Jennifer Lawrence - Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?

What are the important contextual features of this text?

The context of this piece is as follows:
Following a hacking scandal, Sony had a lot of sensitive information leaked. This included the respective wages earned by each of the actors that starred in a certain film. It was subsequently revealed that the female stars, notably Jennifer Lawrence (of 'Hunger Games' fame) were being paid substantially less than their male counterparts. This led to Lawrence herself posting an update to Facebook detailing her thoughts on the matter. The entire scenario was accentuated by the multitude of recent claims of a 'gender pay gap', making it one of the most hotly debated discussions concerning gender equality in recent years.

Comment on the 'male' and 'female' language features in this text. What is their effect on the reader?

In direct opposition to Robin Lakoff's 'Deficit' model of gendered speech, Lawrence uses aspects of what would be considered both 'male' and 'female' speech.
In terms of 'female' language features, Lawrence uses the brunt of them at the start of her article. For example, she can be seen to use Emotional language such as 'excited'. She also uses several 'empty adjectives' like 'adorable', albeit slightly ironically or sardonically. Due to the very slight presence of this 'female' speech, it has very little effect on the reader, since they don't really get the chance to process or interpret it before it is gone. However, after that she abandons all of the so-say 'female sensibilities' and descends into what would be heavily considered 'male' linguistic territory.
 Examples of this can be found in her noticeably 'direct' manner of speech. This is shown through the use of imperatives/directives. She also features swearing heavily in her text, a feature Lakoff would interpret as being indicative of 'male' speech tendencies. She also speaks with what could be interpreted as a more 'dominant' tone, a staple of Lakoff's theory of Deficit. The inclusion of these 'male' linguistic features gives the piece a very commanding and serious tone, and makes it really stand out, when you remember from who the text is coming.

Do you agree with her conclusion? Justify your answer making reference to the language and gender theories we have looked at in class.

In terms of language, she makes a good point. It is indeed the case that when men are forceful or even aggressive in their efforts to achieve something, it often works, and they are often praised for it, whereas these attributes are seen as detrimental when used by a woman.

While I in no way subscribe to the belief that women should be paid less for the same work, I do not agree with the conclusion to which Jennifer Lawrence has arrived. While, on the face of it, it may indeed seem that Jennifer Lawrence (recently named Hollywood's highest paid actress) was paid about half of what her male co-stars earned, that conclusion has been reached due to distorted figure taken out of context.
For her role in American Hustle Lawrence received $1.25 million, plus $250,000 in deferred compensation, as well as seven points in profit participation.
If you take the information at face value, it could seem outrageous that her male co-stars Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper received $2.5 million each, with nine points.
However this is not the truth. While Jennifer Lawrence worked for 19 days for her $1.25 million, Bale & Cooper worked at least 45 days each for their double in pay.
When broken down, Lawrence actually earned $65 thousand per day of work, whereas Bale & Cooper both earned $55 thousand per day, meaning that in fact, Lawrence earned more for her time worked.
As has been demonstrated, it is easy enough to distort these figures to make it appear as if Lawrence was being criminally underpaid for her role, in comparison to her co-stars, that simply isn't the case.
In a revelation of, perhaps, cruel irony, for her starring role in the film Passengers, Lawrence was paid an estimated $5 million to £7 million more than her male co-star, Chris Pratt.
With such high figures being thrown around, the entire situation does beg the question:
'Aren't all stars, male, female, or whatever, absurdly overpaid?'