Sylvia Jaworska, Queen Mary College, University of London

Sylvia Jaworska, Queen Mary College, University of London

Sylvia Jaworska, Queen Mary College, University of London
Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Aston University

“the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of sexual
equality”
(Oxford English Dictionary)

“Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political
movement that seeks justice for women and the end of
sexism in all forms”
(Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy)
McRobbie “Aftermath of Feminism” (2009)








It belongs to the past, irrelevant to women’s lives now
Women don’t identify with it (despite gender inequalities, e.g. pay gap)
It has been disarticulated and dismantled (since 1990s)
New discourse of ‘female success / freedom / empowerment’ (= the
battles have been won)
Post-Feminism: (‘double movement’ or ‘double entanglement’)
Institutionalisation of normative claims of equality
Female freedom and gender equality are illusory
Media are responsible for dismantling Feminism
 focus instead on female body and fashion
 Example: advertisement for fashion magazine ‘Grazia’ (ironic treatment)
“42% of women who ask for a pay rise get one.
100% of them would probably celebrate with shoes”
(Guardian, 2006)
Buschman & Lenart (1996): (survey of 279 female undergraduates)
 35%: “women’s status in society is good enough” (= post-Feminist
attitude)
 42% : still see need to improve women’s status... but reject Feminism
 Feminism has negative images; militant or radical
Griffin (1989), Percy & Kremer (1995) and Aronson (2003)
 predominance of the pattern: “I am not a Feminist, but …”
Callaghan et al (1999): (survey of 1000 Scottish women)
 Feminists are unreasonable, unattractive, unfeminine, extreme... or
lesbians
Media representations of Feminism

Aronson (2003: 919) media figures have advanced negative stereotypes that have
become incorporated in some young women's conceptions of feminism

McRobbie (2009) journalists marginalise feminist ideals and refuse to condemn
new sexist practices, despite the opportunity they have to do so across the media
space
Previous Research
In the media, men
provide 85% of all
quotes and references
and represent 90% of
the most frequently
cited experts

Faludi (1991) semi-academic account: backlash

Rhode (1995) identified four strategies: demonization, trivialisation,
polarisation, and focus on individual rather than social transformation
- feminists seen as radical members of a fringe movement and as
"unsexed" harpies with deviant lifestyles (p.693)
- frequent references to the appearance of feminists
-feminism/feminists often portrayed in “charged circumstances”
Limitations of previous research



Anglo-American settings
Small samples of texts
a priori analytical categories (not emerging from data)
The Corpus Linguistics Questions:
 Is there enough evidence to support McRobbie’s claims of media
responsibility for dismantling of Feminism ?
 Are the findings from research on small text samples substantiated
by larger corpora?
 Would the findings be the same in non-Anglo-American settings?
 What analytical categories would emerge from the data?
Previous Corpus Linguistics Research
Lind & Salo (2002)


4 American national radio networks; 1993 – 1996; c. 136 million words
Search terms: feminism, feminist(s); women, woman
Results





Marginalization: feminism/feminist(s): only 25,139 tokens = 0.02%
Demonization: collocates of feminism/feminist(s) = radical, militant,
lesbian, raging
Trivialization: feminist(s) less often trivialised than women /woman
Goals: feminist(s) more associated with goals than women/woman
Location: feminists = public domains (media and arts)
women/woman = private spheres (the home)
Overall findings
Feminism: not relevant to ‘daily life’ issues of women/woman
Feminist(s): odd; practices/activities are foreign to most women/woman
Our Critique
Larger data sample; BUT still Anglo-American, and a priori categories




Large data sample
Written media (not radio, as in Lind and Salo 2002)
Contrastive: Anglo-American + German settings
Categories arising from data
Reference Corpora
(a) English - Bank of English (2002)
(b) German - IDS, Mannheim
Comparable Press Corpora
(c) English (Nexis®UK)
(d) German (Nexis®UK)
Corpus Size: 448 million words; Contents: British: Newspapers - 35% (Times
12%, Sun 10%, Guardian 7%, Independent 6%), Books – 10%, Magazines -10%,
Economist - 4%, New Scientist - 2%, Spoken - 5%, BBC World Service - 4%,
Ephemera - 1%; American: Books - 7%, Radio - 5%, Newspapers - 2%,
Textbooks - 1%, Ephemera -1%, Spoken -0.5%; Australian: News -8%; Canadian:
various -4%; Global: Business -2%
feminism: 3077 occurrences
 most frequent in American Academic Books, Canadian, British Books,
Guardian, British Magazines, Independent, American Books, Australian
Newspapers, Economist, British Spoken, Times
 least frequent in Global Business, American Spoken, Sun, BBC World Service,
American Newspapers, American Radio, British Ephemera, New Scientist,
American Ephemera
Findings

More frequent in written than spoken; in broadsheets than tabloids
Collocation list by t-score
of
1211
women
204
and
965
radical
131
feminism
110
has
248
is
415
wave
70
lesbian
64
political
76
post
65
feminist
58
anti
55
socialist
42
her
123
modern
45
men
55
about
115
politics
40
new
96
second
54
16.568256
13.460741
12.321319
11.360602
10.471986
10.450125
9.037262
8.253780
7.905844
7.788159
7.620464
7.556627
7.044710
6.375852
6.322697
6.261655
6.019111
5.981272
5.944469
5.725465
5.723481
Emerging Categories
a) political: radical, political, anti,
socialist, politics, movement,
Marxism, theory, liberal, minority,
equality, liberation, black
b) sexual: lesbian, gay, lesbianism,
gender,
c) qualitative/evaluative: wave,
modern, new, social, backlash, post,
contemporary
d) western
e) second
f) 1970s
[NB need to check semantic and pragmatic
value of collocates in concordances]
Corpus size: 3.9 billion words;
 2 billion written accessible
 mainly regional newspapers from Austria, Germany, Switzerland
 each source covers a different period of time (so difficult to make
claims about increase/decrease over past two decades)
Feminismus: 1,799 occurrences in 1,287 texts = 0.01% of total texts
 Finding: Feminismus receives little attention in German-language press
Occurrences
Texts Source
209
162 1992-2000 Die Presse
196
122 1997-1999 Frankfurter Rundschau
187
123 1996-2010 Rhein-Zeitung
131
117 1990-2010 Nürnberger Nachrichten
Collocation list
(span -5 to +5; LLR = Log-Likelihood Ratio; in frequency order)
LLR
277
106
129
92
158
147
145
195
175
161
106
98
86
77
134
109
80
125
94
84
Frequency Collocate
119
61
43
35
20
20
16
13
12
12
11
11
11
11
10
10
10
8
7
7
Frau (women)
neu (new)
Thema (topic
Mann (man)
Gleichberechtigung (equality)
radikal (radical)
Ökologie (ecology)
Emanzipation (emancipation)
Ikone (icon)
Pusch
Sozialismus (socialism)
Geschlecht (gender)
Vertreter (representative)
Amerikanisch (American)
Machismo
Sex
Feministisch (feminist)
kämpferisch (combative)
Konsum (consumption)
militant (militant)
Collocates of ‘Feminismus’ categorised into 8 thematic clusters
Category
Collocates
political
movements/
ideas
radikal (8) Ökologie (16) kämpferisch (8) Sozialismus (11) Vertreter (11) militant (7)
Kommunismus (10) Marxismus (3) existieren real (6) extrem (3) Pazifismus (3) Ideologie
(6) politisch (15) Nationalismus (3) Antisemit (3) Revolution (3)
sex, gender
roles/ body
Frau (119) Machismo (10) Sexismus (10) Geschlecht (11) männlich (14) feminin (5)
weiblich (12) sexual (6) schwul (4) sexuell (3) sexy (3) Weib (3) Mutter (5)
feminist ideas
Emanzipation (13) Ikone (12) Gleichberechtigung (20) neu (61) feministisch (10)
Feministin (6) Wegbereiter (3) Schwarzer Alice (6)
academic/
arts/ literature
Pusch (12) Thema (43) Basis (5) akademisch (7) Theorie (6) Geschichte (9) Diskussion
(5) Autor (3) denken (5) Philosophie (4) Kampf (5) Werk (4) Ansatz (3) Vortrag (3)
schreiben (3) Kritik (3) Kultur (3) Medium (4) Frage (4) lernen (3) Wut (3)
places
amerikanisch (11) westlich (7) irisch (3)
time
70er (7) siebziger Jahr (4) Zeit (5) Jahr (14) Jahrzehnt (13) heute (6)
religion
Schabbat (3) Bibel (3)
social trends
Konsumgesellschaft (7) Esoterik (3) sozial (4) Pop (5)
(c) British Press Corpus (BPC): description



Source: Nexis® UK
Search term: Feminism (as a major mention)
Corpus:
1990-1999
Articles
Guardian/ Observer
Independent
Times/ Sunday Times
Daily Mail/ Mail on Sunday
Mirror/ Sunday Mirror
Total
2000-2009
Guardian/ Observer
Times/ Sunday Times
Independent/ Independent on
Sunday
Daily Telegraph/ Sunday
Telegraph
Daily Mail/ Mail on Sunday
Mirror/ Sunday Mirror
Sun
Total
BPC
TOTAL
597
372
297
177
10
1,453
Words (tokens)
654,450
352,037
252,929
111,908
5,515
1,376,839
524
266
190
413,717
188,207
156,282
134
92,459
120
26
15
1,275
142,074
14,396
4,030
1,011,165
2,728
2,388,004
“Decide on the „strongest‟ pattern and start there.” (Sinclair 2003: xvi)
50 most frequent words: women, men, feminism
1-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
THE
I
ARE
THEIR
OR
OF
FOR
HAVE
YOU
ONE
AND
SHE
BE
WE
WHEN
TO
HER
NOT
FROM
HAD
A
AS
THEY
ABOUT
SO
IN
WAS
BY
AN
WHAT
IS
WOMEN
AT
ALL
MY
THAT
WITH
THIS
MEN
FEMINISM
#
ON
HAS
HE
HIS
IT
BUT
WHO
MORE
UP


feminism is the 3rd most frequent noun (after women, and men)
Most frequent collocates in L1 and R1 positions:
OF
THAT
NEW
AND
L2
263
50
15
66
L1
879
266
153
151
Centre
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
R1
57
84
5
429
R2
19
32
7
47
IS
AND
HAS
IN
37
66
11
42
55
151
36
48
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
FEMINISM
443
429
341
146
45
47
33
37
Most frequent patterns:
of feminism
879
that feminism
266
feminism and
feminism is
443
429
Collocates before the
pattern of feminism (879)
YEARS (34)
FAILURES (15)
WAVE (35)
HISTORY (13)
FACE (23)
SCHOOL (13)
BRAND (22)
AGE (12)
FUTURE (20)
NAME (12)
DECADES (19)
DEFINITION (10)
CAUSE (17)
FAILURE (10)
RISE (17)
ACHIEVEMENTS (9)
AFRAID (16)
DAYS (8)
KIND (16)
GAINS (8)
Collocates after feminism is (429)
DEAD (24)
DIRTY + WORD (7)
NEWS (6)
NO + LONGER (5)
BAD (5)
ACTION (5)
SEEN + as negative (4)
BORING (4)
ALIVE (4)
FINISHED (3)
Collocates after the pattern feminism and (443)
the (70), political (11), lapdancing (9), why (9), gay (9), each (6), what (6), a
(6), is (5), it (5), religion (5), are (5), for (5), femininity (4), equal (4)




















2,393
2,394
2,395
2,396
2,397
2,398
2,399
2,400
2,401
2,402
2,403
2,404
2,405
2,406
2,407
2,408
2,409
2,410
2,411
2,412
EATH OF MANLINESS; Femail viewpoint Feminism
sm as a personal experience. My own feminism
of the most sensible definitions of feminism
identity enclaves (and middle-class feminism
but I cannot stay silent. I believe feminism
levision review Joe Joseph Lipstick feminism
t's fine by me. Neil Lyndon, author Feminism
w Feminism. You disagree? You think feminism
nhating strategies, it doesn't mean feminism
to dance on the grave of feminism. Feminism
y said. Thomas, 46, bookshop worker Feminism
ays: 'My quarrel is with feminists. Feminism
were told Baroness Jay In politics, feminism
as dependent, again. How sweet. If feminism
re women can do it all and the word feminism
n shouldn't be afraid to enjoy it. 'Feminism
nists, have 'got it right'. But New Feminism
ividualise everything. The point of feminism
were told Baroness Jay In politics, feminism
hat feminists have always said that feminism
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
killing off real men,
similarly skewed by my
that a woman shouldn't
an identity) that we c
an experiment, and all
a modern term, but wom
the most damaging and
a dirty, outmoded word
dead; it just means it
pronounced dead every
middle-class women wan
a Marxist movement, fo
seen as negative, comp
about anything, it is
rarely seen without 'p
definitely shifting to
not just the voices of
to say we need to chan
seen as negative, comp
about the ability to c

Most frequent attributes as L1 [adjectives are more difficult to identify in
English; no inflections; often part of 2-word adjective, e.g. new wave,
second wave, etc]
(1 – 5)
(6 – 10)
(11 – 14)
NEW (212)
AMERICAN (60)
FRENCH (17)
POST (104)
RADICAL (58)
WESTERN (17)
MODERN (88)
ANTI (23)
EARLY (14)
BRITISH (74)
CONTEMPORARY (19)
SOCIALIST (14)
(d) German Press Corpus (GPC): description



Source: Nexis® UK
Search term: Feminismus (as a major mention)
Corpus:
1990-1999
Articles
Total
160
140
15
7
2
324
Words
(tokens)
108,397
146, 672
11,810
8,622
155
267,034
Total
TOTAL
279
220
84
60
29
3
675
999
177,970
188,803
60,347
38,859
19,678
4,840
490,497
757,531
TAZ
ZEIT
Welt/ Welt am Sonntag
Spiegel
Bunte
2000-2009
TAZ
ZEIT
Welt/ Welt am Sonntag
Frankfurter Rundschau
Spiegel
Bunte
GPC
50 most frequent words: Frauen, Feminismus, Männer, Frau
(women, feminism, men, woman)
die
von
Die
wie
Männer
der
Sich
dass
für
nur
und
mit
im
hat
noch
in
Frauen
dem
an
Das
zu
als
des
sind
haben
ist
eine
wie
so
man
den
es
für
Sie
einer
das
auf
hat
ich
Frau
nicht
ein
an
aus
aber
sie
auch
sind
Feminismus
wird
“Decide on the ‘strongest’ pattern and start there.” (Sinclair 2003: xvi)
L2
L1
Centre
R1
R2
DES
60
253
FEMINISMUS
1
4
UND
37
59
FEMINISMUS
153
36
IST
21
16
FEMINISMUS
102
14
The most frequent patterns are:
des Feminismus
Feminismus und
Feminismus ist
[of feminism]
[feminism and]
[feminism is]
253
153
102
Collocates before the pattern … des Feminismus […of feminism] 226
Attributes of Feminists: Ikone, Dame / Grande Dame, Heldin,
Katechetin, Mutter, Popstar / Postergirl, Prophetin, Patriarchin,
Heilsbringerinnen / Vertreterin
Positive: Boomzeiten des Feminismus / Frühling des Feminismus
Negative: Dummheit, Einschlafen, Exzessen, Parodie, Rollback, Ende,
Bedeutungsschwund
Collocates after the pattern Feminismus und ... [feminism and ...] 124
Politik, Geschlechterdemokratie, Islam, Kunst, Pornographie,
Fraunepolitik, Frauenbewegung, Popkultur
Collocates after the pattern Feminismus ist... [feminism is ...] 82
tot (dead), sexy, out, megaout,
N Concordance
49
Zu: "Achtung, Alice Schwarzer!" von Naomi Wolf, 10. Mai Der westliche Feminismus
50
und um Abschaffung körperlicher Verstümmelungen. Dieser neue Feminismus
51
forum@welt.de 21. Januar 2008 Die Verdammung des Mannes; Dem Feminismus
52
hat. Die Maßnahmen sind überfällig - Dank an Frau Böhmer. Der Feminismus
53 schlagen zurück» (1991, dt. 1993). Die griffige These des Bestsellers: Der Feminismus
54 als ihre Mütter. Das ist, zugegeben, alles nicht besonders originell, und ihr Feminismus
55
Touch. Hat die Bundesratswahl den Blick geschaerft? Lamparter: Feminismus
56 KAPPERT Der Erfolg von Charlotte Roches Roman "Feuchtgebiete" zeigt: Feminismus
57
Was natürlich noch zu beweisen wäre. Mirja Stöcker: Das F-Wort. Feminismus
58
Aber bekräftigen wir sie doch in unserem Sinn: Ja, sie haben Recht, Feminismus
59 nötig ist, zu schließen. Unter dem eher verschreckenden Titel Das F-Wort. Feminismus
60
über die gelassene Art, sich durchzusetzen". Gut so. Man könnte sagen: Feminismus
61
Lenz: Zunächst einmal freue ich mich, wenn die jungen Frauen sagen, Feminismus
62 sie den schwedischen und den deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaat 08. März 2007 "Feminismus
63
positiv besetzt wäre, aber ich habe andere Erfahrungen gemacht. Feminismus
64
; 08. März 2001 Die subtile Rache der Frauen; Es ist paradox: Der Feminismus
65
neu lernen zu können. "Ich bin Feministin", stellt sich die Inderin vor. "Feminismus
66
dass man bestimmte Klischees hinter sich lassen will. Aber der heutige Feminismus
67
um die - erotische oder ökonomische - Unabhängigkeit von Frauen auf: Feminismus
68
eigene Kasse aufzubessern. Wir wollen uns orientieren an Eva Herman: "Feminismus
69
ich: In dieser Gesellschaft muss ich anscheinend Feministin sein. "Der Feminismus
70
Die subtile Rache der Frauen ULRIKE HERRMANN Es ist paradox: Der Feminismus
ist besonders in seiner deutschen Ausprägung sexistisch,
ist eine Bewegung der Humanität, die von allen Seiten
ist es gelungen, den Mann zu diffamieren. Nicht mehr
ist längst kein linkes Monopol mehr, sondern funktioniert auch
ist unter Beschuss geraten, emanzipatorische
ist bestimmt nicht mehr so revolutionär wie früher, dafür ein
ist jetzt vielleicht einfach wieder mehr ein Thema. Arioli: Die
ist wieder in. Denn von Sexualität bis zum Arbeitsmarkt erweist
ist sexy". Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königstein/Taunus 2007, 150
ist aktuell und bedeutsam, wenn er sich gegen gemütliche
ist sexy" hat die Frankfurter Autorin Mirja Stöcker Essays
ist Mainstream geworden. Es gibt eigentlich keinen Grund, sich
ist für mich wichtig. Jede Generation muss für sich feststellen,
ist Freiheit" ADRIENNE WOLTERSDORF INTERVIEW taz:
ist ein No-Wort. Die jüngere Generation empfindet ihn als
ist tot, jede einzelne Frau passt sich an - aber gerade dadurch
ist eine Revolution, eine Weltsicht, die Frauen verbindet." Und
ist schon lange nicht mehr der der Siebzigerjahre. Er wird uns
ist wieder Thema. Pünktlich zum 40. Jubiläum von 1968
ist doof!", heißt ihr Buch und es verkauft sich super. Oder an
ist tot, es lebe der F-Klassenkampf", schreiben Sie. Was soll
ist tot, jede einzelne Frau passt sich an - aber gerade dadurch
12 most frequent attributes as L1
(1 – 5)
(6 – 10)
(11 – 14)
NEUEN (87)
ALTEN (10)
KONSERVATIVE (8)
KONSERVATIVEN (25)
AMERIKANISCHEN (10)
KONSERVATIVER (8)
NEUER (20)
EXISTIERENDEN (10)
WESTLICHE (5)
DEUTSCHEN (20)
WESTLICHEN (10)
AKADEMISCHEN (5)
NEUE (13)
DEUTSCHE (8)
Concordances with ‘neu*’ in the immediate vicinity of ‘Feminismus’
N Concordance
1
scheint heute gegessen. Brauchen wir einen "neuen Feminismus", wie er derzeit debattiert wird?
2
0.35. Das Thema heißt: "Brauchen wir einen neuen Feminismus?" Was vor einem halben Jahr noch
3
und nicht nach dem alten? Wir brauchen keinen neuen Feminismus. Der Feminismus hat in
4
fordert Rang. "Vielleicht brauchen wir einen neuen Feminismus?" Im Centrum selbst, immerhin, gibt
5 leben. Hängen Sie auch der These an, dass wir einen neuen Feminismus brauchen? Was wir auf jeden Fall
6
teilweise. Denn die Frage Brauchen wir einen neuen Feminismus? erweist sich als produktiv, haben
7
zu wiederholen. Denn was wir brauchen, ist kein neuer Feminismus - wie denn auch, wenn bis jetzt nicht
8
das Rad neu erfinden wollen. Wir brauchen keinen neuen Feminismus, es braucht einen Feminismus, der
9
Mai 2007 NEUER FEMINISMUS? OES Brauchen wir neuen Feminismus oder wieder mehr alten oder gar
10
wie Alice Schwarzer meinen: Wir brauchen keinen neuen Feminismus", sind jüngere Autorinnen durchaus
11 denn die Debatte auf einmal her? "Wir brauchen einen neuen Feminismus" rufen sieben Frauen von der
12
LANG Trotz Eva-Herman-Hype: Wir brauchen keinen neuen Feminismus, sagt die Wirtschaftsjournalistin
13 Koch-Mehrins Feder lautet dabei: "Wir brauchen einen neuen Feminismus: eine Rabenmütter-Bewegung".
Two frequent
patterns:
Do we need new
Feminism?
We don’t need
new Feminism
Large Corpora
•
•
•
•
•
framed predominantly as a political movement closely associated with
radicalism, militantism and leftist ideology (German & English data);
historicised through frequent references to the past decades, icons of
feminism and its history (German and English data);
a subject of academic, intellectual, literary and artistic interests (more
frequent in the German data);
frequent references to sex and sexuality (lesbian, gay) (more frequent in
the English data);
No immediate references to feminist concerns or issues raised by feminists
such as pay gap, gender inequality, parenting or motherhood-work balance
(German & English data).
Smaller Media Corpora






Framed as a thing of the past (English & German)
Feminism is dead and irrelevant (English & German)
Western movement (English & German)
Intellectual, academic endeavour (more frequent in the German data)
Sex & Sexuality (more frequent in the English data)
Radicalism (more frequent in the English data)
Further questions to be examined:
Are there any differences in the portrayal of feminism between the left- and rightoriented newspapers?
How are feminists portrayed in the corpus?
How ‘man/men’, ‘woman/women’ and ‘family’ are portrayed in texts focusing on
feminism?