New Insights into Gendered Discursive Practices - Language, Gender and Identity Construction

(5) “Puedes empezar con el ‘juego de miradas’” (You can start with the glances game, Bravo ) [Declarative with modal verb poder “can”]. (6) “Keep the conversation going, and try to stay calm and maturein other words, argue rationally –try to get your voice across” ( Jellybean ) [Imperatives].

d) Inviting. Inviting has only been found in Spanish, and the invitation in the imperative (i.e. take the test) is rather implied than explicit:

(7) “¿Has hecho ya el test de falsos amigos? (Mira en la pág. 48)” (Have you already taken the false friends text? (Look at page 48), Bravo ) [Imperative]

(e) Permitting. Permission is established quite similarly in Spanish and in English, being rather subliminal in both: the Spanish writer is saying that the reader has permission to declare her love for a boy after fulfilling a condition not mentioned in the example (“Después” (Afterwards)); the English-speaking writer also starts with a conditional and gives permission by implying there is no reason not to act as the writer suggests:

(8) “Después ya puedes lanzarte a decirle algo” (Afterwards, you can make a pass at him/ dare say something to him, Bravo ) [Declarative + modal poder “can”] (9) “If you want to try and affect their feelings, I don’t see why you shouldn’t” ( Jellybean ) [Conditional + modal should in the negative]

f) Prohibiting.Prohibition was only found in Spanish with an expression exclusively used for that ( nada de ):

(10) “Nada de ponerse a mirar la tele y eso, ¿eh?” (No TV watching at all, OK?, Superpop ) [Prohibition expression nada de + Infinitival clause]

g) Warning. The utterances classified as warnings are expressed with imperatives in both languages, maybe due to the emergency of the situation:

(11) “Aléjate de los falsos amigos” (Get away from false friends, Bravo ) [Imperative] (12) “… and if he can respect your decision dump him” ( Latinitas ) [Imperative]

As might be expected, there is not a one-to-one relationship between form and function in directives, neither in English nor Spanish: the same form (e.g. imperative) can be used for different functions (e.g. the imperative fulfils all sub-functions), and the same function can be expressed with different linguistic forms (e.g. commanding in Spanish can be expressed with the imperative or with the modal tener que : “primero tienes que averiguar por qué te dejó”, Super Pop ). Overall, Spanish magazines present more sub-functions of directives (i.e. inviting and prohibiting) than English ones.

As can be observed, teenzines use a proliferation of directives with different communicative functions to exert their influence on female readers. Of all directives, the most widely used is the imperative. However, all directives found in magazines can be considered advisives , rather than mandatives (even the command sub-type seen above). It may be the case that young girls seek advice in magazines, instead of resorting to their parents because girls consider their parents’ advice as mandatives (in Tsui’s 1994 terms), particularly, of the instruction type, whereas they interpret the magazine writers’ directives as advisives (Tsui 1994). Hence, the role that magazine writers may fulfil in enforcing gender should not be disregarded, since female youngsters give those messages ontological status (Currie 1999).

As far as content is concerned, when focusing on the behaviour suggested in magazines for female adolescents (see Table 2), girls are encouraged, both in Spanish and American publications, to behave according to a series of values that can be considered quite ethical: help your friend, be assertive and self-confident, consult/resort to parents or teachers for counsel or help, listen, don’t scream, avoid conflict; in love affairs, they are advised not to rush, demand respect, do not allow sexual harassment or pressure from their partners regarding sexual encounters, make sure about your feelings, take the initiative (if more subtle signs are unfruitful) and, if not corresponded, forget about the beloved. Female adolescents are also advised on what to say when facing certain circumstances. Only are adolescents advised on sexual affairs in Spanish magazines; that female adolescents in Spain are or may be actively sexual is expressed openly and admittedly, with no negative value judgement overloaded. Having sexual desire is even considered healthy in Super Pop (“Sueños picantes”). The only mention to sex in the American magazines consulted is to encourage readers not to feel pressured to do whatever they don’t what to do ( Latinitas ). Spanish magazines also contain advice on appearance and bodily matters, while this is absent in American ones.

How is then gender enforced in magazines via directives? In general, it seems that some steps in the direction of fomenting selfesteem and control over their relations are being encouraged. However, subliminally, there exists the message that heterosexual love is the only way to happiness (also in Currie (2001), among others), that there is always a ‘Prince Charming’ awaiting for them, and that before taking the initiative in love affairs, it is advisable to send signals first to see if the male reacts. Via these advice pages, magazine editors encourage female adolescents to depend on advice on how to behave regarding daily affairs, particularly in their love life. In principle, there is nothing intrinsically wrong in asking for and giving advice, but it should be taken into account that if no such thing is done in magazines for boys, then publishers are giving different gender treatment to readers. This encouragement to depend on advice serves publishers’ commercial purposes but barely helps female adolescents to be self-reliant and independent. Furthermore, most messages insist on the traditional role of women as mediators in interpersonal relations and concerned mainly about issues in the personal domain. Their professional or intellectual formation is totally absent from these pages, both in enquiries and as part of the advice provided in other sections of the magazines studied.

According to Goleman (1998: 322), in cultures like the United States, women generally have had more practice at some interpersonal skills than men because they have been raised to be “more attuned to feelings and their nuances than are boys”. And I dare say in other cultures as well, like in Spain. In fact, there seems to be scientific evidence that women are actually more attuned to others’ emotions (Goleman 1998: 322) and the fact that women are encouraged to be empathetic is not in itself misguided; what is not that praiseworthy is that men are not equally encouraged to be empathetic, although data show that they are both equally apt for empathy (Goleman 1998: 323). Thus, girls and boys are engendered differently and this type of publication is reinforcing those gendered roles: “To the extent men tend to see themselves in terms of something like machismo (…) they have less motivation to seem sensitive, because that could be seen as a sign of ‘weakness’” (Goleman 1998: 323). This encouragement for girls to be sensitive and for men to be tough may be in the root of gender violence: to consider women the weak sex and men the strong one is the kind of sexism that favours men to abuse women, as Spanish mass media warned on the International Day against Gender Violence (November 25 th, 2013). To commemorate that day, one of the leading Spanish newspapers, El País , published an article by Tereixa Constenla (2013) denouncing that the new edition of the RAE (Real Academia Española) to be issued in 2014 has removed part of its sexist bias, but still maintains this contraposition of weak versus strong sex (Constenla 2013: 37).