“That’s the worst compliment I’ve ever heard”: Analyzing gender, discourse, and (im)politeness Matthew Chit Cheung Sung

Drawing on the method of discourse analysis, this paper explores the complex relationship between gender, discourse and (im)politeness. By examining an extended excerpt of interaction taken from the reality TV show The Apprentice, I investigate the role of gender stereotyping and gender assumptions in the assessment of (im)politeness by the discourse participants. Following Mills (2002), I argue that gender plays an important role in the judgments of (im)politeness by the interactants, even though judgments may vary among individuals. The analysis illustrates that a woman’s relatively masculine verbal behavior, albeit politic in view of the stereotypically ‘masculine ’ context, is perceived as inappropriate and impolite. It is suggested that she may be subjected to more stringent gender norms which govern what constitutes polite behavior, as her linguistic behavior may be evaluated against the norms of women’s speech which is assumed to be stereotypically more polite than men’s speech. This highlights the issue of a double bind (Lakoff 1975) that women confront at work