RELATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF DOMINANCE–SUBMISSION IN ROMANTIC ENCOUNTERS (GENDER ASPECT)

Abstract

Dominance-submission is one of the most fundamental dimensions of the interpersonal relationship of a romantic dyad. The comparative analysis demonstrates new insights into verbal and nonverbal behaviours, which signal interpersonal dominance-submission within romantic encounters in American dating culture, as well as which parts of the body are preferred to initiate face-to-face romantic interactions by heterosexual strangers. The sample of the study consisted of 40 representative codes, which included 133 verbal and 1996 nonverbal immediacy cues initiated by American women, as well as 116 verbal and 1087 nonverbal immediacy cues initiated by American men. The findings showed that the distribution of the roles during the initial romantic interactions follows the traditional gender stereotypes. Accordingly, men choose the “masculine” position of dominance, while women prefer the “feminine” position of submission. First, the verbal distinctiveness of dominance-submission is observed in the role deixis of the speaker and the addressee. The results suggest that within interactional control in the task performance cues, both self-nomination and identification of the addressee prevail in the feminine romantic media discourse; while, self-nomination is significantly preferred in the masculine romantic media discourse. Second, the nonverbal distinctiveness of dominance-submission is observed in the prevalence of nonverbal expression of the dominance in the masculine romantic media discourse; conversely, the preference for the nonverbal expression of submission is found in the feminine romantic discourse. Ultimately, gender equality is manifested in signalling dominance by the identical body parts, while the distinctiveness of the body parts is observed in expressing submission.