Amber Rose’s Slut Walk: The negotiation of femininity and masculinity to address social issues

Abstract

By utilizing both discourse analysis and conversation analysis, this study explores the ways in which Amber Rose negotiates masculinity and femininity to address social issues in front of different audiences in different contexts – a televised interview with male interviewees and a monologue in front of a predominantly female audience at a Slut Walk. The primary focuses of this study are linguistic features including non-standard forms, interruptions and taboo language, and the emotional motivation behind them. The results of this study show how gender is fluid and can be negotiated and used differently in different contexts. These findings are in line with current literature that claims femininity is losing its rigidity and gender is on a ‘identity continuum’ (Holland and Harpin, 2015: 307).By utilizing both discourse analysis and conversation analysis, this study explores the ways in which Amber Rose negotiates masculinity and femininity to address social issues in front of different audiences in different contexts – a televised interview with male interviewees and a monologue in front of a predominantly female audience at a Slut Walk. The primary focuses of this study are linguistic features including non-standard forms, interruptions and taboo language, and the emotional motivation behind them. The results of this study show how gender is fluid and can be negotiated and used differently in different contexts. These findings are in line with current literature that claims femininity is losing its rigidity and gender is on a ‘identity continuum’ (Holland and Harpin, 2015: 307).