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Dan Clayton's blog post - Legs-it and baby bumps

Dan Clayton's blog post - Legs-it and baby bumps
https://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/#!/2017/03/revising-gender-for-as-level-legs-it.html


This blog post talks about how gender has been represented in a recent Daily Mail newspaper headline - 'Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!' - alongside a picture of Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May. Initially, Clayton talks about how from a semantics point of view, the headline shouldn't cause offence as 'legs' are simply a body part we have and not derogatory compared to words such as 'slag' and 'slut'. However, whilst using the phrase 'legs-it' may seem inoffensive at first glance, the connotations it has when put next to a picture of strong female politicians suggest that the Daily Mail finds their physical appearance more important than their job.
Later in the blog post, Clayton references a similar situation that happened recently, as when Amal Clooney visited The United Nations, all Time magazine could talk about was her baby bump and high heels, further feeding the idea that female appearance is far more important than their careers.


Overall, Clayton suggests that gender representation is more than initial meanings and works on a level beyond words, phrases and clauses and on a wider textual and discourse level.

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