The discourse of resistance against spoken sexism

Abstract

Spoken sexism, which remains up to this day a heavily understudied phenomenon, contributes incessantly to the preservation of patriarchy while reinforcing misogyny and sex-based oppression. The present paper focuses on how women discursively construct sexist comments as a cause for reaction, drawing upon a discourse of resistance, while sculpting a combative subject position. The 30 women who participated in the study took part voluntarily in individual semi-structured interviews, in order to share their views and experiences in relation to spoken sexism. For the analyses of the material, post-structuralism was taken as epistemological approach, while a Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) was used for the portrayal of the discourses. Due to the gendered nature of the subject under discussion and in acknowledgement that spoken sexism is discursively constructed within patriarchal structures of power, a feminist perspective was upheld in relation to the interpretation and discussion of the results. The findings reveal not only the resilient nature of sex-based oppression but also an increase in awareness as well as responsibility regarding the issue of spoken sexism.

Keywords

• spoken sexism
• post-structuralism
• Foucauldian discourse analysis
• feminist discourse