Donald Trump -- the feminine candidate (?!)

This is one of the more interesting stories I have read this election season – “Donald Trump Talks Like a Woman.”

Although Trump is hyper-masculine in his rhetoric and, unfortunately, in some of his alleged behavior, linguist Julie Sedivy contends that his frequent use of “I” (as opposed to “We”), the use of shorter words, and the use of auxiliary verbs like am, don’t, and will mark his speech as strikingly feminine – and thus very personal, likeable, and trustworthy.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is basically in the middle of the spectrum of masculine/feminine language.  Her speech, according to Sedivy, is far more masculine than Trump’s but more feminine than that of candidates like Sarah Palin, John Kerry, Jeb Bush, or Bernie Sanders.

(To be fair, another linguist, John McWhorter of Columbia, throws shade on all of this. He says Trump’s language is simply more informal than Clinton’s, not necessarily more feminine.)

Sedivy also cites a 2015 study of political advertising that suggests female voiceovers are more credible than male voiceovers in ads focusing on issues like education, childcare, and reproductive rights, while male voices were more persuasive on topics like the economy or foreign policy.