Gender and politeness

In this study, I observed the use of the politeness strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson (1987) in the popular Turkish series “Avrupa Yakas?” (“European Side”). I suggested that women and men were employing different politeness strategies in similar situations. I hypothesized that in “Avrupa Yakas?” (“European Side”) men were employing more negative politeness strategies in their work-place than women, whereas women were employing more positive politeness strategies than men. Women were using more negative politeness strategies than men, talking to their older relatives, above 50 (fifty) years old, but men were using more positive politeness strategies than women. Mostly, middle-aged men were preferring to use bald-off-record strategies, whereas middle-aged women were preferring to use positive politeness strategies, while talking to their children and the friends and the lovers of their children. I obtained significant results for all the three hypotheses, after Chi-Square analyses had been conducted on the data.