Home> Archive> 2015> Volume 5 Number 12 (Dec. 2015)
IJSSH 2015 Vol.5(12): 1017-1023 ISSN: 2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2015.V5.597

“Take Over Take Over / You are Teachers / Take Over”: Disagreements and the Construction of Power among Women

Leila Mohajer

Abstract—Disagreement as a face threatening act is dispreferred because of violating social solidarity in talk. From gendered sociolinguistics perspective, men are attached to disagreement whereas women to agreement. This study, however, examines the strategies in which women disagree with one another as an interactional approach to convey their intended meanings. This paper draws on data from transcribed audio recorded face to face conversation of 4 groups of Iranian female friends in informal settings. The analysis of the data shows that the female participants express their disagreement boldly and explicitly, disregarding face threatening elements, just like men. It is also found that they care about maintaining their own faces more than the others’ faces in the process of responding to disagreements. In addition, they exhibit a powerful style to criticize, challenge and contradict. It is finally argued that socio-cultural changes in the context of Iranian society had an impact on the females’ interactive attitude.

Index Terms—Disagreements, face and power, Iranian women, society.

Leila Mohajer is with the Women's Development Research Centre (KANITA), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia (e-mail: topazleos@yahoo.com).

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Cite: Leila Mohajer, " “Take Over Take Over / You are Teachers / Take Over”: Disagreements and the Construction of Power among Women," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 1017-1023, 2015.

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