Muted Group Theory
Cheris Kramarae, professor of speech communication at the University of Illinois, would probably feel closer to satisfied if the summary section of this paper were not necessary, if the connotations and ideas that muted group theory entails came to mind automatically. Unfortunately though, I would confuse a great deal of people if I used the terms "muted group theory" in writing and conversation without further explanation. This demonstrates a fundamental concept in Kramarae's theory. Muted group theory was designed to explore the experience of a subordinate group, particularly women, and therefore, the majority of the general public does not recognize it. In order for the theory to become wide spread the dominant group must acknowledge and encode it. For many, women and other marginalized groups' lack of voice remains "the problem with no name" (Kramarae, 1981) or worse, not a problem at all.
An underlying premise of Kramarae's theory asserts that the division of labor has created different experiences for women and men. Therefore, women and men perceive the world differently. Historically, and to a large degree, still today, men inhabited and controlled the public and political domain while women were restricted to the home and personal matters (Griffin, 1997). Men developed the language of our culture to express what they knew to be reality accompanied by how they wanted their world to be. The experiences, values, beliefs of men became institutionalized whereas women's concerns, needs and rights became marginalized and devalued. Edwin Ardener (1975) captures this phenomenon in his statement "groups that are on top of the social hierarchy determine to a great extent the dominant communication system of a...
... middle of paper ...
...t give up their views. Derogatory attitudes toward women often involve circular reasoning- something that is tremendously challenging to overcome. Also, to overcome these attitudes at least nationally, the attention of the dominant group indispensable. At present, this is lacking. But how does one go about encouraging the dominant group to accept a theory that will diminish their power and advantages for the sake of justice? This is a question muted group theory does not answer and neither can I.
References
Griffin, E. M. (1997). A first look at communication theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Jenkins, M (1980). Woman to woman: speaking the common language. In C. Kramarae (Ed.). The voices and words of women and men (pp. 319-323). Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press Inc.
Kramarae, C. (1981). Women and men speaking. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
There are many important aspects of theatre history. Important playwrights, actors, theatres, and events that impacted theatre in major ways. In this paper I am going to discuss the life of an important actor who would be better known for his last name and the actions of his brother. By looking into his life I have learned how interesting of an actor he was and what significance he had on theatre history. This actor is Edwin Booth.
...nineteenth century. Douglass was given some education and worked on it by himself after lessons ceased. Slaves who had any education were a rarity in the south. By taking away any opportunity for a better life, slave holders controlled every aspect of a slave’s life. However, after some education, Frederick longed for a life out of slavery. He realized he not only had to have a sound mind, but also a sound body and soul. The will to leave his old life behind was as important to education in obtaining his freedom. Frederick had many experiences that coincided with the average life of a southern slave during his time in captivity. However, after his escape, his life was very different from slaves who had obtained freedom by some means. Frederick Douglass became one the most prominent men in his time due to his hard work and determination he gained from being a slave.
“If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell”(47). The words of Mr. Auld seemed to foretell Douglass too perfectly. It would be too unsafe for whites to educate their slaves because a slave “should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told”(47). Still, Douglass progressed to learn how to read and write without a formal teache...
In order for Douglass to reach his goal of becoming a free man he thought the only way out was education. He needed to learn how to read, write, and think for himself about what slavery was. Since literacy and education were so powerful to Frederick he persevered to get himself the education he wanted. …. Douglass knew it wouldn’t be easy, but that didn’t stop him. Douglass realized the “ conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with a high hope, and
Anabolic steroid use is very dangerous and illegal in the USA. Steroid abuse is where danger comes into play. Anabolic steroids can be used safely with many positive effects and minimize the side effects if used safely, and in moderation. "I used steroids. It was a risky thing to do, but I have no regrets. It was what I had to do to compete. The danger with steroids is overusage. I only did it before a difficult competition – for two months, but not for a period of time that could harm me. And then afterward, it was over. I would stop. I have no health problems, no kidney damage or anything like that from using them." (Schwarzenegger) The positive side effects of steroids include increase in the male sex hormone (testosterone); which spikes improved recovery rate, increase in euphoria, gain in strength and size, increase in sex drive, and beco...
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
In the book Difference Matters, Brenda J Allen, begins writing about how gender matters in society. One of the main topics that she talks about is how in today’s society the male gender is the more predominate gender. As the reader, she has brought to mind many new ways to view how males earn more money then females, how we classify jobs as masculine or feminine, and also how society excepts males’ vs females to act and preform in the work force.
The tyrannies of silence can be described as, “cultural and individual silences that regulate social and individual visibility and undermine the likelihood of social change,” (The Tyrannies of Silence, slide 2). The idea that, if you are not the one doing the oppression then you are not responsible to act, is a very outdated idea. Bystanders are just as guilty for the negative acts that occur. Silence is a chain reaction; if one person does not do anything then the next person also feels not obligated to step in. Discrimination is one of the main topics where silence can be observed. As shown in the video by Tess Paras, ethnicity is often observed as a trait that is limiting (Paras, 0:43-1:10). As a society, we have set up ethnic stereotypes that limit people based on their ethnicity. In the music video by Tess Paras, she identifies common roles in shows such as, “over-sexed Asians, urban girl with flavor,” (Paras, 1:17-1:19). When people naturally follow these stereotypes, they think that they are doing nothing wrong. However, being silent about the “typical” roles associated with ethnicity creates the stigma that there is nothing wrong with it. Another major area of silence is gender stereotypes. When people silently obey to these stereotypes, it makes it more difficult to identify who is being hurt and who is benefiting from these silences (The Tyrannies of Silence, slide 5). In the TED talk, Tony
In the beginning of Douglass’ life, his only knowledge is the slave world and their duties. He knows the land, the families, and the brutal ways of life as a slave. When Douglass is sent to Baltimore to babysit, Mrs. Auld, his mistress, teaches him the alphabets. Mr. Auld tells her that she cannot teach a “nigger” no more because he thinks that ones they learn, they will be uncontrollable. This changes Douglass’s whole perception of slavery. He realizes that the only thing that stands between a slave and freedom is education. After Mrs. Auld stops teaching him, Douglass starts to read newspapers and books to teach himself how to read and write. The more Douglass learned, the more he starts to realize the ugliest side of slavery. This helps Douglass to be determined to put an end to slavery and eventually helps him escape. For Frederick Douglass, it was knowledge that freed him and changed his life so completely, and that he later uses to help other slaves. Knowledge was what gave Douglass a new life and determination to accomplish something instead of struggling his whole
In the introduction of Deborah Tannen’s “Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”, she compares and contrasts the ways men and women communicate. This reminds me of what I tell people that are struggling in their relationships. Women and men express themselves differently. Women think, but men act. If you can’t wrap your head around this, being in a relationship with anyone is going to be hard. Yet, this is such a basic way of looking at this issue. Not only are the genders vastly different, but each person relates to the world around them in a certain way. He or she also needs to be related to in a specific way. Looking at personalities and personal histories can give a better look at the way we communicate with each other. Tannen examines
Gender stratification is the cuts across all aspects of social life and social classes. It refers to the inequality distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women at the basis of their sex. The world has been divided and organized by gender, which are the behavioural differences between men and women that are culturally learnt (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:218). The society is in fact historically shaped by males and the issue regarding the fact has been publicly reverberating through society for decades and now is still a debatably hot topic. Men and women have different roles and these sex roles, defined to be the set of behaviour’s and characteristics that are standard for each gender in a society (Singleton, 1987) are deemed to be proper in the eyes of the society. They are as a matter of fact proper but as time move on, the mind-set of women changes as well, women also want to move on. However the institutional stratification by the society has become more insidious that the stereotypical roles have created a huge barrier between men and women. These barriers has affected women in many aspects such as minimizing their access on a more superior position in workforce organization, limits their ownership of property and discriminates them from receiving better attention and care.
The book An Intorduction of Sociolinguistics is an outstanding introductary book in the field of sociolinguistics. It encompasses a wide range of language issues. In chapter 13, Wardhaugh provides a good insight to the relationship between language and gender. He explains gender differences of language-in-use with concise examples. Wardhaugh riases questions about sexist language and guides readers to look closer at how people use language differently because of their own gender in daily life. According to the Whorfian hypothesis, which indicates that the way people use language reflects their thoughts, different genders adapt different communication strategies.
Society has set limits on gender roles with ideals such as male privilege and patriarchy. Patriarchy is the political structure to control womenbs thoughts on their sexuality, laboring, and place in society so...
Our capacity as human beings to acquire and express complex methods of communication has been one of the biggest driving forces of humanity’s success. These complex linguistic systems are what we know as language. Language gives us a method of expressing concepts, emotions, and ideas in a varied way which sets us apart from all other animals. Language and gender is an area of sociolinguistics and related fields which attempt to define the differences in language related to gender, and what the inferences of these differences may be.