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Linguistic Analysis of Friends: the Case of Joey Tribbiani

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Linguistic Analysis of Friends: the Case of Joey Tribbiani Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres Memòria del Treball de Fi de Grau Linguistic Analysis of Friends: The Case of Joey Tribbiani Anna Baczyk Grau d’Estudis Anglesos Any acadèmic 2019-20 DNI de l’alumne: Y4882990N Treball tutelat per Dra. Cristina Suárez Gómez Departament de Filologia Espanyola, Moderna i Clàssica S'autoritza la Universitat a incloure aquest treball en el Repositori Autor Tutor Institucional per a la seva consulta en accés obert i difusió en línia, Sí No Sí No amb finalitats exclusivament acadèmiques i d'investigació Paraules clau del treball: Discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, sexism in language, hegemonic masculinity, femininity performance, childish behaviours Abstract The study of gender discourse focuses mainly on language differences between two genders: male and female. However, it is a complex idea which cannot be directly expressed through English language. Therefore, this essay takes a sociolinguistics approach to distinguish gender differences and identities alongside linguistic features of childlike speech. Moreover, gender discrepancies have always been a subject of discussion in cultural products such as television series and films. Therefore, this dissertation will aim at sociolinguistic and linguistic representation of sexist, childish and feminine behaviours through the profound discourse analysis of one of the main characters, Joey Tribbiani, from one of the most popular American sitcoms, Friends (1994-2004). It will also present how the negative hegemonic masculinity discourse is neglected by the audience due to childlike and feminine performances defining him as one of the most attractive and sympathetic characters of the series. Additionally, the paper will give insights for further analysis on the social and cultural impact of such norms of conduct. Keywords: Discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, sexism in language, hegemonic masculinity, femininity performance, childish behaviours Table of Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………….........1 2. Theoretical Background…………………………………………………..........3 3. Methodology……………………………………………………………...........6 4. Analysis.…………………………………………………………………..........7 4.1. Joey as a male chauvinist………………………………….......................7 4.2. Joey as a child……………………………………………………………10 4.3. Joey’s femininity performance…………………………….......................12 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………...........14 6. Works Cited……………………………………………………………….……16 1. Introduction The study of gender in language has always been present in popular cultural products such as television series. Therefore, this paper is going to approach that idea by analysing language in terms of sexist, childish and feminine behaviours of one of the main characters, Joey Tribbiani, of one of the best-known American situation comedies: Friends (1994-2004). Through the language analysis we will see how feminine and childish discourses allow the audience to somehow disregard and even forgive the hegemonic masculinity qualities that transform Joey into a sexist character, becoming, in a way, counter-hegemonic discourses that let him be accepted despite his bad traits, even eventually becoming one of the most likable characters of the sitcom. According to Bednarek, characters are one of the most crucial aspects of language in a television series since the story revolves around them (2011, 185-186). Moreover, the audience also plays a significant role as it is responsible for further alternations of characters in order to fulfill the viewers’ expectations (185-186). Hence, the creators of Friends, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, shaped the character of Joey Tribbiani as a 25-year-old Italian American struggling actor, played by Matt LeBlanc. The fact of being Italian American is strongly related to ethnicity, which is a part of linguistic gender construction (Trechter 2003, 437). Often, Italian Americans carry "non-white status" and therefore perform ethnic stereotypes about them such as being the Romeo and bachelor searching for love (Cavallero and Ruberto 2016, 163). Generally, all stereotypes concerning Italian Americans reflect hegemonic masculinity. What is more, there are stereotypical linguistic features associated with people of Latin origin like “the alveolar [In] instead of [Ing] in words ending in <ing> (e.g. doin’)” (Bednarek 2018, 24- 25) used by Joey in his signature pick up line “How you doin’?” (Crane and Kauffman 1997, 13:05). Thus, Joey Tribbiani being Italian American displays hegemonic masculinity by playing a womanizer and a macho character. for this reason, this paper aims at presenting how hegemonic masculinity is portrayed in language, more specifically in English language. Indeed, when discussing the way sexism is present in language, it is inevitable to mention the notion of gender. As stated in McElhinny’s work, gender is a socially and psychologically constructed concept, which is imposed upon biological differences between a “man” and a “woman”, which conveys two types of genders (2003, 23). This social construct of the existing two genders, according to Menegatti and Rubini, is evoked through the differentiation of two types of languages (2017, 2). On the one hand, there are natural gender languages, such as English, in which the only way to express 1 gender is through personal pronouns in the third person (2). On the other hand, there are grammatical gender languages such as Spanish or french, in which all nouns are assigned feminine, masculine, or neutral (2). Despite poor linguistic forms that index directly gender identity in the English language, from the sociolinguistics perspective, there are indirect linguistic features that consist of assumptions, expectations, and norms about gender identity, sex, and (hetero)sexuality established by the society (McElhinny 2003, 35-36). Consequently, in order to understand more profoundly how sexism is present in the English language, it is crucial to establish the power of gender. In Western cultures, like in the United States of America, the power relation between sexes benefits the male gender. The reason for this happening is deeply rooted in the patriarchal gender ideology, which legitimises that men should dominate over women (Philips 2003, 254). This power relation is linked to the English language, which from the beginning was shaped by men who were "norm-makers, language regulators, and language planners" (Pauwels 2003, 550). They were the people who developed dictionaries and the language normative. Accordingly, the influence men had in shaping the English language is one of the most significant characteristics of discrimination and the presence of sexism in language. Sexism is a complex idea that cannot be identified. It consists of a bountiful number of norms, expectations, and stereotypes about each gender, although women are significantly disfavoured in this matter. Alongside Joey being distinguished from the beginning of the TV series with sexist discourses, he develops counter-discourses that display his childish and feminine behaviours, which are going to be analysed in this paper. The dichotomous performances of Joey’s persona relate to the idea of how sitcom characters change throughout the show, mainly to “sustain audience interest” (O’Meara 2015, 195-197). This explains how Joey’s chauvinist conducts negatively impacted the audience and therefore, they needed to be changed. As it was even emphasised by Matt LeBlanc, who performed the role of Joey, Joey's overly sexist actions should be a problem for the character being accepted by the audience and should be altered (Miller 2018, part 2, chap. 3). Thus, through the development and enrichment of Joey's character with childlike and feminine qualities, he became one of the most loved characters of the series. As stated in Miller’s studies, childish and metrosexual performances in sitcoms are reconstructions of masculinity, which through years became new types of masculinities that are mostly used in TV series as objects of ridicule and comedy (2011, 10-21), instead of just new modern and deconstructed ways of portraying masculinity. Thus, the fact that those characters’ qualities are a source of humour for the audience might be one of the reasons why hegemonic masculinity is disregarded. However, the interesting issue is what social impact those 2 behaviours have on the audience, especially women, who are more likely to dislike male chauvinist characters. As a result, taking into account hegemonically feminine manners as well as childish performances in language, this essay will aim at observing how those can trick the audience, specially the feminine, into finding damaging discourses compensated by childish innocence and woman-like attitudes. 2. Theoretical Background There are various studies conducted on the subject of sexism and how it is expressed through language. In order to profoundly comprehend the concept of sexism, McElhinny, in her work, theorises primarily the idea of gender in language (2003). In her study, gender is defined as a social construct that is based on biological differences (23). As a consequence, there are two recognized genders: male and female. The most crucial part of the study is gender differences expressed through the language. It needs to be pointed out that as far as English language is concerned, there are few referential linguistic forms conveying gender. These include third- person pronouns and a few address forms, as well as many more non-referential forms (35). Those forms relate to social assumptions and expectations
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