Alan Sugar and Ben
Apprentice candidate style answer 1
How does the spoken language in the clip from “The Apprentice” illustrate issues of power and gender?
In this essay a clip from “The Apprentice” is going to be analysed to see how power relations influence and also how gender can affect speech. The clip is of a board room where two men and two women are speaking. Sir Alan Sugar is in charge and the other three people, Yasmina, Paula and Ben, are being questioned to see who will be fired.
Sir Alan Sugar is the first person to talk in the clip and so he will be analysed first. Sir Alan is in charge and it is up to him what will happen with the people in the room. The three people show that he has the most power by addressing him as “Sir Alan” every time they say his name, whereas everyone else is just addressed by their first name. Sir Alan is the only person who is not interrupted when he is talking, except for when Paula is agreeing with him. He interrupts twice but could interrupt whenever he wants as he is in charge. The three other speakers are all battling for one position and so constantly interrupt and overlap as if they do not it could be seen as a sign of weakness, of letting someone be more powerful than them, which they do not want to do as it may likely lead to them getting fired. Sir Alan’s interruptions are mainly to get enough information so that he can fire the correct person. Ben’s interruptions on the other hand are largely where he is trying to blame the women for what went wrong.
Between Sir Alan and the three candidates there is turn-taking, which does not occur often between the three candidates themselves. They all raise their voices above each other to appear in charge and to make themselves heard. Paula is the project manager and so she is in a position of power as well, but since one of the three is going to be fired then that title counts for nothing. All three are in trouble and since they are shifting the blame onto each other it would
How does the spoken language in the clip from “The Apprentice” illustrate issues of power and gender?
In this essay a clip from “The Apprentice” is going to be analysed to see how power relations influence and also how gender can affect speech. The clip is of a board room where two men and two women are speaking. Sir Alan Sugar is in charge and the other three people, Yasmina, Paula and Ben, are being questioned to see who will be fired.
Sir Alan Sugar is the first person to talk in the clip and so he will be analysed first. Sir Alan is in charge and it is up to him what will happen with the people in the room. The three people show that he has the most power by addressing him as “Sir Alan” every time they say his name, whereas everyone else is just addressed by their first name. Sir Alan is the only person who is not interrupted when he is talking, except for when Paula is agreeing with him. He interrupts twice but could interrupt whenever he wants as he is in charge. The three other speakers are all battling for one position and so constantly interrupt and overlap as if they do not it could be seen as a sign of weakness, of letting someone be more powerful than them, which they do not want to do as it may likely lead to them getting fired. Sir Alan’s interruptions are mainly to get enough information so that he can fire the correct person. Ben’s interruptions on the other hand are largely where he is trying to blame the women for what went wrong.
Between Sir Alan and the three candidates there is turn-taking, which does not occur often between the three candidates themselves. They all raise their voices above each other to appear in charge and to make themselves heard. Paula is the project manager and so she is in a position of power as well, but since one of the three is going to be fired then that title counts for nothing. All three are in trouble and since they are shifting the blame onto each other it would