Unveiling the Myth of Mars and Venus in French rap: An analysis of the gender determinants of non-standard language use

Abstract

This article studies the use of non-standard language (NSL) in a corpus of selected francophone rap tracks to see whether gender determinants have an impact on its use. This study relies on a lexicographic analysis to produce quantitative results, which are then analysed qualitatively with the help of extracts from francophone rap tracks and semi-structured interviews with francophone rappers. This article initially focuses only on male versus female rappers but the qualitative discussion takes more complex notions into account, such as gender performativity, queer linguistics or androgyny. Moreover, this research investigates unequal gender power relations in a male-dominated heterosexist industry. This study reviews how male and female artists react to and perpetuate these stereotypical gender manifestations in their lyrics. Some of the NSL use is also analysed in terms of speech acts to try and determine what the artists want to accomplish by using specific terms in certain contexts. It can be concluded that no real difference can be found between male and female rappers with respect to their NSL use. When differences are found, they are not very wide and can also be observed by only comparing men or only women.