AN Analysis of the biased Representation of Females in the Movie, “the real Question: A Critical

Discourse Perspective

Text

Mira: Damn another boring day!

She is frustrated with this lifestyle. I am trying to pursue something that makes
me feel alive.

Mira: Hi!

Waqas: Hi too!

Mira: Hi I wanted to ask you something.

Waqas: sure.

Mira: I wanted to ask you something went wrong? do you like working here.

Waqqaas: nope

Mira: Then, why are you working here?

Waqas: My kids, need my loans the payments, and so on.

Mira: okay.

Waqas: Why do you ask me these questions?

Mira: Never mind just wanted to know.

Peter: Mira! Did you finish coding that’s the last project yet? Yea I am working on the one you
assign me today morning.

Peter: you shall have been finished with both by now.

Mira: I will make sure I get it was done by the end of today.

Peter: how long have you been working here?

Mira: three hours

Peter: try to keep up

Mira: come out of the office and call her friend Touja, my bestie and a very successful
fashion photographer. She is the one who does not care about anything. She lives
life on her own rules.

Mira: ask in the car? How was your day?

Tonja: it was great. You had to run late, how did Sam react?

Mira: okay! I felt like punching him in his face, such an attitude in hand you have. It’s
like hell there everyvery.

Tonja: then why don’t you quit and look for another job?

Mira: to be honest I want to change my career alttogether. Shruti! My other roommate is

a very popular writer. The one who does not believe in the concept of marriage
and lives by her ideologies.

Shruti: Hi girls! Go tonight for dinner I’m so bored of eating at home.

Mira: again as usual. I ever gonna cook on your cooking turns. I go for a walk first

Mom: call Mira and wants to convince her to nitrate but she never agrees with her
because I am not happy with my career. And marriage completely restore my
freedom to do that.

Shruti: why so late Mira? We have been for you so long.

Mira: dammn it I can’t go out, I am not happy because mom wants to compel me for
mirragemarriagei: let’s go for dinner and we will discuss it over there.

ShrUTI: Mira so tell us what’s your problem?

Mira: to be honest I am not happy with my job. I need to find like and pursue that: then
why did you do engineering?

Mira: my parents wanted me to become an engineer or a doctor, so I just pursued

engineering.

Shruti: it was soo typical you have told them and don’t want to.

Mira: I have never gone against my parent’s wishes. Parents: you are just crazy.

Tonga: what do you want to do in life.

Mira: that is the millions dollar question I have been asking myself for so long.

Tonga: first of all I am glad you decided that you don’t want to settle for something that
doesn’t interest you. why not try different things that are what you like. I have
been wanting to try things new things.

Mira: I am trying out but I just did not dare to go forward.

Theoretical Framework

This term paper has taken The Deficit Theory by Robin Lakoff (1975). Robin Lakoff in
her book “language and woman place” points out some deficiencies of woman’s speech and
dominance of men’s speech. The differences are maintained one by one: Woman uses hedges
more frequently as compared to men while speaking. For instance, kind of, may be, seems
like, etc because women feel inferior to men. They, women, use more tag questions as compare
to men, which shows uncertainty on the one hand but on the other side it shows that women are
attention seeker. It is followed by the point that they use more apologies even when they are not
supposed to use. E.g. I am sorry, but I think you are wrong. They use more polite form then
men.They use more intensifiers e.g. very, so, quiet. They use euphemistic language. They use
empty adjectives such as adorable, lovely, Devine. They use hyper-correct grammar and
pronunciation. Their language is very formal and refine. Their speech mainly consists of words
related to household activities only. On the other hand, men use language related to sports.
Women use direct quotation while men paraphrase things. They give indirect commands while
men give direct command. Their speech lacks authority. It’s less assertive. They have less sense
of humor as compared to men. Lakoff concludes that these differences are because of the
deficiencies of women’s speech and they are culturally constructed. However, O,Barr and
Bowman believe that there are many differences in the language of men and women such as
uncertainty and lack of authority are associated more with power then gender.

Methodology

The nature of this study is qualitative as the evidence is gathered from the movie “The
Real Questions.” The Deficit Theory by Robin Lakoff is employed for the analysis and
discussion. The selected texts were then contextualized for comparative analysis.

Data Analysis

The movie, the real question, is a philosophical movie, which has discussed the questions
related to life and its perspective. It raises the question whether people are happy or not with
their jobs, family, and career and how being a female, one finds out the meaning of life in her
career. It gives birth to another question that if one achieve what he/ she wants, how would he
/she feel about it. People don't think there will be any time of their leave when they feel that you
have achieved all of your life's goals and there is nothing more to accomplish. When one goal is
met, the confidence and satisfaction of achievement give birth to another higher goal. It is
Human Nature. The increased self-esteem due to the achievement encourages a person to aspire
higher. Human wants are like tides. Sometimes, these wants may be subdued for the time being
due to circumstances and external situations, but there is never a moment in life when ones don't
need anything. If ones really don't need anything and satisfied with what they have, it will
become a saint.

Applying the theory of Lakoff on the movie scene, it has been derived out that language
used in there both by man and female is one way or the other is the same. There is no such
difference. It can be seen in the first dialogue.

Mira: I have never gone against my parent’s wishes. Parents: you are just
crazy. Tonga: what do you want to do in life? Mira: that is the millions
dollar question I have been asking myself for so long. Tonga: first of all I
 am glad you decided that you don’t want to settle for something that doesn’t
interest you. Why not try different things that are what you like. I have been
wanting to try things new things.

In this dialogue, it could be seen clearly that male and female are using the language at
the same way. As the lady asks about her life, she is response at the same way as well. It shows
that the theory may not be applied to every text and all the time. Even she is trying to discover
something new in life.