Lipmann is close to us: "A stereotype is an ordered, schematic, culture–determined "pictures of the world" in a person's head that save his efforts in perceiving complex social objects and protect his value positions" ^{[14, 22]}. However, we do not refer stereotypes to rigid formations and note their variability. G. Allport argues that "prejudices change when there is a social, economic and personal meaning in their change" ^{[13, 179]}. The change of stereotypes is associated with the change of collective beliefs. J. Pirrot believes that the stereotype of public consciousness is always socially organized and functions on the basis of a certain social order ^{[16, 82]}. In the case of national publications, this is a political order. It is noted that stereotypes are often found in the media as a widespread designation for any group of people ^[15].

Historically, in the political sphere, as in other spheres of society, the patriarchal way prevailed. Thus, J. Scott divides the concept of gender into two related parts: "Gender is a constitutive element of social relations based on external differences between the sexes, and gender is the primary way of dividing power" ^{[17, 72]}. Defining gender, Scott emphasizes that gender relations are not just a social convention and construction, but a construction based on segregation and hierarchy.

Defining a gender stereotype, we follow A.V. Kirilina, who believes that these are "culturally and socially conditioned opinions and presuppositions about the qualities, attributes and norms of behavior of representatives of both sexes and their reflection in language" ^{[4, 75]}. This definition reflects not only the social nature of gender and its cultural component, but also the ways of actualizing gender stereotypes in language, which is described below.

Analysis of language material

In most works on the construction of gender in language, it is noted that stereotypes are actualized by lexical and morphological means ^{[3; 11]}. In this paper, we are talking not only about the lexical level at which stereotypes are expressed explicitly (for example, gender-marked lexical units, metaphorical, metonymic means), but also about morphological, syntactic and pragmatic levels. Let's take a closer look at the linguocreative means of constructing a stereotype of a female politician at each of these levels.

First of all, let's pay attention to what gender-marked lexical units the feminine referent is expressed in the studied material. In American discourse: woman (woman), wife (wife), mother (mother), grandmother (grandmother), in exceptional cases queen (queen) and first lady (first lady), if we are talking about the wives of heads of state; in French discourse: femme (both in the meaning of "woman" and in the meaning of "wife"), ?pouse ("spouse"), m?re (mother), la premi?re dame (first lady). The frequency of these units is not the same – in the vast majority of cases, the referent is expressed by the neutral lexeme "woman". However, it is obvious from this list that in relation to a female politician, units are also used that refer the reader to the historically key role of a woman - the role of a spouse and mother. In the political context, such a non-trivial designation of the referent is used metaphorically and has an expressive character. Here are some examples.

In the first example, we are talking about Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is also a political and public figure: "De ce point de vue, elle est tr s maternelle, s'attachant avant tout ? prot ? ger les plus faibles, les exclus", disent les t? moins de ses rendez-vous r ?currents avecMarl ?ne Schiappa [...]" ("From this point of view, she behaves very motherly, striving above all to protect the weakest, the outcasts," say witnesses of her constant meetings with Marlene Schiappa - Le Figaro, 10/2017). It should be noted that the construction of the image of a female politician as a mother is not very frequent either in the French press or in the American, since it is used mainly in descriptions of specific personalities, but the fact of its presence allows us to draw conclusions about the influence of some stereotypes on others.

So, a similar technique can be observed in the following example: "After 2016, when a candidate many deemed unelectable ascended to the presidency against Hillary Clinton, the pantsuit queen who also tried to showcase a warm, grandmotherly side, women started ignoring politics’ archaic rules" (After 2016, when a candidate whom many considered unelected, took the post of president against Hillary Clinton, the queen of pantsuits, who also tried to show maternal care, women began to ignore the archaic rules of politics - USA Today, 11/2018). The fragment talks about the election campaign of Hillary Clinton, who decided to take a peaceful position as a caring woman politician, defender, mother of the people. However, due to the failure in the elections, this approach was criticized by voters (mostly women).

It is indicative that in two examples we observe the same technique, but the assessment by the American and French media of the similar behavior of Hillary Clinton and Brigitte Macron is polar opposite. In the case of Brigitte Macron, the image of the mother of all outcasts is presented as desirable, while Hillary Clinton's "maternal" position is censured.

 In general, in the descriptions of female politicians in both cultures, we see positively connoted lexemes: tough (persistent), confident (confident), strong (strong), credible (reliable), top (first-class), intelligent (smart), prominent (outstanding), first (first), educated (educated), talented (talented); fort (strong), ferme (persistent), assur? (confident), dou? (gifted), talentueux (talented), intelligent (smart), courageux (bold). At the same time, those qualities that are traditionally inherent in men in both American and French culture are especially frequent: "Elles se sont engag?es pour une cause qui leur tenait ? c?ur, elle se sont d?marqu?es par leur courage et leur parcours" (They are devoted to a cause close to their heart, they are distinguished by courage and career successes - Le Figaro, 12/2019). Often such a masculinized image is reinforced by reduced vocabulary: “In 2018, 'badass' female candidates show strength after decades of being told how to look, sound and act" (In 2018, "mature" female candidates demonstrate strength after being told for decades how to look, what to say and how to behave - USA Today, 11/2018).

In continuation of the discussion about the image of a female politician, let's return to the description of Hillary Clinton as the queen of pantsuits. This metonymic device (pantsuit queen), referring to a business men's suit, is another sign of the masculinization of this image.

Metaphorical constructions are also interesting in relation to what linguistic and creative techniques are used in constructing the stereotype of a female politician in the media. At the same time, they can express both a positive social assessment and a negative one. Consider the following examples. “Highly educated and talented, these women are the top choice for the job” (Being highly educated and talented, these women are the best candidates for this job -New York Times, 5/2016) - the qualitative adjective top and the adverb-amplifier highly actualize the orientation metaphor associated with the opposition "top-bottom". In this context, they figuratively indicate the high social position of the referent, which correlates with superiority. This metaphor is quite frequent: "Chris Christie boasts of his wife being the family's top earner (Chris Christie boasts that his wife is the main earner in the family – Chicago Tribune, 01/2016).

Metaphorical means are often used to express a negative social assessment in order to present it less categorically. When Emmanuel Macron spoke about the legalization of the status of the first lady, the following appeared on the network: "Il serait paradoxal – et humiliant – qu'en 2017 l'? pouse du chef de l'etat soit renvoy? e au r? le de 'potiche'"(Le Monde, 09/2017). This example is not easy to translate, because potiche is a lacuna in the Russian language.According to the explanatory dictionary "Larousse", this is "a person who serves for representation, but has no real power." Another meaning of this word is "porcelain vase, Japanese or Chinese". The following translation would be correct: "It would be paradoxical and humiliating if in 2017 the wife of the head of state was perceived as a person who serves for representation, but has no real power." Thus, the newspaper implicitly expressed a negative opinion about the role of Brigitte Macron in the case of the legalization of the status of the first lady, who actually does not perform other functions except representation.

One of the most explicit and memorable methods of linguocreativity for the reader is the language game. However, this technique is not used very often in mass media discourse when describing political personalities. So, in the following example, the author plays with the meaning of the verb ‘walked’, under the control of which there are two homogeneous additions: “Then she walked back to her seat and into history” (Washington Post, 01/2021). In the phrase ‘walkedback to her seat’ the verb ‘walk’ is used in the direct meaning, and in the phrase ‘walked into history’ – figuratively. This is a very vivid example of expressing admiration for a female politician, namely Kamala Harris at the official inauguration ceremony of the Vice President of the United States. Russian Russian translation of this fragment, while preserving the language game, is not possible due to the impossibility of combining Russian collocations "to go down in history" and "to return to your place" or "to go to your place".

At the morphological level of the language, the peculiarities of the use of pledge forms and moods were revealed. In particular, a two-stage content analysis showed that in most subject-predicate pairs, an active voice is used with a female referent as the subject: "Politique, finance, pub… La femme senior prend le pouvoir» (Politics, finance, advertising... older women come to power - Le Figaro, 01/2020). This trend is also observed in the American press: "Women," says the small business owner, "solve problems" ("Women," says the owner of a small business, "solve problems" - Washington Post, 11/2018). We emphasize that only fragments related to the description of political figures were selected for the calculation. This pattern indicates that the image of an active, self-sufficient female politician is broadcast in the media discourse.

The analysis of collateral forms with male and female referents revealed curious patterns. In particular, we found out that predicates often reveal a weak position of a woman in the ratio of forces with men according to the following model: masculine agent – predicate – feminine patient /benefactor /recipient. Predicates in this model are represented by verbs with different semantics, but they have a common property: they all illustrate the power possessed by the male agent and the permission or opportunity given by the male agent to the female patient.

So, we have identified a number of vertex verbs with the following functional and semantic properties: allow (allow), open (open), integrate (integrate), include (include), give (give), provide (provide), promote (promote), place (place), empower (empower/by force/right); corresponding French placer (to place), permettre (to allow), ouvrir (to open), donner (to give), int? grer (to integrate), promouvoir (to promote). Consider an example: “But fighting to give women and girls a fighting chance isn't just a nice thing to do” (Fighting to give women and girls a chance to fight is not just a good deed – Washington Post, 01/2014). On the one hand, a woman is the object of a man's action, on the other hand, she benefits from the action. This pattern can also be traced in the French press: "[...] Emmanuel Macron avait en effet annonc? son intention de sortir du clair-obscur o? se trouve plac?e la femme du pr?sident [...]" (Emmanuel Macron actually announced his intention to bring his wife out of the shadows - Le Monde, 08/2017). In this fragment, the reflexive verb se trouver ("to be") is used in the active voice in conjunction with the passive participle plac? e ("put in any position"). Formally, the action performed by the referent is active, but a non-causative verb in conjunction with a passive participle expresses the position of the patient.

Among the morphological means of constructing a stereotype, we also note some features of the use of moods. The analysis of verbal predicates showed the frequent use of the subjunctive mood in American articles and the conditional in French. Due to the different ideas about the moods in English and French, these moods convey a hypothetically real situation with a low degree of probability. After analyzing the predicates related to both male and female referents, we found the reproducibility of these forms of mood in relation to female referents. For example: “We can't deny women might have enough smartsfor the office” (We can't deny that women can be smart enough to lead -New York Times, 04/2016). Or: "[...] l'hypoth? se d'un tel sc? nario est possible en France en vue de la pr? sidentielle de 2022, o? Marine LePen pourrait ?tre ?lue en cas de forte abstention» (Hypothetically, such a scenario is possible in France in connection with the presidential elections of 2022, at which Marine le Pen may be elected in case of a large number of abstentions - RTL, 11/2020). Such a choice of inclination may indicate that, on the one hand, the possibilities of women politicians are being questioned, and on the other hand, that a positive result in women's political activity is in principle real, which can be regarded positively.

As for the syntactic level of the language, the stereotypical gender features are much more implicit here than at other levels. Among the special syntactic constructions that can give some idea of the image of a female politician, conditional subordinate clauses were singled out, since they are created on the basis of the above-mentioned forms of the subjunctive (in English) and conditional (in French) mood: "Mais alors si elle ?tait ?lue pr?sidente de la R?publique, ?a donnerait quoi?" (And if she had been elected president, what would it have done? - Rolling stone, 12/2016).

Finally, at the pragmatic level, we noted a special order of actualization of referents in the oppositions "male-female". It has been estimated that in most cases, both in the American and French press, the masculine referent occupies the initial position (menwomen; hommes/femmes). However, oppositions with the reverse order were also identified, for example: "Face ? de telles inqui?tudes, les femmes et les hommes doivent assesser ensemble la responsabilit? [...]"(In the face of such concerns, women and men should jointly take responsibility [...] - Le Figaro, 12/2017). Or: “When on the ballot, women of all races and men of color win elections as often as white men do” (In elections, women of all races and men of color win elections as often as white men - Boston Globe, 02/2020). The sequence "masculine referent – feminine referent" testifies to the historical masculine dominant, whereas the reverse sequence may be a conscious choice of the author, a pragmatic attitude to show the strengthening of the role of women in politics. Such transformations, in this case violations, occur even against the background of the established rhythm of language - people are "used" to saying "men and women", and not vice versa, due to the economy of articulatory efforts; and all kinds of violations of the norms of language give scope for speech creation.

Conclusion

Thus, the gender stereotype of a female politician is translated at different levels of language using various techniques. The variety and frequency of linguocreative solutions allow us to conclude about the stability and reproducibility of a particular stereotype feature in the media, which, in turn, leads to the strengthening of the "desired" image in the public consciousness. Thus, the image of a female politician assumes pronounced masculine features in both the American and French press. This is due to the influence of the traditional stereotype of male politicians, who historically dominate in this area. At the same time, explicit means indicate the growing role of women in politics, and implicit means indicate the subconscious influence of patriarchal ideas. In addition to this cultural similarity, we also highlighted the difference in these cultures: the American female politician appears aggressive, hostile, while the French image is expressed more neutrally, despite the previously mentioned masculine features. A French female politician acts as a mother, protector and patroness for her citizens, which is approved by society when the image of a mother in US politics causes the opposite reaction. The analysis of linguocreatems showed that the stereotype of a female politician is not original - it is influenced by other stereotypes: the stereotype of a female mother and the stereotype of a male politician, which also indicates the masculinization of women in politics.