A Sociolinguistics Look at Gender in Fury Road and The Lightning Thief a Film by George Miller and Chris Columbus

This study examines the types and functions of masculine and feminine speech styles used in the dialogues of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), based on Wood’s (2008) gender-based communication theory. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method with content analysis. The data were collected from the dialogues of the films supported by transcripts.The findings show that features of masculine and feminine speech styles existed in these films. The masculine features such as establish status and control, instrumentality, conversational command, direct and assertive, abstract, and less emotionally responsive. while the feminine features such as establish and maintain relationships, equality, support for others, maintenance work, responsiveness, personal and concrete style, and tentativeness. Among the features, maintenance work appears to be the most dominant, showing that the characters often use language in maintaining interaction and encouraging others to participate in conversation. Besides, the tentativeness appears as the least frequent feature, indicating that expressions of uncertainty are rarely used. This study also reveals that masculine and feminine speech styles are not strictly determined by the biological gender of the characters. Instead, these speech styles are influenced by the context, situation, and purpose of communication. Therefore, this study showed that masculine and feminine speech styles function as forms of communication and reflect social interaction and gender as a social construct in film dialogue