International Journal of Linguistics & Communication

Promoting Masculine Hegemony through Humour: A Linguistic Analysis of Gender Stereotyping in Egyptian Sexist Internet Jokes
Heba Nayef, Mohamed El-Nashar

Abstract
The study aims at shedding some light on the stereotypical patterns of the representation of women in Egyptian sexist internet jokes. The paper shows how language is used and manipulated to serve maintaining the status quo of gender inequality and masculine hegemony in the Egyptian society. It addresses four themes: women and language; women in the public and private spheres; women as sex objects and finally the image of Egyptian women as compared to non-Egyptian women. Through employing van Dijk's (2003) ideological discourse strategies, the study shows that in all these themes that there has been a common explicit or implicit division of the world. There were always two images presented: A positive image of the superior, knowledgeable, rational men, and a negative image of the talkative, ignorant women who are unfit for the public sphere.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijlc.v2n4a5