GENDERED SIGNS OF AGGRESSION: A SOCIAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF POWER DYNAMICS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

  The interrelation of gender aggression with politics is a sensitive topic, which brings to light the power disparities in society. A social semiotic perspective is taken in this article to scrutinize the signs, symbols and the multimodal communication employed to produce or maintain gendered aggression in politics. The article is based on the investigation of the encoding and decoding of gender stereotypes and biases in political discourse by means of verbal, nonverbal and paralinguistic practices such as tone, interruptions, imagery and body language. Moreover, the study takes into consideration both the cultural and ideological backgrounds which influence the perception of gendered behavior and therefore, the exportation of examples in political discussions, speeches and media manifestations is done to demonstrate that. Specific focus is given to the female politicians who tend to be viewed by the double standards and are considered to be either aggressive or oversensitive in the cases when their male counterparts are shown as strong or forceful.