1. Representation of Female Speech on Television

2. Are there any noticeable differences to the male representation of speech?  The Centre of the Study of Women in Television and Film release reports every year and they said that in 2014 only 12% of all clearly identifiable protagonists were female.  They also revealed that females accounted for only 30% of all speaking characters.  Watch this clip from Made in Chelsea and look out for any patterns in the amount of speech from the males and females: https://youtu.be/FWmUXDxRpXchttps://youtu.be/FWmUXDxRpXc  Although the women do have a fair say, they only step in at the end, whilst the men mostly take up the whole of the first minute and a half, Lucy Watson being the only girl to speak up until Francesca steps in and sets the ball rolling.  We can perhaps take from this that while the men were happy to step in at the beginning, the women required a fellow female to speak up before raising their own voice.

3. Speech patterns  Watch this clip from the only way is Essex: https://youtu.be/xqbwH-MmNg8https://youtu.be/xqbwH-MmNg8  Although Lucy has a good amount of speaking time, did you notice any differences between what they were saying?  E.g did they let each other speak?  Did Lucy or Argent use any politeness strategies? Now watch the clip again and go to 2:30 and listen to what Argent says. He provides us with a clear representation of ‘Essex girls’. What is it? That they are all the same and are ‘sluts’ because they have one night stands. Did you also notice that he admitted to having one night stands all the time? Gender representations are very clear here as we are told that women who behave like men are shamed.

4.  https://youtu.be/P4sk9iMLJGo this video montage from the TV series The Vampire Diaries is 9 minutes worth of Elena (the main female character) being saved by Stefan and Damon (the two main male characters). https://youtu.be/P4sk9iMLJGo  However, when it comes to speaking up, Elena can hold her own. https://youtu.be/OLhPbN6TJjg https://youtu.be/OLhPbN6TJjg  Contradictory to Lakoff and Jespersen’s views on women’s language, Elena uses declaratives and speaks just as much as Damon.  So we can see that although she has a voice and is confident with it. The female character is still the one being saved.