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More handpicked essays just for you.
Modern society gender roles
Different communication patterns of men and women
Social construction of gender roles
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“Men come from Mars, Women came from Venus”. Is this quote true? Males and Females have a lot in common, but they are definitely not identical. They are different in many ways, one of them being the language used in face-to-face interaction. Men and Women have very different traits, which separate them from one another such as how assertive they are in conversations, their choice of vocabulary when speaking, and also how talkative they are. In this essay, I will seek to examine and explain the reasons behind these differences and critically analyse how they relate to my society. Firstly, women talk more about their private lives, whereas men hardly do so. In a book published by Adelaide Haas, she described men being “more loquacious and directive”, while women are “more supportive, polite and expressive” (Adelaide Haas, 1979). Also, Audrey Nelson explains that males and females tend to converse about different topics, claiming that Men prefer to converse about sports, finances, and work, while Women prefer to talk about their home, family and children (Audrey Nelson, 2014). In Jessica Butler’s research paper, she describes a scenario of a two-parent family having a meal. The fathers “rarely shared happenings from their life with their children or partners”, while the …show more content…
In Jessica Butler’s Paper, she claims that Women have a greater usage of Standard English and have greater “linguistic variability” as compared to Men (Jessica Wren Butler, 2009). This phenomenon could be due to the ‘status-consciousness’ of women. Thus, this spurs women to use more standard and formal English in order to obtain a higher societal status (Holmes, 1998). Due to the societal norms being placed on women, it may seem ‘unladylike’ for a woman to use informal language such as profanities as she may be seen to be transgressing the social norms that are expected of women (Butler,
“Men are from Mars, women are from Venus” as the famous saying of John Gray goes. It is believed men and women are nothing alike in almost every aspect. In Deborah Tannen’s essay “Gender in the classroom: Teacher’s Classroom Strategies Should Recognize that Men and Women Use Language Differently” she focused on how men and women differ when it comes to communicating, with emphasis on how it effects to how men and women behave in the classroom.
The English Language Systematically Degrades and Devalues Women It is often argued that the English language needs to be modernised to keep pace with the rapidly changing societies in the world. One reason for this is many words and their usages are viewed as sexist, in that they are discriminating against individuals based on their gender. In this essay, I shall discuss many factors relevant to the argument that the English language systematically degrades and devalues women. One possible argument in agreement with this statement is that male words and their female equivalents are often asymmetrical in their connotations and implications. For example, pairs of words such as ‘bachelor’ and ‘spinster’, have distinctively different associations: ‘spinster’ has relatively negative undertones, and conjures the image of an aging woman with a dull lifestyle, whereas the word ‘bachelor’ suggests a more carefree, younger man with an exciting and enjoyable way of life.
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 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.
Rafelman derives the gender differences in the language through her context. Rafelman thinks that in a party, men prefer to talk about business and avoid privacies, while women are more likely to involve in conversations and talk about personal details. She also indicates that in a formal party, people split up into two groups: men and women, and men always talk about business which is thought to be very boring. Men talk about business because they want to enhance their status and create more chances to make money. They think “money, as one wag once observed, is life’s report card” (Rafelman 318). Ha...
Something that has made an acceleration to several arguments is gender communication (Oluwagbemi-Jacob 225). The gender
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
Tannen believes that men and women are cross cultural when it comes to conversation. While analyzing basic conversation, Tannen primarily focuses on married couples and marriage, in general. Whether implied or not, Tannen fails to deliver enough credible scientific research to inform the audience of her opinions and viewpoints. Tannen begins her argument explaining a personal experience with a married couple which she invited to a group meeting that she held. Tannen uses this dependable experience to confirm that American men talk more than women in public, and usually talk less at home. Tannen uses the word “crystallizes”, to display the accuracy of her research through this personal discovery. Tannen states, “This episode crystallizes the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public situations, they often talk less at home” (239). Tannen presents research as if a female is the only gender to, “crave communication” in a relationship, giving no background information to support this theory. Deborah Tannen gives numerous personal accounts of issues married couples seem to have, but hardly giving actual scientific
In the beginning of the article, Holmes presents situations where the men are more talkative, and how that contrasts the myth about women. One of the example that she used was when the author analyzed the number of questions asked in 100 public seminar, and she found that men dominated the discussions in all but seven. Where the number of men and women are somehow equal. She relates that behavior in publ...
Introduction The topic of gender differences must understandably be approached with caution in our modern world. Emotionally charged and fraught with ideas about political correctness, gender can be a difficult subject to address, particularly when discussed in correlation to behavior and social behavior. Throughout history, many people have strove to understand what makes men and women different. Until the modern era, this topic was generally left up to religious leaders and philosophers to discuss. However, with the acquisition of more specialized medical knowledge of human physiology and the advent of anthropology, we now know a great deal more about gender differences than at any other point in history.
Nilsen began this study of the dictionary not with the intention of prescribing language change but simply to see what the language would reveal about sexism to her. Sexism is not something that existing independently in American English or in the particular dictionary that she happened to read. Rather it exists in people's minds.
“Love is magical, and it can last, if we remember our differences” (Gray 14). Gender communication differences are very complex, yet somewhat remarkable. Dr. John Gray explains that it is as if men and women come from different planets. Unfortunately, many times men and women forget that they are supposed to be different (10). In addition to the biological natural differences between males and females, society treats and values each gender very differently, all of which plays a big part in how they communicate (Papadopoulos 2). Dr. Gray states, “When you remember that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, everything can be explained” (10). If a man and woman do not take the time to understand, respect, and become aware of their differences,
Lieberman, Simma. “Differences in Male and Female Communication Styles” Simma Lieberman Associates (undated). Retrieved February 25, 2010<
Some linguists, as Lanser notes, have argued that there is a woman's language or discourse of the powerless 'speech that is polite, emotional, enthusiastic, gossipy, talkative, uncertain dull and chatty' in contrast to men's speech or powerful speech. We may not agree that women's speech is essentially like this, but The Yellow Wallpaper suggests that there is certainly a particular way that men expect women to speak and behave. As Ford notes 'There can be no doubt that the narrator dwells in the middle of a Patriarchy ' ( Gilman , 1997, p. 309) She is living in 'ancestral halls', has just given birth to a baby boy and is...
Tannen, D. (2007). You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York, NY: Harper.