DE GRUYTER MOUTON
Gendered expressions in a popular anime
65
4 American English data
For the analysis of the American English dub, some gender-specific American
English linguistic features, suggested by Lakoff (2004 [1975]), were adopted and
modified. The selected features are: expletives (weak, mild, and strong), imper-
atives, tag questions, and hedges. The traditional view is that women use weak
expletives, polite imperatives, tag questions, and hedges; while, ideally speak-
ing, males use strong expletives, direct imperatives, few tag questions, and few
hedges. For the data analysis, the female characters were separated into the
following five categories: Faye; Ed; guest protagonists (number of characters
using expletives, 1; imperatives, 8; tag questions, 4; hedges, 5); side characters
(expletives, 2; imperatives, 7; tag questions, 2; hedges, 4); and villains (exple-
tives, 0; imperatives, 1; tag questions, 1; hedges, 1). The male group was divided
similarly: the two main male characters Spike and Jet; guest protagonists
(expletives, 4; imperatives, 8; tag questions, 4; hedges, 6); side characters
(expletives, 15; imperatives, 62; tag questions, 16; hedges, 23); and villains
(expletives, 12; imperatives, 29; tag questions, 8; hedges, 7).
4.1 Expletives
Due to its PG-13 rating in the United States, CB’s American English dub does
not contain any excessively strong profanity. The use of expletives was coupled
to the projection of masculinity, as strong expletives, were used almost exclu-
sively by male characters. The detailed categorizations as well as the total num-
ber of occurrences of expletives are: the strong category, damn (40), hell (32),
shit (23),
shut up (6),
bitch (4),
ass (3); the mild category,
idiot (17),
dummy (17),
son of a gun (1); the weak category,
oh my god (3),
oh my dear god (1). Among
the female characters, Faye alone uses all three categories of expletives, includ-
ing the strong expletives hell (8) and damn (2), the mild expletive dummy (3),
and the weak expletive oh my god (2). Other than Faye, only a handful of female
characters used any expletives. For example, Ed used dummy (4), V.T. used idiot
(2) and dummy (1), Annie used a weak form oh my dear god (1), and a pet shop
owner, a side character from Ep. 2: Stray Dog Strut, used dummy (1). Common
characteristics of female characters that did use expletives (V.T., Annie, and the
pet shop owner) are that they are older, unattractive, and assertive. As was the
case with the Japanese tokens, non-babe irregular characters are assigned more
masculine features. One noteworthy point regarding Faye is that although there
are several instances of her using strong expletives, she did not use forms like
shit,
shut up, or
bitch which appeared in male characters’ speech, and that her
Authenticated | ellmh@nus.edu.sg author's copy
Download Date | 2/13/13 12:05 AM
DE GRUYTER MOUTON
66
Mie Hiramoto
strong expletive use and the male characters’ expletive use are largely mutually
exclusive.
Male characters’ use of expletives was mostly limited to the strong forms.
Neither Spike, nor Jet, nor any of the guest protagonists or villains used the
weak expletives. Their expressions were mostly limited to forms such as shit,
damn, hell, shut up, and bitch. There was one instance of weak and three of
mild expletive usage in the side characters’ data: oh my god (weak) was used
by an antique electronics nerd in Ep. 18: Speak like a Child; dummy (mild) was
used by young boys in different episodes (2), and son of a gun (mild) was used
by a preacher (Ep. 2: Stray Dog Strut). Three instances of mild expletive use
(dummy, in all three instances) were seen with the villains; twice by the eco-
terrorists in Ep. 4: Gateway Shuffle, and once in Ep. 6: Sympathy for the Devil
by Wen, an old man trapped in a young boy’s body, who used this expletive
when speaking as a boy. All in all, the male characters who were assigned with
expletives like dummy, son of a gun, or oh my god – a nerd, young boys, a
preacher, and ape-like terrorists – do not conform to any hegemonic masculine
ideal. Their non-normative linguistic behaviors, namely use of weak and mild
expletives, go hand in hand with their less-than-masculine appearance.
4.2 Imperatives
Imperative use by the characters shows little variation in terms of the total
frequency of the gendered features used. A summary of the imperatives used
by male and female characters in different categories and the total number of
tokens are: Jet and Spike 57 percent (269), Faye 50 percent (123), Ed 65 percent
(30); guest protagonists, male 66 percent (69), female 71 percent (48); side char-
acters, male 58 percent (143), female 63 percent (30); villains, male 68 percent
(86), female 55 percent (6). The numbers as shown are potentially misleading,
as the use of imperatives as a whole does not signify striking gender differences
in language use. Thus, the imperative tokens were further classified into differ-
ent categories as follows: orders (‘Do x!’), requests (‘Can you do x?’), polite
requests (‘Please do x’), suggestions (‘Why don’t you do x?’), and monologues
(self encouragement). When the tokens were evaluated with these finer classifi-
cations in mind, gender differences between the characters became more obvi-
ous. Male characters used orders at a much higher rate than female characters
in general: Spike (46 percent), Jet (35 percent), guest protagonists (39 percent),
side characters (34 percent), and villains (67 percent) vs. Faye (7 percent), Ed
(4 percent), guest protagonists (8 percent), side characters (10 percent), and
villains (67 percent). The results also show that all categories of male characters
Authenticated | ellmh@nus.edu.sg author's copy
Download Date | 2/13/13 12:05 AM