The The perfomance of femininity among women in their twenties: the role of reciprocal self-disclosure concerning relationships with men in feminine juvenile conversation

Abstract

This paper analyzes the construction of feminine identities in natural conversation, drawing on constructionist/performative theories of gender and the concept of Community of Practice, in concordance with current trends in studies on Language, Gender and Sexuality. First, the state of the art in this field is reviewed, explaining its beginnings in the pursuit of “gender differences” in communication, the reasons for change to a constructionist/performative framework and the basis of this new perspective, as well as the criticisms of its application that have been more recently raised from Conversation Analysis (CA). Second, the paper focuses on the analysis of excerpts taken from a natural conversation among three twenties women who engage in reciprocal self-disclosure about their relationships with men. The analysis demonstrates the important social and interpersonal functions played by this communicative event, acting as a way for doing friendship and displaying youth identities which emerge as imbued with femininity. On the one hand, the conversation is marked by the performance of a stereotypically feminine style of interaction, focusing on the creation of intimacy, the expression of solidarity and the strengthening of “rapport” between the participants. On the other hand, relationships with men are approached from the point of view of feelings and matching, through the telling of a great number of stories that provide details on the personal experiences of the participants in this respect and, especially, on how it is evolving the “informal relationship” which one of the girls is maintaining.