A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sexist Language of Men in the Proceedings of the Parliament House of Pakistan

Authors

  • Muntazar Mehdi National University of Modern Languages Islamabad
  • Dr. Muhammad Mumtaz Ali Khan Director (Research and Development), PHEC
  • Inbisat Faisal National University of Modern Languages Islamabad

Keywords:

Sexism, Gender Discrimination, Discourse, Sexist Language, Pakistan Politics, Critical Discourse, Sara Mills Mode

Abstract

The current study focuses on the element of sexism in the discursive practices during formal enactment of statements and discussion in the Parliament House (PH) of Pakistan. The PH is an apex place for the constitutional developments, establishment and implementation. There are many debates on concurrent and instantaneous social, administrative and legal issues in the Parliament House where the members (either from the ruling party or the opposition) are observed to be reacting on each other’s discursive practices, which in the long run, results in argumentation and other dissensions that might get inappropriate such as sexist, ethnic or linguistic or parochial remarks. The data is extracted in form of comments or remarks that have been exchanged in the discursive interactions by the male politicians pointing at the female members of the Parliament House. The study is analyzed by means of Critical Discourse Analysis and uses Mills’ Model of Sexism (2008) for the analysis of data. The study is qualitative and the design is descriptive where the state of affairs has been simply expressed and stated. The comments have been taken following the principle of non-proportional quota of non-probability sampling. As soon as enough number of comments were collected, the researchers stopped collecting further data. The sources of the data collection were online web sources and the main stream news channels. The analysis of the study confirms that sexist language has been used against female politicians, who are formerly and solemnly selected as MPs. The analysis also reflected that the male politicians try to dominate the female members by making sexist remarks considering them as the Other which also reflects the colonial mind set of the male politicians. The study recommends that awareness policy may be approved in order to sensitize politicians to the mutual respect and cooperation for the betterment of the homeland.

Author Biography

Muntazar Mehdi, National University of Modern Languages Islamabad

Assistant Professor

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Published

2021-12-31