Abstract

This study, entitled "Language, Power, and Patriarchy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Narratives in Popular Culture," explores how linguistic choices in media texts reproduce and reinforce patriarchal ideologies. Using Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis as the analytical framework, the research examines selected examples from popular films, advertisements, and television dramas that shape gender perceptions in contemporary society. The study investigates how language constructs and normalizes male dominance while marginalizing female voices through lexical selection, metaphor, and representation strategies. It also highlights the subtle ways in which patriarchal discourse is disguised as entertainment or cultural norm, thus sustaining unequal power relations. Data for this research are collected from widely consumed media texts in English and Urdu, reflecting both global and local gender ideologies. The analysis reveals that despite apparent progress toward gender equality, popular culture continues to embed and circulate discourses that privilege masculine authority and objectify women. The study concludes that a critical awareness of media language is essential to challenge and deconstruct the normalized patterns of gender inequality. Ultimately, the research contributes to feminist discourse studies by linking everyday media communication to broader sociocultural power structures.