Impoliteness, Power and Gender Identity

Although certain branches of feminism (i. e. transfeminism) have attempted to abolish the perceived binary dichotomy between man/woman which connote superior and subordinate roles, due to the stereotypes which are rooted in social norms and conventions, it is noticeable that such oppositions are still vigorously present in society (e.g. blonde woman jokes). Within sociopragmatics studies which often deal with interdependent relationships between gender identity and language, as well as (im)politeness and power, it is increasingly assumed that a correlation can be found between offensive behavior and interactional power (see Bousfield–Locher 2008). The aim of this paper is to shed light on the main common points of gender studies and (im)politeness studies. The study also makes an attempt to show that possession of interactional power is typically correlates with masculine linguistic behavior, and the use of these linguistic tools may have a more offensive effect if the speaker is a woman.