How is Gender shown in a conversation between Ricki and Vicki from Geordie Shore? How could we compare this with other data?

How is Gender shown in a conversation between Ricki and Vicki from Geordie Shore? How could we compare this with other data?

Key: I= Interviewer, R= Ricci, V= Vicki

R and V: [laughs]
I: will we be seeing a geordie wedding this season (.) or coming up?
V: (1) no (.) we're not um (.) I think we'll (.) in (.) oh (.)
R: you lost for words babe?
V: | [laughs]         |
R: | is she feeling | alright?
V: I'm not lost for words I'm just tryna work out how to | put it |
R:                                                                                      | yeah  | ok
V: shut up!
R: I can't believe this like
V: |we don't have a wedding |
R: | when she's on camera     | this never happens

Analysis

Due to the nature of this interview, we can tell that Vicki is trying to conceal some information about the next series, as the purpose of this interview is to encourage viewers to watch the new upcoming series of Geordie Shore, without giving too much information away. This factor could affect the significant amount of uncertainty features that Vicki uses as she is reluctant to use her speech as freely as possible, rather than just applying Robin Lakoff's 'Deficit Model' with women's language. She uses false starts; hesitations including 1 second pauses and micropauses; and fillers, such as 'um' and 'oh' as seen in the extract above. This is interesting as it supports Robin Lakoff's theory as she suggested that these features made women's language deficient as they were unnecessary in conversation. I also noticed that Ricci, the male speaker interrupts several times throughout the interview, and from the extract above, he interrupts three times consecutively while Vicki doesn't interrupt at all. This supports Zimmerman and West's theory as they suggested men interrupted much more frequently  than women and this was as a result of their dominance. I can also tell that there is a relationship between the speakers from their informal register as they laugh a lot with each other and Vicki also tells him to 'shut up' however we can tell from the context and the way he reacts to her, that it is a light-hearted joke. However after she says this, he flouts the maxim of relevance as he shifts the agenda back to what he was talking about before. You could suggest that this shows his dominance and power of him being able to shift the agenda, but she also does the same by carrying on to talk about the wedding in a competitive way. Ricci says 'I can't believe this like' and Vicki says, 'we don't have a wedding' which also flouts the maxim of relevance and juxtaposes with stereotypes of language and gender that men are usually more competitive and women are more cooperative.

In order to compare this conversation with other data collected first-hand, I could interview and record one-on-one mixed gender conversation, preferably a couple who are familiar with each other, by introducing a topic or debate. This way we could analyse how features of their language support or contradict gender theory and compare it with this interview with Vicki and Ricci to see whether the gender roles coincide in both interviews. However, to limit external variables that could affect the ability to establish cause and effect, we would have to choose two Geordie speakers, because regional dialect could really influence the language features used and this could be a factor to affect their language rather than gender being the influencing factor. I would also use a couple who are in a relationship or close friends because if the couple did not know each other this could affect how they speak to each other as they are likely to be more polite. If I were to use this as my data for an investigation I could title it 'How does gender affect the way couples speak in mixed gender conversations when presented with a particular topic of conversation?' to study different language features in relation to gender stereotypes.