A Discussion of the Representation of Masculinity and Femininity in ...

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‘Smile’ “…so whenever you break your leg just smile if you can” Brownies Scouts “If you cannot – well – then grin!” ‘Good Turn’ / ‘Chivalry’ “…you must not take any reward for doing it” ‘Loyalty’ “…as a Brownie you must obey the leader of your pack or six” Table 5: The imperatives and directives in the Brownies’ and Scouts’ texts. Page 29 “Laugh as much as you can” “…whenever you can get a good laugh, laugh on” “…make other people laugh too” “If you are in pain or trouble, make yourself smile at it” “…remember that you have got to do a good turn for someone” “tie an extra knot in your handkerchief or necktie” “…leave the tail of your necktie outside your waistcoat” “…think to whom you did the good turn” “…you must do two good turns the next day” ______________ In the Brownies’ Smile text, the Brownies are directed to smile if ever they should break their legs, but as I mentioned above, this directive is mitigated by a conditional clause containing the modal verb of possibility, ‘can’. It relates to the negative assertion made at the beginning of the Brownies’ Smile text, that Brownies “don’t cry” when they are in “difficulty...pain…trouble (or) danger”. The negative assertion inevitably draws on the corresponding positive assertion for its interpretation within a critical analysis. In so doing, it becomes evident that Baden-Powell was drawing on the (stereotypical) assumption that girls cry in order to justify making the negative assertion. Furthermore, the mitigated directive “just smile if you can” acknowledges the possibility that girls might
not be able to resist crying, and as a result, foregrounds the natural bravery of the Wolf Cub described in this text, who despite being knocked down by a car, did not cry. 6.2.1 Relational and Expressive Modality Fairclough’s (1989) description of relational and expressive modality is most usefully drawn on in the present study’s discussion of what direction Baden-Powell’s authority is oriented in. According to Fairclough, relational modality is “a matter of the authority of one participant in relation to others” (p.126), and thus refers to a particular use of language in representing a degree of asymmetry in power relations between the text producer and addressee. Expressive modality also concerns the linguistic realization of unequal power relations but with the emphasis on the claims to knowledge a text producer has over the addressee. Expressive modality therefore is “a matter of the speaker or writer’s authority with respect to the truth or probability of a representation of reality” (ibid.). In the three pairs of texts analyzed here, it is apparent that there are generally more examples of relational modality in the Scouts’ texts (e.g. “you have got to do a good turn…”), while there are more examples of expressive modality in the Brownies’ texts (e.g. “Brownies always smile…”). Baden-Powell is seemingly more authoritative, in terms of giving commands, to the Scouts but uses more expressive modality with the Brownies in making claims to knowledge and imparting apparent truths. As mentioned previously, Baden-Powell matured through two male-only institutions (public school and the army) and perhaps, as a result, found it more natural to instruct boys, like he himself was instructed. In both sets of texts, however, Baden-Powell legitimises the actions of smiling, doing a good turn and demonstrating loyalty through either personally authorizing the actions, or stating as fact that the actions are associated with particular social actors, as in the examples above. Page 30
Page 1 and 2: A Discussion of the Representation
Page 3 and 4: “…scouting for girls is not the
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ..
Page 7 and 8: LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The 3rd per
Page 9 and 10: 1. INTRODUCTION The quotation that
Page 11 and 12: elieved that girls should be offere
Page 13 and 14: 2. LITERATURE REVIEW I will now des
Page 15 and 16: “ideologically loaded” (p.85) a
Page 17 and 18: 3. METHODOLOGY 3.1 Data Collection
Page 19 and 20: consider what is excluded as well a
Page 21 and 22: 4. SOCIETY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH C
Page 23 and 24: series of, at times, violent action
Page 25 and 26: 6. ANALYSIS As outlined in chapter
Page 27 and 28: use is not a feature of the Brownie
Page 29: 6.2 MODALITY This area of text anal
Page 33 and 34: Brownies Scouts The purpose of ‘s
Page 35 and 36: 6.4.2 Role Allocation In his discus
Page 37 and 38: The Brownies’ Loyalty text includ
Page 39 and 40: efer to a military identity that se
Page 41 and 42: of being non-military, it cannot be
Page 43 and 44: 7. CONCLUSIONS 7.1 Discussion of Fi
Page 45 and 46: 7.2 Weaknesses of the Study This st
Page 47 and 48: REFERENCES Baden-Powell, A. and Bad
Page 49 and 50: APPENDIX The ‘Smile’ Texts Page
Page 51: The ‘Loyalty’ Texts Page 50

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