The Superman Speaks and the Wonder Woman Keeps Quiet : Men and Women's Speech in Contemporary Superhero Movies

Abstract: This qualitative study aims to investigate how gender is reflected through language in the two superhero movies Wonder Woman and Man of Steel. Emphasis is put on five linguistic markers that have been found to differ between female and male speakers. These markers are: amount of speech, interruptions, questions, minimal responses and hedges. The analysis investigates the transcribed “cross-sex” conversation between the superhero and his or her companion in each movie. The findings reveal that even though it is difficult to detect any clear patterns, there are correlations with previous research regarding the markers amount of speech, interruptions and questions. These correlations show that the conversations to some extent reflect results from earlier studies concluding that men speak and interrupt more, whereas women ask more questions. No notable difference was detected regarding the use of hedges and minimal responses. Although some time has passed between the publication of several studies regarding these five linguistic markers and the selected movies, the results show correlation between the findings on men- and women’s language use.