Gender And Deborah Tannen's Theory Of Gender Roles

I am going to be using children’s TV to analyse whether certain language displays men and women in a stereotypical manner. The idea of how gender should be portrayed is often debated; is it healthy to pressure young children into acting like their assigned gender role? It is argued whether children are forced to act within their societal norms; the imaginary set of rules that dictate what is considered acceptable or desirable based upon the sex a child is assigned at birth. Male’s societal norms are often based around the idea of masculinity, meaning they are supposedly brave, independent and self-assured. In contrast, women’s societal norms are based around femininity, which involve ideas such as empathy, kindness and delicacy. The ongoing debate is to what extent gender roles are simply determined by biology, or if their variations are actually down to societal effects.

Deborah Tannen’s theory of difference, which she believes begins at a very young age, suggests men and women are separated by particular personality traits. This theory states that men are independent, dominant, informative, and argumentative and often

For example, when Hercules is expressing his ideas about what his date should be like, he forgets to even mention her personality traits. Using the noun “personality”, with the prosodic feature of rising pitch, means she feels able to confront Hercules on his misogynistic tendencies. This opposes the stereotypical idea that a woman wouldn’t feel self-assured enough in order to express an opposing opinion to a man. Therefore, the fact that Aphrodite can be dominant does not agree with Deborah Tannen’s theory; she is far too confident and less empathetic. Although, she adheres to Deborah Tannen’s theory by being supportive and empathetic to the woman that Hercules is creating; she does not believe he should create a woman that is only there to look pretty and be obsessed with a