How Gender Sensitive Is Public Discourse?

The paper seeks to answer the question whether gender sensitivity finds its way in speeches, oral utterances, lengthy texts, clichés, slogans etc. that constitute a contemporary public discourse. The research traces the deep-rooted stereotypes concerning feminine/masculine social roles and functions while their lingual presentations are traditionally perceived as fixed and emotionally trite. The study shows that these are the challenges that have been undermined recently as far as the speaking community tends no longer to be represented in terms of gender binary. The study follows the most widely spread instances of gender sensitivity violation and the ways of overcoming it. The public discourse serves the background where all the current transformations are taking place. The mechanism of meaning making and its impact on the present-day social consciousness comprise both the linguistic contents and language use. In order to uncover the implied connotations gender nominations are endowed with, a number of familiar statements, addresses, set phrases and the like have been analysed. The paper follows stylistic peculiarities of public discourse as far as it offers multimodal options of social interaction. Hence, gender sensitivity across diverse communicative events, media, commercials, advertisements etc. requires proper consideration in the linguistic aspect. Insights into cultural background, historical and national contexts disclose the deep-rooted stereotypes, beliefs, conventions which clash within the bounds of a definite discourse and require adjustment to the contemporary interpretation. The present research tries to shed light on possible ways of overcoming the problems and making public discourse gender-friendly.