Attitude, Healthcare Providers, knowledge, Lassa fever & Management

Abstract

Ideologies that promote unequal power relations are more or less structured in the fabric of the various world social systems. Among such ideologies is the issue of gender ideal which has favoured patriarchy and subjected women to extreme subordination for hundreds of years. To some extent, language has been very effective in contesting this social injustice. Thus, this study, using Lazar’s (2007) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as a theoretical framework, has analysed selected discourse exchanges in the epic movie, E̩fúns̩etán Aníwúrà, to weigh systemic power manifestations in varied contexts where unequal gender ideologies are contended. The work finds that gender power manifestations can be incited in feminine exchanges through discursive behaviours such as denigration, self-aggrandisement and blasphemy. It also reveals that insults, abuses, curses, accusations, counter accusations, threats, metaphors and incantations are among the linguistic tools women have been exploiting to hit gender barriers in their quest for equality. Essentially, the research concludes that although the women’s linguistic choices for fighting injustice could be very potent, their overstretching the capacity of those choices paradoxically fortifies masculine resistance and incites gender dominance struggles