An Analysis of Women’s Language and Social Ideologies:

A Case Study of An Animated Movie Zootopia

Pattraporn Naovaratthanakorn
Language Institute
Thammasat University
E-mail: [email protected]

Supong Tangkiengsirisin
Language Institute
Thammasat University
E-mail: [email protected]

Received: March 24, 2019

Revised: November 27, 2019
Accepted: December 9, 2019

Abstract
Gender differences result in women and men using different
linguistic features and functions in communication; therefore,
understanding these differences could lead to successful communication
(Coates, 2004). This study aimed to identify women’s language features
and functions used in the animated movie Zootopia. The study adopted
critical discourse analysis to examine the dialogue spoken by female
characters in the movie collected from the screenplay, and to interpret the
meanings of specific social situations. In addition, the movie was
watched to support the screenplay for data collection. After the data were
gathered, they were categorised into groups of linguistic features and
qualitatively analysed based on Tannen’s Genderlect Theory (Tannen,
1990), Coates’s concepts regarding conversational practices (Coates,
2004), and Mills’ research on sexist language (Mills, 2008). The findings
show that women in the film use a cooperative style and the language of
rapport in communication to build relationships and establish connections
with other people. With regard to the features of women’s language, eight
linguistic features were found in the study: fillers/hedges, minimal
responses, questions, tag questions, politeness, directives, compliments,
and swearing. This present study highlights that women use particular
language features and styles in communication and that social ideologies
are embedded in their language. These findings may increase the
understanding of current trends in language use and raise awareness
regarding the prevailing attitudes and values in society.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, women’s language features, sexist

language, social meanings, social contexts
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1. Introduction
Language and gender have been extensively discussed since the late
1960s and early 1970s. This area has become a subfield in sociolinguistics
which studies a wide range of linguistic features, patterns of conversation as
well as sexist language. Investigation of the relationship between language and
gender focuses on developing an understanding of the differences in the
language used by women and men. It is apparent that the performances which
are considered “male” and “female” are socially constructed according to
societal norms and the structures of language both in verbal and written forms.
This is due to the fact that people use language as a channel to communicate
with each other in their societies. By extension, society and culture are important
factors that shape the features of language for men and women. However, social
norms, rules, and gender roles could be changed with time which have great
impacts on the language used by men and women in society, proving that power
structures of society cause the differences between the language used by women
and men, gender-based language used in speaking (Chambers, 2009; Gu, 2013;
Ivy & Backlund, 2008; Mohindra & Azhar, 2012; Pan, 2011; Shazu, 2014;
Sunderland, 2006; Wardhaugh & Fuller, 2015).
It is noticeable that many forms or patterns of language features
exhibited in communication have meanings relating to sex because gender
ideology is a factor that has shaped the language of women and men. Thus,
gender-stereotyping affects the language that is used. Not only do gender
differences represent thoughts and attitudes of people in society, but they also
demonstrate the differences in the manner of communication between women
and men, leading to the understanding that gender-based communication reflects
a basic fact of human society (Goddard & Patterson, 2000; Gu, 2013; Pan, 2011;
Subon, 2013).
Gender-based communication is a fundamental distinction between the
interaction of men and women and typically represents the views of males and
females. Moreover, it reflects what people say or how they relate to others with
regard to gender. The differences in communication between males and females
are based on their characteristics: behavior, social contexts, interests of societies,
and gender roles assigned to them in communities which exist since early
childhood through the process of enculturation. However, these differences are
not universal; therefore, they cannot be generalised to all contexts. The
distinction of language used by males and females in communication should be
realised depending on cultural and social contexts (Chambers, 2009; Goddard &
Patterson, 2000; Gu, 2013; Ivy & Backlund, 2008; Mohindra & Azhar, 2012;
Pan, 2011; Subon, 2013; Shazu, 2014).
A remarkable feature playing an important role in many movies is sexist
language. The existence of sexism in language is visible when the characters in
the movies have gender-based communication which reflects social ideologies
Thoughts 2019-2 3

and gender differences occurring in social circumstances (Dewi, Resen, &

Winaya, 2017; Sandra, 2013). It can be assumed that the dialogue spoken by the
characters of a movie reflects our everyday conversations and real situations
occurring in a male-dominated society.
Zootopia is a contemporary movie with an outstanding universal theme,
containing a complicated allegory that reflects such social aspects as prejudice
and discrimination in modern society. The movie compares an anthropomorphic
society to the modern American society, where the anthropomorphic characters
in this movie have been created based on their species’ characteristics. This
comparison could imply that the true personalities of those species mirror the
true nature of people in society. A society in which the social norms of
masculine society have led to stereotyping and gender bias. It is obvious that
sexism in language and gender ideologies have not only been applied in
everyday conversations, but they also have been used in the other social contexts
such as in organisations or workplaces to stress gender differences and
stereotyping.
Gender ideology is explicit in the dialogue in the film. It is interesting
that female characters in the movie do not only use the functions of linguistic
features to communicate in general, but they also employ language to alleviate
the effects of the gender ideology embedded in gender-based communication.
Moreover, female characters in the film try to communicate to improve the level
of women's status in society, especially in the context of organisations or
workplaces.
This research study aims to analyse communication styles and the
varieties of linguistic features spoken by characters of the movie, Zootopia,
particularly focusing on the female characters in the dialogue of gender-based
communication, with the ultimate aim to interpret social meanings which have
been influenced by social ideologies.
The study will provide an overview of the concepts and methods applied for
analysis of linguistic features of women’s language used in gender-based
communication, including social ideologies. This is followed by the analysis of
the prominent women’s language features contained in the utterances of the
animated movie, and finally the interpretation of social meanings based on
gender bias from different contexts is given.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Gender
There are differences between the definitions of “sex” and “gender”.
Oakley (1972), the first gender sociolinguist, explained the distinction between
sex and gender in terms of sociology. Scholars of linguistics and discourse have
adopted the term gender from the social sciences since the late 1980s to refer to
sex differences (Coates, 2012). Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003, p. 10)
4 Thoughts 2019-2

asserted that “Sex is a biological categorisation based primarily on reproductive

potential, whereas gender is the social elaboration of biological sex.”
Gender difference is the term created to define the differences
between women and men. However, gender differences are not only based on
sex differences, but also men’s and women’s characteristics, personalities, social
behaviours, roles and responsibilities according to social expectations of people
in society. These factors may be different in each society. Moreover, the
interactions between individuals, communities, and environments can create
gender roles to which women and men are expected to conform. It can thus be
said that social norms and social values cause gender differences in society,
which may lead to gender inequality. According to the roles and responsibilities
assigned to people in a male-dominated culture, men are leaders and decision-
makers while women are followers and supporters. In the workplace, men and
women are also expected to perform different tasks based on their characteristics
and social expectations (Blackstone, 2003; Goddard & Patterson, 2000; Holmes,
2007; Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency [SIDA], 2015;
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO],
2003; Wharton, 2005).
It is obvious that gender differences in many patriarchal societies are
caused by gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes are related to women’s and
men’s attributes that are required to be consistent with social expectations;
therefore, their stereotypical characteristics can be considered both positively
and negatively. There are attributes related to stereotypical views for women and
men, that women are caring, friendly sociable, emotional, cooperative, and
relationship-oriented whereas men are not emotional, but are strong,
competitive, rational, and achievement-oriented. Moreover, male and female
referents are different due to the fact that the physical characteristics and
personalities of women and men are different. Men are considered to have
physical strength and abilities while women possess sexual attractiveness. These
characteristics and personalities can lead to stereotypes relating to gender bias
(Blackstone, 2003; Eagley & Wood, 1999; Eisenchlas, 2013; Goddard &
Patterson, 2000; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR],
2014; Prentice & Carranza, 2002).
In the workplace, gender stereotypes are one of the gender issues
that are topical in many organisations. Gender bias could cause an obstacle in
women's careers. Many women have experienced many difficulties and barriers
in organisations where women are considered as lower-status and often
disadvantaged in terms of career development and progression such as salary
and promotion opportunities. Although the organisations consider gender as a
performance or what people do rather than biological characteristics, women
still have encountered a glass ceiling – that is barriers and obstacles hindering
Thoughts 2019-2 5

women in career advancement – in organisations (Čeněk, 2013; Coates, 2004;

Ivy & Backlund, 2008; Schnurr & Zayts, 2017).
Finally, attitudes of people towards gender differences are based on
a set of ideologies – gender ideology and stereotyping. It is clear that gender
ideology is connected to male and female gender in terms of justification for
gender order. In addition, gender identity is one of the aspects discussed in
ideology. It is also important to realise the existence of gender ideologies
because it is unavoidable to perform gender when speakers communicate to
others (Coates, 2004; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2003).

2.2 Sexist language

Sexism is a term coined in the 1960’s during the Women’s
Liberation Movement. Sexism in language, also called “sexist language,” is
language that distinguishes between sexes in a way that presents one sex as
superior to the other (O’Keeffe, 2014; Wardhaugh & Fuller, 2015). Cameron
(1992, p. 99) also defined the term sexist language as “the ideas and practices
that downgrade women relative to men”. This is the definition which will be
used throughout this study.
Sexist language is the language based on sex or gender that consists
of attitudes towards stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination towards the other
sex in society. It is also the way language expresses and conveys positive and
negative thoughts and attitudes of speakers to cause the perpetuation of
discrimination by gender, particularly against women. Furthermore, sexist
language is inherited and developed from one generation to the next. Sexist
language sometimes can be developed in communication without realising that it
may be hurtful to others or constitute bullying. The manner of avoidance of
using sexist language is to be aware of the speech spoken out loud (Holmes,
2013; Lei, 2006; Lomotey, 2015; Mills, 2008; O’Keeffe, 2014).
The English language is claimed to be a sexist language because
there are many ways that the language can be used to discriminate against
women (Holmes, 2013). Linguistic features can represent sexist language in
conversations in which those functions reveal the attitudes of people in society
(Mills, 2008; Umera-Okeke, 2012). Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003) and
Holmes (2013) pointed out that there are patterns of English words which are
considered to have negative connotations and refer to women in negative ways.
Women are typically objectified because sexist language contains offensive
words that reflect problematic attitudes such as comparing women with animals,
fruit, desserts, drawing, and commodities. These are some examples of female
referents which refer to animal imagery, such as chick and kitten; and also, to
food imagery, such as, sugar and honey.
According to Mills (2008), a type of sexist language is overt sexism,
in which its attributes show explicit differences between women and men in
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language use in communication. Overt sexism features that will be addressed in

this study are briefly explained as follows:
(1) Naming
Naming is focused on naming practices, which is the process of
giving names and definitions to identify things and persons; therefore, the names
of someone or something should be specified and cannot be ignored. The man-
made language which excludes women from its process is used for naming.
Regarding male-dominated society, beliefs in female stereotypes embedded in
language lead to sexist language as language has been considered as a medium
to express ideas and to reflect social relations and identities. If the position of
women in society was changed, the connotations of terms used in language
would also be shifted accordingly. Although words have positive meanings, they
continuously refer to women with negative connotations.
(2) Titles
The use of titles for males and females is also different. Men use
the title “Mr” which does not identify their marital status. On the contrary, the
titles of women refer to marital status as women need to choose between “Mrs”
and “Miss”. In the 1970s, the title “Ms” was introduced to represent women who
do not want to indicate their marital status and it is also often used to refer to
divorced women. The practice of titles has somewhat evolved for women’s
social position; however, the use of titles still reflects sexist language regarding
the interpretation.
(3) Transitivity
Transitivity is the processes to analyse texts to answer “who
does what to whom”, and to explain actions of female characters as they act
themselves passively upon others as the recipients and in the object position
rather than actively representing themselves in the subject position in
interaction. The structure of transitivity for women is that women have no
choice but to consider themselves as a victim, or to put themselves “into a
concept of helpless victim” according to stereotypical views (Burton, 1982 as
cited in Mills, 2008, p. 69; Mills, 2008).
Lastly, it cannot be denied that sexist language which still exists
nowadays is embedded in language used in general communication. The use of
sexist language is a practice which reflects social ideologies and attitudes of
people in society.

2.3 Genderlect
The theory of genderlect was first proposed by Tannen (1990), who
suggests that the conversational styles of women and men are equal in the ways
of communication, as they are related to gender differences in communication.
Women and men may communicate with the same words but with different
meanings due to different genderlects in communication. Therefore, the
Thoughts 2019-2 7

communication styles of men and women should be considered separately.

Regarding communication styles, women tend to use rapport talk to make
connections while men prefer using language for making commands.
According to Tannen (1990), the difference between women’s and
men’s communication styles can be seen in the following situations:
2.3.1 Private speaking – Public speaking
Women prefer private speaking to build relationships and to
maintain relationships, including business connections, while men like public
speaking to maintain their status and power.
2.3.2 Storytelling
Women use storytelling to share their personal feelings and
desires, and try to connect with their audiences who are likely to support a
speaker when they have shared feelings or feel the same way as the speaker. On
the other hand, men tell stories such as jokes to control audiences and to prove
their power.
2.3.3 Listening
Women are likely to respond to the speaker while they are
listening by using fillers and gestures, also by using cooperative overlap to
support the speaker. On the contrary, men seem to not pay attention nor listen to
the speaker.
Regarding the responses and feedback given to the speakers,
filler is the feature used to show that they are listening to the speakers, and to
give a short pause during the conversations: for example, “you know,” “yeah,”
“mmmm,” “right,” “okay,” and so on. Gestures such as eye contact and head-
nodding also can be used to acknowledge the speakers’ speech.
2.3.4 Asking questions
Women ask questions to obtain information and details, and to
establish connections. Sometimes tag questions are used for asking questions.
However, men think that asking questions is tantamount to losing face. This is
the reason that men tend not to ask questions.
2.3.5 Conflict
Conflict can occur during conversations between women and
men who have different conversational styles. Women are comfortable with
cooperative style and seek to avoid confrontation; on the other hand, men are
competitive in conversations. Women prefer using the cooperative style because
they want to maintain relationships with others rather than have conflicts in
communication.

2.4 Conversational practices

With regard to women’s linguistic features used in communication,
Lakoff (1975) summarised the forms of politeness in women’s language in her
early book. However, this research study primarily applied the conversational
8 Thoughts 2019-2

practices based on Coates (2004) who suggests that gender differentiation leads
to differences in women’s and men’s speech. The concept of conversational
strategies is often used to identify the different styles in communicative
competence for both men and women.
There are similarities between linguistic features of women proposed
by Lakoff (1975) and Coates (2004) used in this study. Those features are
hedges, tag questions, rising intonation on declarative questions, swear words,
and politeness.
2.4.1 Minimal responses
Listeners use minimal responses to indicate that they are
listening and to support the speakers at that moment. Women use minimal
responses to interact in conversation whereas men use this feature to reinforce
their power. Both men and women use minimal responses to react or give
feedback to the speakers.
Examples of minimal responses are “um hmm,” “umm,” “uh
huh,” “huh,” and “yeah” (Fishman, 1978, p. 402; Zimmerman & West, 1975,
p. 108).
2.4.2 Hedges
Hedges are forms to express level of certainty or tentativeness.
However, this feature can also express confidence. This feature is used by
women more than men. Hedges sometimes show hesitation; therefore, men
avoid using hedges as they potentially show weakness.
Examples of hedges are “well,” “y’know,” “kinda,” I guess,”
“I think,” and “I wonder” (Lakoff, 1975, p. 53-54).
2.4.3 Tag questions
Tag question is a feature that can be used by both females and
males to express the speakers’ attitudes, to indicate the speakers’ level of
certainty, to soften disagreement, and to affirm the meanings of statements.
Women, more so than men, tend to use formal tag questions in which the
sentences end with modal verbs. On the contrary, men often use informal tag
questions which normally employ a single word at the end of sentences, for
example, right? and OK?
An example of a sentence for tag questions is “John is here,
isn’t he?” (Lakoff, 1975, p. 15).
2.4.4 Questions
Interrogative forms are adopted to ask questions. In addition,
declarative questions, a type of yes/no question, can be asked with rising
intonation in informal conversations to express surprise or ask for clarification.
While women ask questions to continue a conversation, to get answers, to obtain
information, and to ask for clarification, men tend to ask more questions in the
contexts regarding high status; for example, the contexts relevant to professions
and to academic fields.
Thoughts 2019-2 9

The following extract taken from “Harold Pinter’s The

Birthday Party (1960)” is provided as examples of asking questions (Coates,
2004, p. 93):
(Meg gives Petey a bowl of cornflakes. He sits at the table,
props up his paper and starts to eat.)
Meg: Are they nice?
Petey: Very nice.
Meg: I thought they’d be nice. You got your paper?
Petey: Yes.
Meg: Is it good?
Petey: Not bad.
Meg: What does it say?
Petey: Nothing much.
2.4.5 Commands and directives
Women use mitigated forms of directives by using modal
verbs to soften the statement when they ask someone to do something. Men use
commands to give a direct order to someone to do something.
Examples of commands and directives are the following:
Command: “Get in the bathroom” (Goodwin, 2006, p. 537).
Directives: “Clear the table” (Holmes, 2013, p. 275).
2.4.6 Swearing and taboo language
Swearing language is used to express the attitudes of speakers
and to insult other people. Men use stronger expletives than women in
conversation. Moreover, euphemisms which are often used in the form of
mispronunciation are sometimes used to replace the actual swear words in
communication. Women prefer using less explicit swear words in
communication in order to express their feelings, for example, surprise and
anger.
Examples of swear words are “oh dear,” “goodness,” and
“oh fudge” (Lakoff, 1975, p. 10).
2.4.7 Compliments
Women tend to use compliments more than men in
conversation. Women usually give compliments to other people, particularly to
other women, regarding their appearances. The patterns of “I really like/love
NP” and “I love NP” are found in the conversation when compliments are given
(Herbert, 1998 as cited in Coates, 2004, p. 99). The other pattern of compliments
used by women is “What (a) ADJ NP!” while men use the minimal pattern of
“(INT) ADJ (NP)” to provide compliments for others (Holmes, 1995 as cited in
Coates, 2004, p. 99).
2.4.8 Politeness
Politeness can be expressed in both spoken and written
language. Women apply particles to soften the statements in conversation to
10 Thoughts 2019-2

make polite requests and apologies, whereas, the referential function is applied
to men’s speech which means that men prefer speaking statements related to
facts.
An example of particles for politeness is “please” (Lakoff,
1975, p. 64).
2.4.9 Conversational dominance
Conversation is usually delivered on a turn-taking basis which
organises effective communication. When a speaker breaks the rules of turn-
taking, it will lead to conversational dominance, which is the situation in the
conversation where a speaker wants to dominate the conversation while they are
speaking. Speakers can apply many linguistic strategies to reach conversational
dominance in conversation. These strategies are listed as follows:
(1) Overlaps and interruptions
There are two types of irregularities: overlaps and
interruptions, which are applied to both same-sex conversations and mixed-sex
conversations.
Overlaps are used when the next speaker begins speaking
before the current speaker finishes at the end of his or her speech. The next
speaker will overlap the current speaker’s turn in the last part of the current
exchange in conversation. On the other hand, interruptions may be the most
explicit strategy that speakers use to achieve dominance in conversation. The
next speaker attempts to intervene immediately to speak while the current
speaker is speaking. This strategy will stop the current speaker before he/she
finishes conversing, so that the next speaker can start speaking.
These strategies are used by both men and women in
conversation. However, women tend to use overlaps more than men; whereas,
men often use interruptions while having conversation. It is obvious that women
use overlaps in same-sex conversation, but they will not use the strategy in
mixed-sex conversation. Meanwhile, men intend to use interruptions in mixed-
sex conversation rather than same-sex conversation.
Zimmerman and West (1975, p. 114) provided an example
of overlaps and interruptions are as follows:
A1: I know what you thought I know you://
A2: [Ya] still see her any more(?)
(2) Talking too much
Talking time should be shared among the speakers as they
are equal in conversation; however, some speakers are likely to keep talking.
“Talk too much” or “Talking a lot” is the conversational behaviour that speakers
ought to carefully consider what they need to speak because words sometimes
are very sensitive to contexts. It is anticipated that women talk more than men in
mixed-sex conversation.
Thoughts 2019-2 11

(3) Strategies of non-cooperation

Strategies of non-cooperation refer to the strategies
applied in the situations where the speakers have no feedback as responses,
provide delayed responses in conversations, or do not commit themselves to
participating or to continuing in conversation. As a result, silence could occur
during the conversation. These strategies, namely “no response” and “delayed
response”, typically appear in the private interactions of informal talk.
An excerpt of conversation taken from the conversation in
“Sex roles, interruptions and silences” (Zimmerman & West, 1975, p. 121) is
given below as an example of delayed response:
(A is the male, B is the female)
1 B: This thing with uh Sandy ’n Karen
2 n’ Paul is really bugging me
(5.0)

3 A: Um
(3.0)
4 B: Well it’s really complicating things
5 y’know between Sandy ’n Karen ’n I
6 because I know what’s ( ) going on
7 ’n I can see uh there’s no contradiction
8 to me at all//

9 [Um] hmm
(#)

In conclusion, women and men employ different linguistic

features in their communication. It is sometimes difficult to classify the specific
linguistic patterns used by either women or men as they share some patterns
while some other patterns, however, tend to be used by women more than men.

2.5 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), also known as Critical
Discourse Studies (CDS) and Critical Linguistics (CL) is a type of analytical
discourse research. These three terms can be interchangeably used to represent
the principle. Critical discourse analysis is considered as a critical perspective
that is distinguished from other approaches due to the fact that multidisciplinary
approaches in humanities and social sciences; for example, conversational
analysis, narrative analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, social semiotics, and
sociolinguistics rather than precise methods are applied in research studies to
discover discourse in social circumstances, and to highlight social problems, the
relationships between language and power, and the underlying connections
12 Thoughts 2019-2

between language and ideology. Overall, critical discourse analysis mainly

focuses on the connections of social analysis in terms of discourse and social
elements (Fairclough, 2012; Holmes, 2013; Van Dijk, 2001; Van Dijk, 2015;
Wodak & Meyer, 2001).
The pioneers in critical discourse analysis are Fairclough, Wodak
and Mayer, and Van Dijk, who have shared a common focus on social problems.
As social issues are usually complex, there are many directions to complete
critical discourse analysis. According to Fairclough (2012), the directions of
critical discourse analysis are to extend critique to discourse, to analyse the
discourse in applied linguistics and pragmatics as well as sociolinguistics, and to
analyse the patterns of utterances and ideas. Therefore, this study employed one
of the Fairclough’s frameworks to analyse the context of discourses and social
ideologies.

2.6 Textual Analysis

Texts can have several meanings. Receivers, who could be readers
or viewers, may interpret the same texts or messages in different ways. A
concept of textual analysis method – a theory of encoding and decoding
introduced by Stuart Hall in 1980 – was adopted in this study to analyse the
discourses of texts.
According to Hall (1980), texts are encoded with ideologies for
which receivers already possess their own understandings. Therefore, the
receivers may interpret the meanings of texts differently. At this stage, the
process of decoding is required to interpret the texts. Hall also mentioned that
texts can be described as polysemous – having multiple meanings. The receivers
can decode meanings of texts to which the method of textual analysis will be
applied when the text contains several meanings and attempts to set definite
meanings. In addition, Hall is also interested in ideology embedded into the
texts. Ideologies constructed in the texts may be explicit or implicit. It is
believed that receivers’ responses are based on their background such as
personal beliefs and culture.
Hall’s work confirmed that texts contain both denotative and
connotative aspects. Consequently, the contexts which ideologies and discourse
intersect could be distinguished by using analytic tools – the terms of
connotation and denotation. To analyse the contexts, readers will decode the
whole range of social meanings, practices and usages, power and interest
embedded into them. It is important to define these two terms of the contexts –
denotation (explicit meaning) and connotation (implicit meaning). Denotation is
literal meaning which is universally recognised; whereas, connotation is the
meaning which is changeable and different from denotation as it can be
interpreted in many ways according to the receivers’ background. There
sometimes are misunderstandings in the connotations of the contexts due to
Thoughts 2019-2 13

readers having different backgrounds in reference to the orders of social life and
economic, political power, and ideology. Therefore, textual analysis is the
method which readers employ to question the ideology which is inherent within
a text.

2.7 Semiotic Analysis

Ferdinand de Saussure founded modern semiotic analysis and
developed the groundwork of general linguistic theory. He proposed the term
“semiology” in his first published book entitled Course in General Linguistics in
1916. De Saussure’s theory, semiotic analysis, is to focus on sign systems in
particular language as a system of signs. Semiotics can be almost anything
considered as sign systems. The sign is a combination of a sound-image
(signifier) and a concept (signified). The terms of the sound-image (signifier), a
word, is physical things or materials while the concept (signified) is more
abstract. These are two principle elements of a sign for which the relationship is
inseparable. However, the connection between a signifier (a word) and a
signified (a concept) is arbitrary. This makes meaning interpretations in texts
more interesting and problematic.
A sign is the whole meaning composed of a signifier and a signified.
A signifier is forms which have many different types. Words expressing things,
ideas, concepts, and so on are one form of signifier. Generally, signifier is
interpreted as materials or physical forms which can be recognised by the five
senses of the human body while signified is abstract or mental. However, both
signifier and signified, for De Saussure, are psychological. In other words,
signifier is the concept or idea that the form represents, and signified is
meanings that we have interpreted which may be different. To understand the
system of signs, signifiers must be learned as they are codes while the signified
helps to decode or interpret the meanings of signifiers.
In conclusion, a sign system is an important factor to construct reality.
The semiotic theory has emphasised the relationship between signs and meaning
in texts. Therefore, semiotics can be involved in communication as it is the key
to interpreting meanings of things which can be semiotically analysed (De
Saussure, 1916/1959). In this study, characters of Zootopia are described using
semiotic analysis to interpret concepts of their true personalities.

2.8 Related studies

In the past few decades, most research in language and gender
represented the view that there is a specific way of communication for women or
men; methods of communication which have somehow been pre-programmed.
Consequently, the difference in the use of language by women and men is the
result of the structure of language styles and norms of society (Coates, 2012;
Pichler, 2016; Shazu, 2014; Van Han, 2014).
14 Thoughts 2019-2

A number of research studies in language and gender have been

conducted through movies, for example, The Devil Wears Prada. Some
prominent interests in this area are gender linguistic features and sexist language
used in contexts of gender-based communication. Most of these studies
addressed the functions of language features employed by both women and men
in communication. In addition, some of these studies presented ideas of gender
inequality to prove that gender ideologies still exist in society.
There were similarities in the methodology of these studies related to
women’s linguistic features in movies. The materials mostly were the movies
and transcriptions of the movies. Note-taking was a fundamental technique for
data collection, followed by the qualitative and descriptive approaches with
documentation methods which were applied for data analysis. Regarding the
theoretical frameworks, the prominent frameworks most frequently used were
the forms of women’s language proposed by Lakoff (1975), followed by the
frameworks for linguistic features and conversational styles introduced by
Coates (2004) and Holmes (2013), respectively.
In general, the findings of these studies revealed that both women
and men used different linguistic features and styles in communication. The
linguistic features used in these movies were different in each, however,
fundamental women’s linguistic features based on the theories of genderlect and
conversational practices were found in the dialogues spoken by both male and
female characters. The common linguistic features used in these movies were
lexical hedges or fillers, tag questions, empty adjectives, colour terms,
intensifiers, super polite forms, and avoidance of strong swear words. Although
similar language features were used in each movie, some features were used
only in certain movies and the functions of those features may be different
depending on the movies’ contexts (Hardini, Darmawangsa, & Nada, 2017;
Juwita, Sunggingwati, & Valiantien, 2018; Oktapiani, Natsir, & Setyowati,
2017; Safitri, 2017; Santi, 2013; Widayanti, 2014).
There was a research study, The features of men’s and women’s
language in the movie Camp Rock 2: Final Jam, that adopted Tannen’s
framework for communication styles. The results of the study found that
communication styles for women were relationship-oriented while for men were
goal-oriented. Women aimed to support others while men tended to maintain
their status by commanding others (Dewi, Resen, & Winaya, 2017).
Moreover, the findings of many research studies revealed that sexist
language has been embedded in gender-based communication, and it has been
regularly found in dialogue in movies. Fi’aunillah (2015) and Sandra (2013)
conducted research to study the sexist features that appeared in the movies based
on the theory of Mills (2008). The studies found that features of both overt and
indirect sexism were discovered in these movies. Those features showed that
gender-biased linguistic terms and markers including expressions of sexist
Thoughts 2019-2 15

language were used in the movies’ utterances to express the ideas of gender
inequality.
There are distinctions between this study of Zootopia and the other
previous related studies. Regarding the methodology, this study adopted critical
discourse analysis along with qualitative analysis for data analysis. The various
methods, namely conversation analysis, textual analysis, and semiotic analysis
were also employed to analyse and interpret the dialogues and social meanings
rather than using only documentation.
Additionally, Zootopia itself is rich in the social context related to
ideologies, cultures, and communication. Therefore, this study placed emphasis
on the relationship of language and society, particularly in terms of gender. Not
only did this study investigate women’s linguistic features and their functions in
gender-based communication, but it also closely investigated the assertion that
female characters used language features in different social contexts to show
their standpoints, and to improve their status in society. Furthermore, the
features of sexist language were also investigated in this study to confirm that
the language of stereotyping in gender-based communication reflects social
phenomena and ideologies of people, in particular, gender bias. Also, social
ideologies embedded in language were analysed for interpretation of social
meanings.

3. Methodology
3.1 Research design
Critical discourse analysis was adopted in this study as the
methodology to analyse the case study of an animated movie, Zootopia, in
women’s language and social ideologies embedded within language used in
communication. This issue, that women are treated as the subordinate group in
society due to gender bias, has been extensively discussed.
According to Fairclough (2010), critical discourse analysis aims to
explore the connection between language use and social practice, in which the
main focus is on the role of discursive practices to maintain the social order and
social changes. With regard to the conceptual framework, Fairclough proposed
the three-dimensional model of analytical framework for discourse analysis:
texts (linguistic features of texts), discursive practice (processes of production
and consumption), and social practice that belong to communication, as they are
all relevant aspects (Jørgensen & Philipps, 2002). This study will cover all three
dimensions. The first dimension will investigate language and features used in
communication. The second dimension will explore the production of language
and prove repetition of the language used in communication. The third
dimension will explain how the language and features used in communication
affect social practices.
16 Thoughts 2019-2

Fairclough (2010) also proposed four stages of analytical framework

to formulate an explanatory critique in critical discourse analysis. These four
stages are as follows:
Stage 1: A researcher focuses on wrongs that can be productively
researched regarding relations between semiotic and extra-semiotic elements.
This stage is to construct a research objective in a multidisciplinary way.
Stage 2: A researcher asks what it is about the nature of the social
order in which this wrong exists that makes it difficult to become right.
Semiotics is critical discourse analysis’s point of entry in which a researcher
needs to consider particular aspects of semiotics of the obstacles, i.e. social
wrongs. This is to focus on a research question that a researcher needs to analyse
regarding practices, institutions, and events. The first step entails data collection
and analysis of relevant texts.
Stage 3: A researcher asks if this wrong is inherent to the social
order so that it cannot be right without changing the social order, or something
that can be righted without such radical change.
Stage 4: A researcher asks how the obstacles identified in Stage 2
might be overcome. The obstacles in critical discourse analysis are considered
partly semiotic in character; a researcher focuses on how people actually deal, or
might deal with obstacles in part by contesting and changing discourse.

3.2 Material
The material in this study was the American comedy-adventure
animated movie Zootopia which was released in 2016 by Walt Disney Pictures.
This movie won the Best Animated Feature Film from the Academy Awards
(The Oscars) in 2017 (Donnelly, 2017).
The movie features Judy Hopps, a young female rabbit, whose
dream is to become a police officer at Zootopia, a melting pot of the society and
a place where a wide variety of animal species live together in harmony. Her
ideal profession contrasts with her parents’ belief that all rabbits are carrot
farmers, and certainly not police officers. When she grows up, she decides to
attend the ‘Zootopia Police Academy’, which is a particularly masculine
institute, to become a police officer. Although the trainer and other cadets who
believe that she cannot be an officer have insulted her, she never surrenders her
dream. Finally, she succeeds and becomes the first rabbit police officer of
Zootopia.
Judy experiences many obstacles from her arrival in Zootopia where
she realises that it might be different from what she has imagined. At ‘Zootopia
Police Department’, Chief Bogo, the Chief of Police and her new colleagues, of
whom most are male, totally ignore her existence. Instead of being a police
officer in action, she is designated to take the role of a meter maid for parking
duties. Later, Judy unexpectedly has an opportunity to work on a case of missing
Thoughts 2019-2 17

animals with the support of Assistant Mayor Bellwether. Chief Bogo does not
want Judy to take the case; therefore, he proposes the condition that she must
resign if she fails to find a missing otter within forty-eight hours. To find the
missing otter, Judy and Nick work together to solve the case. They find all of the
missing animals in the end.
A twist in the plot at the end of the story is that Assistant Mayor
Bellwether turns out to be the villain instead of Mayor Lionheart, who has been
accused of abducting the animals and has already taken into custody. Assistant
Mayor Bellwether thinks that it is unfair that predators are superior when meek
prey outnumber those predators and therefore commits the crime (Howard &
Moore, 2016).

3.3 Data collection and analysis

The data employed in this study was the screenplay of the animated
movie, Zootopia, which was used as a primary source for discourse analysis.
The screenplay of the movie that matched most with the conversations appearing
in the film was selected and taken from the website
https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk (Springfield! Springfield!, n.d.). To
obtain the data, the researcher watched the movie along with its script and a
note-taking technique was applied at this stage to make any notes related to the
content which may be required in the data analysis section.
The sets of data used for data analysis were separated. All of the
main and supporting characters, both males and females, in the movie employed
communication styles and many linguistic features in their utterances in various
scenes throughout the movie. It could be seen that male and female characters
shared some linguistic features; consequently, male characters also applied some
of women's language features in their conversations. Due to this study focusing
on women’s language, the dialogues spoken by female characters were gathered
and classified by linguistic functions in the first instance of watching the movie.
Women’s language features occurring in dialogues were also provided as
examples in the analysis section to present communication styles and functions
of the linguistic features. After that, the dialogues revealing people’s attitudes
towards gender bias as they appeared in the movie were collected a second time
to reflect facets of the sociolinguistic reality of society based on gender
inequality. Moreover, some dialogues containing both the features of women’s
language and social ideologies regarding gender bias were used twice in the
analysis section.
The researcher divided the section of data analysis into three parts
consisting of women’s communication styles, women’s language features, and
interpretation of social ideologies. The samples of the dialogues were analysed
in terms of gender differences in communication styles and conversational
practices based on the theories of Tannen (1990), and Coates (2004),
18 Thoughts 2019-2

respectively. Sexist language based on the concepts of Mills (2008) was also
analysed in interpretation of social ideologies including gender bias in terms of
stereotyping and discrimination. The data in each category were studied by
adopting the methods – conversation analysis (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson,
1974), textual analysis (Hall, 1980), and semiotic analysis (De Saussure,
1916/1959) – to analyse and interpret the data in the first stage.
Starting with conversation analysis, this method was used to obtain
the data taken from the dialogues of the animated movie and to observe
conversation interaction of the characters spoken in different contexts. With the
transcription, textual analysis was employed to describe and interpret the
messages, contents, structure, features and functions. These stages were to
investigate the communication style and language features used by women.
Semiotic analysis was also adopted for meaning in interpretation of characters
and social ideologies embedded in conversations. This would interpret the
connotations of social ideologies as well as sexism embedded in the language in
different social contexts to reveal the people’s attitudes.
Lastly, critical discourse analysis was used for criticising the social
issues in this study, particularly in gender bias to reveal the interpretation of
hidden messages or meanings relating to social ideologies which reflect gender
inequality, one of the widespread social issues currently occurring in many
societies.

4. Findings
This section describes the results of the present study of the women’s
communication styles and women’s language features spoken in the dialogue of
Zootopia by female characters, and the analysis of the interpretation of social
meanings in different contexts.
The examples of features occurring in the dialogue are presented in italics, with
the subsequent analysis in each section as follows:
4.1 Women’s communication style
The results confirm that the dialogues spoken by female characters
of the movie used cooperative style and the language of rapport in
communication. To establish and keep relationships with other people, female
characters used rapport language in different situations, namely private speaking
– public speaking, storytelling, and conflicts (Tannen, 1990).
4.1.1 Private speaking – Public speaking
Female characters tended to use the language of rapport in
private speaking to build and maintain the relationships while male characters
sought to gain power and social status in public speaking. Below are examples
of these situations.
The main female character, Judy, has just arrived at her new
flat. She thinks it could be a good idea to make friends with neighbours.
Thoughts 2019-2 19

Therefore, she uses rapport-building language by saying “Oh, Hi! I’m Judy,
your new neighbour!” to build the relationship by greeting them.
Another example is when Judy meets Nick the second time.
She said,“Hi! Hello! It’s me again!” to greet him. She also uses the word
“again” to remind him that they have met each other before. Her intention at this
time is to maintain the connection with him as she needs him to help her find
Mr. Otterton and to solve the case.
Regarding public speaking, there is a scene in which Mayor
Lionheart, who is the leader of Zootopia, gives a speech on the Zootopia Police
Department’s graduation day. Giving the speech in front of the public, he
presents his high status and confirms his power in society. The other public
dialogue is spoken by Chief Bogo, the chief of police, who has high authority in
the Zootopia Police Department. His position is high-ranking which makes his
subordinates respect him. He also has power to give the commands and assign
the tasks to his team members.
4.1.2 Storytelling
The storytelling of Zootopia is narrated by young Judy at the
beginning of the movie. This monologue is a part of the school play in which
Judy explicitly expresses her desire to be a police officer in Zootopia, where she
believes that “anyone can be anything” according to its mantra. In the stage play,
Judy dresses up in an officer’s uniform because she wants to connect the
audience to her story and to share her feelings with them. This shows that
women tend to establish connection to others.
4.1.3 Conflict
There is a scene in the movie in which conflict occurs during a
conversation between Nick and Judy. It is obvious that Nick is dissatisfied with
what Judy has just said in the interview because they seem to have different
points of view of the situation. Finally, Judy tries to compromise by asking Nick
to stop speaking because she is afraid that arguing might lead to the end of their
relationship. In this situation, Judy undoubtedly avoids confronting Nick
because she wants to maintain a long relationship with him. On the other hand,
Nick is offended because he strongly disagrees with what Judy has said in the
interview; therefore, he confronts Judy to ask for her clarification regarding her
interview statement. He also pushes Judy to accept that she actually does mean
what she said. In other words, Nick, who is a male character, is competitive in
this conversation reflecting the communication style of men who are
competitive and do not want to lose face.

4.2 Women’s language features

In regards to the dialogue in the movie, the results also confirm that
eight linguistic features appeared in the dialogue employed by female characters.
These prominent features were fillers/hedges, minimal responses, questions, tag
20 Thoughts 2019-2

questions, politeness, directives, compliments, and swearing. There are

similarities between some of the linguistic features proposed by Tannen (1990)
and Coates (2004), namely; fillers/hedges, questions, and tag questions.
Although these features are the same, the functions of each feature may be
different in different conversational contexts.
4.2.1 Fillers/Hedges
In this study, fillers and hedges are interchangeable because
fillers can be used as hedges in some contexts.
In the dialogues, the female character, Judy, uses fillers/hedges
to respond to the speaker by using the words “well” and “mm-hm”. Moreover,
she also uses these features to show that she is confident that Nick can be a good
police officer; therefore, the phrases “you know” and “I think” are used to
confirm her statement. However, hedges are also used to show uncertainty. The
other female character, Bellwether, is hesitant or unsure about her idea. She uses
the phrases “I mean,” “well,” and “you know” to express her hesitation in the
dialogues, and she uses the phrase “I think” to offer her opinion.
Male characters sometimes use hedges in conversation. In this
movie, male characters apply some hedges the same as female characters;
however, the functions of features used in dialogues are different.
With regard to the hedges, “you know” and “probably” are
used for the examples. Nick uses “you know” to offer his opinion when he
recommends Judy find the vehicle fleeing the scene on the surveillance screen.
Nick also says that Judy might not need a predator to be her partner;
consequently, he uses the word “probably” as a hedge in the sentence to express
uncertainty in his presumption when he talks to Judy.
However, Yax thinks Judy is a scout selling cookies; therefore,
he uses the phrase “you know” with his annoying tone to interrupt her speech as
he wishes to end the conversation.
4.2.2 Questions
The women ask questions as they require answers from the
listeners. There are three ways of asking questions provided as the examples in
this section. The first question is asked “which way do I…” with the
interrogative word “which” when the speaker needs to know specific
information about a place. The second question is “Can you swim?” The
speaker asks a yes/no question using the modal verb “can”. The speaker also
applies a declarative question using rising intonation to ask a question such as,
“Yeah? Everything you ever hoped?”
4.2.3 Tag questions
The female character, Judy, uses a tag question to ask for
confirmation and to obtain the information needed. She asks, “You didn’t
happen to catch the license plate number, did you?”. She needs information
about a licence plate number of a vehicle; therefore, she uses a tag question “did
Thoughts 2019-2 21

you?” to ask for the specific information. She is not sure whether the speaker
has the information.
4.2.4 Minimal responses
The dialogue includes examples of verbal minimal responses
used by women in conversations. The female character, Bon, promptly responds
to her husband by using minimal responses to show the agreement to support his
statements. The minimal responses used in this dialogue are “Oh, yes,” “That’s
right,” “No,” and “Never”. This feature helps the speakers realise that the
participants are listening to them.
4.2.5 Directives
An example of using directives in a conversation is when Judy
follows a fox, Nick, to the ice cream shop. Judy says, “Of course I could let you
off with a warning if you were to glove those trunks…”. She uses the modal verb
“could” to politely ask for cooperation from the ice cream shop assistant to sell
a jumbo-pop to Nick’s son. This feature helps to soften the statement and the
listener will agree to follow the request. Finally, the ice cream shop assistant
sells a jumbo-pop to him.
4.2.6 Swearing language
In a dialogue, the phrase “sweet cheese ‘n crackers” is used as
a euphemism to soften the language, and to replace the actual phrase of “Jesus
Christ”. The other phrase, “my sweet heaven” is used to express a lesser degree
of the expletive. The function of these two phrases are to express the surprise of
the speakers.
4.2.7 Compliments
The dialogues from two different scenes of the movie confirm
that women use the pattern of “I love NP” to give compliments to the other
woman in the conversation. In these situations, Judy compliments Fru Fru’s
appearance, her hair and her dress by saying “I love your hair” and “I love your
dress”.
4.2.8 Politeness
There are the particles applied to the conversations to express
politeness. Judy says to Gideon “Kindly return my friend’s tickets.” by using the
particle “kindly” to make a request with softness when she asks him to give the
tickets back to her friends. Judy uses the word “sir” as a particle to show respect
to Chief Bogo, who is her commander. In addition, Assistant Bellwether also
uses the word “sir”, the same particle as Judy, to show respect to Mayor
Lionheart. Judy also uses the phrase “hate to disagree with you, sir” to soften
her statement when she disagrees with her boss in the conversation.
Furthermore, there are many words that women used in the
dialogues of the movie to show politeness, for example, sorry, excuse me,
pardon, thank you, and please.
22 Thoughts 2019-2

4.2.9 Conversational dominance

There are some strategies which may lead to conversational
dominance during the talks when either female or male characters sometimes try
to take the lead in conversation. A strategy which appears in the movie is talking
too much. It is noticeable that the characters either apply an increase in the
amount of speech or in distribution of number of their turns which affects their
turn length.
This is an example of a man in conversational dominance.
Nick tries to dominate the conversation as he is very competitive. When he
wants to take control in the conversation, he keeps speaking in a long
monologue which is difficult for the other speaker to interrupt.
In the monologue, Nick, who has experienced living in
Zootopia longer than Judy, shares his knowledge with her, explaining that many
people come to this city with determination to follow their dreams and pursue
their ideal professions. Unfortunately, many of them are unsuccessful and have
to move back to their home towns. Nick implied that Judy might encounter the
same situations as others. This long dialogue contains an amount of speech
which helps Nick maintain his social status while he is talking to Judy as it
proves that he fully understands the circumstances and cultures.
Regarding conversational dominance by a female character,
Judy dominates the conversation by increasing the distribution of number of her
turns in the dialogue to express her feelings towards Nick. This is the scene
when Judy returns to Zootopia to find Nick and asks for his help to solve the
case that was complicated by her mistakes. Judy is usually confident and does
not reveal the extent of her emotions. In this context, she expresses her feelings
to show Nick that she feels guilty for having disappointed him.

4.3 Interpretation of social ideologies

There are many dialogues spoken in Zootopia that contain the
implication of language reflected social ideologies, particularly in gender
ideology. The utterances sometimes are not obvious without considering the
social contexts. In this section, the analysis in social meanings relating to social
ideologies were interpreted.
4.3.1 Social values and expectations
A scene of the Naturalist Club in Zootopia is a setting which
clearly represents modern social values. Conversations in this scene are full of
sarcasm in the aspect of individuality. In Zootopia, a modern society is
compared to an anthropomorphic society where animals represent the wide
variety of people in society. The characters of the movie are all kinds of animals
which wear clothes, act and undertake normal human life activities like modern
Homo sapiens. There is only one place, called the Naturalist Club in Zootopia,
Thoughts 2019-2 23

where all animals do not wear clothes and enjoy their naturalist life, parodying
human activities.
This situation refers to a group of pet lovers in present society
who tend to put clothes on their pets with glamorous accessories and treat their
animals the same as human beings. In this scene, Judy thinks it is strange that
animals are naked. Yax, who works at the Naturalist Club, responds to Judy’s
interjection to express his opinion, over-laced with sarcasm. He thinks it is
normal here that all animals continue their natural activities; whereas, it is
unusual in the city of Zootopia when all animals are acting akin to humankind.
With regard to roles and responsibilities, the social ideology of
gender differences is embedded in the conversation. It is clear that people in
society should fulfil their roles and responsibilities according to background,
social norms and expectations.
Judy wants to be a police officer although her parents strongly
disagree with this idea. It is difficult to change people’s conservative attitudes
with respect to roles and responsibilities as these ideologies have been engrained
for a long time in their society. Her parents suggest that she should conform to
social expectations, meaning that she should not be a police officer because
bunnies are supposed to be carrot farmers. In addition, the male characters, Nick
and Gideon, also believe that a rabbit can be only a carrot farmer, and cannot be
a police officer as it is a male profession. Their ideas reflect the ideology of
gender roles and responsibilities according to social expectations; and also prove
that gender roles and responsibilities can lead to gender stereotypes and
discrimination.
4.3.2 Gender stereotypes and discrimination
The ideology of gender stereotyping and discrimination is
found in the dialogue. Stereotypes and discrimination are related to gender,
ethnic group, and social status. These issues can occur with anyone in society
regardless of gender. Both women and men can be stereotyped by others in
society, especially by the dominant, who consider themselves superior.
In this movie, the language employed by male characters
Gideon and Ben in the dialogues reflects the weakness of women and limitations
of women’s physiology.
Gideon implies that women always cry, with crying being a
sign of weakness. The word “loser” is also selected to characterise women who
are not only characterised as weak, but have also been subordinated by society.
Additionally, the sound “baah baah”, a sheep sound, is also imitated to make
fun of a female character in the scene.
The dialogue spoken by Ben, a policeman, confirms that there
is gender bias and hierarchy in society. He uses the word “a bunny” to refer to
Judy, a new female rabbit officer. This term is an example of discrimination
based on the natural characteristics, gender and race of the character. He also
24 Thoughts 2019-2

compares Judy to a victim as she might not be able to survive this career due to
her being a young female rabbit in a patriarchal society. The ideology reflects
the idea that police officer is a profession for men because men are stronger than
women, and it is not a suitable career for women.
These situations can be explained in that both gender and
racial discrimination exist in society. Particularly, men try to discriminate
against women and dominate the power structures in society.
Not only do male characters use their language to stereotype
other people in society, but women could do so. Surprisingly, the speakers who
are female characters apply language to stereotype others in communication.
In the conversations, Judy uses the language to reflect her
thoughts related to stereotyping. Those sentences are “It’s just, you know it
burns me up to see folks with such backward attitudes towards foxes.” and
“They’re all sloths?” At the same time, the listener can interpret the meanings
of what she has just said. It proves that these two participants of the
communication who are mixed-gender have been socialised in the same set of
social ideologies. In these situations, the stereotyping is based on racial
discrimination according to biological traits and characteristics. The social
meaning of the dialogues demonstrate that the speaker has negative attitudes
towards foxes and sloths. The speaker implies that foxes are cruel predators
which are cunning and are small-minded; whereas, sloths are very slow and
sometimes inactive or lazy.
Furthermore, sexism in language is also considered as one type
of stereotypes. There are some features of overt sexism in language appearing in
the utterances in many scenes of the movie. Those features are titles, transitivity,
and naming.
It can be seen that the characters usually address the other with
their surnames when the speakers have never met each other or might not be
acquaintances. Addressing the people by using their surnames is usually used in
a formal context to show respect to the others. Moreover, the honorific titles,
namely “Mister” and “Mrs”, are used in these conversations, and they certainly
reveal inequality in gender treatment. There is unfairness between male and
female titles. While the title “Mister” can apply to males in any occasion, the
female’s title “Mrs” explicitly presents the individuals’ marital status.
Judy described herself as a token bunny in a scene. It does not
mean that she intends to insult herself, but it is a sarcastic way of reflecting her
boss’s perception towards gender bias. Judy insists that she can definitely solve
the case of missing mammals instead of monitoring the parking as a meter maid.
She believes that Chief Bogo considers her as a token bunny who is hired
without having the capability to do the same tasks and assignments as men.
Therefore, Judy employs the term “token bunny” in the dialogue to compare
herself to a token minority who is hired into the workplace to avoid
Thoughts 2019-2 25

discrimination accusations. The term “token bunny”, which is embedded with

social ideologies in sexism and racism, refers to Judy’s gender and her ethnic
group (species) in this context.
Lastly, the use of naming relating to sexist language spoken by
male characters is applied in conversations to refer to the female characters. The
examples of words which remarked or are used to insult Judy in the movie are
bunny, bunny bumpkin, bunny cop, carrots, carrot baby, cottontail, cute little
bunny, darling, dumb bunny, farm girl, flatfoot, fluff, fluffy butt, fuzzy bunny,
honey, little baby bunny, little bunny, officer fluff, rabbit, stupid carrot-farmer,
sweetheart, and the fuzz. Additionally, there is a name, Smellwether, which
Mayor Lionheart uses to refer to his assistant, Bellwether. These terms are man-
made language through which women are objectified and compared to food
imagery, and which evidently express the attitudes of the speakers regarding
gender bias towards the characteristics and appearances of women. Creating
these names has confirmed that male characters have negative perceptions
towards female characters as they are feeble, small and useless females.
4.3.3 Gender stereotypes and discrimination in workplace
Stereotyping and discrimination can occur not only in general
conversation, but those practices also appear in workplace communication.
In the workplace, the roles and responsibilities of the
characters are assigned according to gender characteristics and tasks based on
social expectations. Obviously, the Mayor of Zootopia is a male, Mayor
Lionheart, who is the leader and decision-maker of the city while his assistant,
Assistant Bellwether, is a female secretary who is a supporter and follower. At
Zootopia Police Department, Judy, a young female having less physical strength,
could be only a subordinate; whereas, Chief Bogo, a strong muscleman, is the
commander of the police department.
It is clear that there is an emphasis on women and how they
may not be accepted in the workplace, particularly in a male-dominated society.
Males consider themselves superior. In the context, Chief Bogo clearly states
that he does not care whether Judy will be at the Zootopia Police Department or
not as he has never wanted Judy to be a member of this team; however, he seems
to have no choice because it is the Mayor’s order. Most of his team members
ideally are predators and larger size animals, which are strong. Therefore, he
does not think that Judy is a suitable colleague, nor a fit for his team because she
is a female rabbit, who he considers as feeble.
Achieving the highest score of her class, Judy is confident that
she could be of value and could do more to support the organisation. However,
she is still assigned to do the parking duty. Although she has experienced many
obstacles – the commander, colleagues, and a macho organisational environment
– in her workplace, she has never given up and believes in herself so that she can
prove to everyone that she is successful. It is a challenge for women to become a
26 Thoughts 2019-2

police officer, especially with Judy’s countryside background. Finally, Judy

proves that she can do it, being a trailblazer for bunnies and other prey animals.

5. Discussion
The findings of this study highlight that women used a cooperative
communication style and many linguistic features to communicate with other
people. Female characters tended to use cooperative style to establish and
maintain connections and relationships with other people. The linguistic features
used by female characters in this movie were fillers/hedges, minimal responses,
questions, tag questions, politeness, directives, compliments, swearing language,
and conversational strategies. Moreover, the characters’ conversations
confirmed that sexist language, embedded in language, and used in
communication, certainly do exist in society. In addition, the language also
reflects the attitudes of people in society regarding gender bias in stereotyping
and discrimination.
According to Tannen (1990), there is the distinction between women’s
and men’s communication styles. This study confirmed that cooperative style is
adopted by female characters in communication in this movie to seek out human
connections. This result supports a previous finding which revealed that
women’s communication style is relationship-oriented while men’s
communication style is goal-oriented (Dewi, Resen, &Winaya, 2017). There is a
scene in which Judy gives a speech on graduation day at the end of the movie.
This could be assumed that women's status has been promoted as females tend
to have an opportunity to speak more in the public sphere to acquire the higher
status in society. Judy also asks Chief Bogo for his clarification when he
assigned her to be a meter maid. She applied the feature of politeness in her talk
as she realised that conflict might occur during the interaction. Therefore, it is
possible that women’s communication style may be changed in present society.
With regard to the concept of conversational practices (Coates, 2004), there are
overlaps in many features proposed between Lakoff (1975) and Coates (2004). It
is significant to note that all the main prominent features which were identified
in this study are the same as the features employed by female characters in the
dialogues of many movies. The functions of these features are also consistent
with the findings of the previous research cited in related studies (Hardini,
Darmawangsa, & Nada, 2017; Juwita, Sunggingwati, & Valiantien, 2018;
Oktapiani, Natsir, & Setyowati, 2017; Safitri, 2017; Santi, 2013; Widayanti,
2014). It seems that women employ various features in conversations, and these
features are typically adopted in female characters’ conversations in movies
regardless of the genre of movie. Although female characters use many
women’s linguistic features in gender-based communication, men may use some
of women’s features in their communication as some features are shared
between women and men. For example, both female and male characters in this
Thoughts 2019-2 27

movie employed some common features in conversations such as, fillers/hedges

and minimal responses. In gender-based communication, the functions of
features used by women and men are interpreted in different ways based on
genderlect even though the same features are employed in conversation. On the
other hand, it is possible that females may adopt some of men’s linguistic
features in communication.
The benefits that female characters applying the language features gain,
are to make the purposes of statements in utterances clearer, to promote
women’s standpoints, and to improve women’s status in society. Some features
employed in female characters’ dialogues; for example, questions and tag
questions could imply that women tend to speak out and express their opinions
more in the public sphere. Women tend to ask questions and for others’ opinions
in conversations rather than giving silence. Women also use tag questions to
invite others to participate during the talks, and to ask for confirmation when
they are not sure instead of ignoring it. In addition, many females are polite.
Politeness of the language may help women to succeed in communication as
they might persuade the listeners to do or to help with what they have asked for.
However, using women’s linguistic features such as fillers/hedges sometimes
could reflect women’s weaknesses according to women’s characteristics. This
can be suggestive of the fact that gender bias has been embedded into the
language used in gender-based communication. Women use language features as
tools in communication to express themselves in all aspects, to attempt to
support their standpoints and to seek more equal treatment in gender from
society in particular the context of workplace.
It cannot be denied that people in society still use sexist language in
conversation. Mills (2008) aims to explain some features of sexist language
which are noticeable and do appear in communication. There is an overt sexism,
titles, which has been employed in conversations throughout the movie. It is
unfair that men can be only titled with “Mister” while women have separated
titles to visibly state of their marital status. However, the title “Ms,” which is
considered to be a neutral term, is widely acceptable nowadays. It would be
more appropriate to apply the title “Ms” to other women, particularly to
acquaintances, because the use of rigid titles may offend some women. As
women are aware of sexism in language, they have tried to avoid using sexist
language and replace it with generic terms instead. For example, female
characters used the terms “police officer” and “cop” instead of “policeman” or
“policewomen” in conversations. The use of sexist language is sometimes
difficult to notice as the words used in conversation seem to be everyday words
spoken in communication. This is a reason why people still do speak in sexist
language, exacerbating its existence in communication.
Another issue is gender differences which can be caused by social
expectations. Females and males are expected to do what they are supposed to
28 Thoughts 2019-2

do in society according to the way of practices, meaning that their gender roles
and responsibilities may therefore be varied in different societal contexts
(Blackstone, 2003; Holmes, 2007; SIDA, 2015; UNESCO, 2003; Wharton,
2005). It could be said that gender differences lead to gender stereotyping.
Notably, gender roles, responsibilities, and occupation have been assigned to
both women and men of society. Even though women may do the same tasks as
men, gender biases often cause the differences between women and men in
society, including within organisations. Women working in organisations aim to
prove that women tend to expose themselves more in public because they
themselves want to gain influential positions in society, and also, women and
men can equally excel at the same tasks and responsibilities. Nevertheless,
women still experienced real hardship in careers although men and women have
achieved relative equality in some professions nowadays.
Gender stereotyping definitely reflects the attitudes of people in society
which is not easy to change because people in society have learned and been
told to believe in those sets of ideas (Coates, 2004; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet,
2003). Moreover, gender stereotyping is a major obstacle for women in the
workplace. A glass ceiling seems to be a main obstacle to women in achieving
high-level positions, in particular at the management level of an organisation
(Čeněk, 2013; Coates, 2004; Ivy & Backlund, 2008; Schnurr & Zayts, 2017). It
is obvious that women are still stereotyped in the workplace, particularly in
some professions. In the movie, gender stereotyping is a major obstacle to Judy
who wants to become a police officer as police officer is considered to be a
profession for males.
The pervasive attitudes of people can be formed by social learning or
direct experience. This idea confirms that the same set of social ideologies has
been inherited by both men and women who are members of society; and also,
people in society have, at the same time, been socialised based on social
ideologies. The basic beliefs based on biological traits and characteristics
directly affect stereotype. Therefore, groups of submissive people are
stigmatised by the dominant, superior groups of people in society who typically
have negative attitudes towards those other groups.
Not only are women stereotyped, but men also could be stereotyped.
Usually, gender stereotyping is considered based on characteristics which are
semiotic. In this movie, men are stereotyped in the same or similar fashion as
women. A scene of the movie presents a male character, Nick, who is
stereotyped by another male character. He has been judged and stereotyped by
using characteristics of being a fox which are said to be unreliable, sly and
dishonest.
The statements referring to stereotyping could be spoken by men rather
than by women. However, it is possible that women could be stereotyping others
based on individual’s natural characteristics or what they believe. Judy expresses
Thoughts 2019-2 29

her attitudes regarding stereotype towards Nick and the sloths working at the
Department of Mammal Vehicles. Her attitudes clearly reflect social beliefs,
which are based on natural characteristics that have been fostered for a long
time. She claims that Nick, a fox, is foxy, cunning, and untrustworthy while the
sloths are very lazy, slow, and inactive.
It could be seen that all anthropomorphic characters in this movie were
created based on the true nature of each species. However, human characteristics
could be reflected by these characters. The appearances or characteristics of
people that we have seen may not be their true identities. Some characters in this
movie are given as examples. According to De Saussure (1916/1959), the
anthropomorphic characters are considered as signifier; whereas, the people’s
attitudes towards their characteristics could be considered as signified. Starting
with Judy, the main female character, she seems to be perky, energetic,
confident, and optimistic; however, she is sometimes emotional, sensitive, and
judges others wrongly based on her ideas. The second person is Assistant Mayor
Bellwether who is a female sheep. Many people think that she is an important
person as she works for the mayor. Actually, she realised that she got this job
only because the mayor wants the sheep votes due to a large number of prey in
the society. She appears to be sweet, nice, helpful, friendly, and harmless in
appearance under the sheep’s clothing. Actually, her true natures are revealed at
the end. She is a villain who is ruthless and of embittered mind as she has been
oppressed by the predators. Regarding her evil scheme, she has manipulated the
prey by claiming her position so that she could be the new mayor.
It is explicit that social ideologies have been embedded in women’s and
men’s thoughts and attitudes, including in social practices from the past up till
now. An obvious channel to notice gender bias is speaking when the language
used in communication could reflect gender ideology. Therefore, gender-based
communication is a way to convey these social ideologies to other people in
society. However, the interpretational social meanings of the conversation in
different contexts is necessary in order to understand the messages
communicated to each other, and to avoid misinterpretation of the messages.
Thusly, to promote non-sexist language in communication could help people to
realise the issue of gender differences which may reduce the issue of gender
inequality in society overall.

6. Implications
The findings of this study have important implications for the use of
language and meaning interpretation in communication. The speakers could
adopt linguistic features to state their intentions in conversation. Understanding
the functions of linguistic features, the listeners would be able to identify the
purposes and to understand the meanings of what has been said in conversation.
According to gender-based communication, people may interpret the meanings
30 Thoughts 2019-2

of the situations in different ways; therefore, it is important that people should

consider the relevant background and cultural contexts, including awareness of
meaning interpretation, to avoid misinterpretation. Interlocutors will, therefore,
reach common understanding which leads to successful communication.
It cannot be denied that social ideologies are embedded in
communication which sometimes could reflect through the language used in
communication i.e. sexism in language. The children and youth might have
learned sexist language in everyday life. Watching movies with children and
young people, parents could take this opportunity by using movies as a medium
to point out that there are features of sexist language employed in conversations.
This would help children to realise that the ideas of gender differences and sexist
language are occurring in communication. Parents could encourage children to
have awareness of using appropriate gender-neutral language and to avoid using
sexism in language in social communication. Moreover, schools could play a
part in teaching children as they spend most of their time on learning at schools.
Teachers could explain that it is not appropriate to apply sexist language in
conversation since it could cause gender inequality, especially towards women.
Teachers may introduce gender-neutral language to students so that they are
more aware and can avoid using sexist language in conversation. To effectively
communicate with others, it would be more appropriate to use neutral words
without gender specification in communication to promote gender equality in
society.

7. Conclusion
This study investigated women’s communication style, the use of
linguistic features and functions in women’s language and utterances, and
interpreted the social meanings in different scenes in the animated movie
Zootopia. Critical discourse analysis was adopted as the methodology along with
the methods of note-taking for data collection. In addition, the methods of
conversation analysis, textual analysis, and semiotic analysis were used for data
analysis. The findings highlight that women used many linguistic features and
communication styles to communicate with other people. The features used by
female characters in this movie were fillers/hedges, minimal responses,
questions, tag questions, politeness, directives, compliments, and swearing
language. Conversational strategies were also applied in the conversations.
Furthermore, women tended to use cooperative style to maintain connections
and relationships. Language and communication reflect the attitudes of people in
society. The utterances in the movie reflect the gender bias of both the male and
female characters. This study also confirms that social ideologies of stereotyping
and discrimination still presently exist in modern society and film culture.
Therefore, it is necessary to be aware of the features and functions of language
and be able to interpret the social meanings embedded in language used in
Thoughts 2019-2 31

communication in different societies in order to understand the social contexts in

each society. To succeed in effective communication, gender-neutral language
should be introduced to the public. Also, the familial and educational institutions
could be the key factors to promote the use of gender-inclusive language,
particularly in the groups of children and adolescents. Using the non-sexist
language could raise awareness among the youth and could change their
attitudes towards gender bias. This impact could lead to the way of changing
communication in society.
32 Thoughts 2019-2

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