The term equality has been around for thousands of years from types of governments to racial equality, but there never has been clear equality between men and women. Men say that males and females are treated equally, but in reality men are judged less while women are judged everywhere and on everything, from what they wear, to their hairstyles and makeup. Gloria Steinem once said, “A gender-equal society would be one where the word ‘gender’ does not exist: where everyone can be themselves.” The author of “Marked Women”, Deborah Tannen would partially agree with Gloria Steinem that if the word gender did not exist it would help in having a gender equal society but would say that even women judge other women and would support her argument using …show more content…
her personal experience at a conference she attended. While Scott Russell Sanders the author of “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” would agree with Gloria Steinem but would conclude that men have it harder and that females only tend to see men with the easy city jobs and not the other hard jobs such as being a soldier in the time of war. Therefore both Sanders and Tannen would agree with Gloria that removal of the word gender would promote equality but there still would be gender differences between men and women. Deborah Tannen talks about what it is to be marked and how women are marked and the men aren’t.
In her essay “Marked Women” she talks about her personal experience at a conference she attended which consisted of four women and eight men. Tannen mentions that “I found myself looking at the three other women at the table, thinking how each had a different style and how each style was coherent”. By this she shows how even women tend to judge other women. She tries to compare the three women and see the similarities between them. Women are judged from their hairstyles. Tannen marked the second woman full of dignity and composure …show more content…
because: Her hair was cut in a fashionable style that left her with only one eye, thanks to a side part that let a curtain of hair fall across half her face. As she looked down to read her prepared paper, the hair robbed her of bifocal vision and created a barrier between her and the listeners. (Tannen) Tannen realizes that she did not even judge the men at the conference. She realized that the reason why they were not judged by what they were wearing was because they are not marked. She says “I scanned the eight men at the table. And then I knew why I wasn't studying them. The men's styles were unmarked” (Tannen). She went on judging the clothing that the women were realizing that all three of them had different styles of clothing which marked them as a certain type of women. For example the third women was wearing a sexy jumpsuit which could imply that she is single and that she wants attention. The second women was wearing “casual but stylish black T-shirts, a floppy collarless jacket and baggy slacks or a skirt in neutral colors” (Tannen) which could imply that she is already married and that she does not want as much attention as the third women wants. Also, Tannen mentions that most English words in their unmarked forms convey “male”. Even the word female has the word male in it. Women always have to decide on what they should wear and how it would portray themselves to others. Men can choose styles that are marked, but unlike women, they have the option of being unmarked. She talks about men’s hairstyle. They can go for a marine crew cut or they can go for long hair down to their eyes which none of them was considered marked. Whereas every female decision carried a meaning. Tannen could not find a style that was unmarked like the male’s was. There is no standard style according to Tannen, she thinks that everything a women chooses sends a message to the viewer. She states that men do not get judged based on gender while women do. In most forms there are four attributes Mr. for males and Miss, Mrs., and Ms. for females. Therefore even if the word “Gender” was erased there would still be a difference in sexes and how they would be viewed according to Tannen. While Sanders might agree with Steinem and Tannen he will still say that women have it easier than men do.
Women do not face the hardships and challenges that men do throughout their lives. Sanders talks about his personal experiences in the essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” and how females have it easier than men. While Sanders was growing up, his childhood was filled with men who worked at farms, factories, were prisoners, and were soldiers waiting for war to break. He thought it was surreal for him to even get jobs such as being a lawyer, astronauts, doctors, and political figures. He said “I could no longer imagine growing up to become one of these cool, potent creatures than I could imagine becoming a prince” (Sanders). He goes on explaining that where he grew up the men did all the hard work. They were the ones who tilled the fields and lifted heavy objects which caused them to have hernia. Even the soldiers were ready to go to war and drop bombs and possibly to die in combat. Mothers and daughters had the ease of not going to war and not having to work outside on the farms. Sanders said “There were times, studying them, when I dreaded growing up.” He knew what was awaiting him once he reached adulthood. The man was in charge of bringing money home. The mother did worry about the money, but if the money stopped coming in she would not have felt like she failed as a mother. Whereas the father would feel that he failed as a husband and father. That is why Sanders
was dumbfounded when a women told him that “men are guilty if having kept all the joys and privileges of the earth to themselves” (Sanders). He felt disapproval to her comment. He thought that what have they actually stole from women. The right to work five days a week? They don’t even have to go to war like men do. He talks about how men wear their bodies out faster because of all the work they do and because of this women tend to live a longer life than men. Is that what women want, to die early? Women never need to worry about how to face layoffs and how to face their families with shame. He agreed with the women somewhat and said that if he knew how hard it was for mothers he would have envied her less. He still said “If I had been asked, as a boy to choose between tending a baby and tending a machine, I think I would have chosen the baby” (Sanders). By his own experience he is trying to say that it is hard for a mother to tend to her children but it is even harder to tend to a machine or work as a blue-collar man. Women only tend to see the ideal jobs that men such as their fathers work in big cities, but fail to see the other men who work the field and who belong to a blue-collar family. Sanders does not mind equality between men and women, but he thinks that women do not know the true reality of what a man has to go through during their life and that women actually have it easier. He ends his essay by saying The difference between me and these daughters was that they saw me, because of my sex, as destined from birth to become like their fathers, and therefore as an enemy to their desires. But I knew better. I wasn’t an enemy, in fact or in feeling. I was an ally. If I had known, then, how to tell them so, would they have believed me? Would they now? (Sanders) Sanders intends to say that women tend to judge men just because of their sex and because they are different from them while he believes that men and women are equal and that they should be able to do things that a man does vice versa. Overall, the concept of equality has been around for thousands of years but only in the recent hundred years, equality between genders has been discussed. Gloria Steinem makes a good argument by saying if we eliminate the root itself “gender” which itself creates divide, men and women would be able to live in a gender equal society. Tannen and Sanders would feel that it would help promote equality between sexes, but still differences would appear from it being a physical difference or a cultural difference. For example, would a women be okay with having only one public bathroom which men and women have to share in respect to equality. There are many conflicts that would arise if people tried to create an ideal world where the word “gender” does not even exist.
In Deborah Tannen’s “Marked Woman, Unmarked Men” she illustrates how she believes the way women carry themselves are more looked upon then the way a man does. When it comes to women they had to take what they look like into consideration and each decision that the woman has made, carried a meaning. Men have to make decisions as well, however their decisions are not as notable as woman. I support Tannen’s argument about women being marked. Woman are marked by what they wear to who they marry. Nonetheless, I do believe both genders are marked in some kind of way. Men are marked, just not to the extent as woman are. And when they are marked it is not as open and discussed. When Tannen did include men into her argument she made her observation
Tannen’s style of language tells the reader that she is a smart women that isn’t messed with by men.
Deborah Tannen’s essay, “There Is No Unmarked Woman”, explores the idea of “marked” and “unmarked” words, styles, titles, and how females have no ability to choose an unmarked position. She also posits that “The unmarked forms of most English words also convey ‘male’” (88). Tannen is incorrect in her premise because females are able to choose unmarked hair and clothing styles, many unmarked forms of words no longer convey “male,” and men are marked just as often as women.
Women respond very well to tone and word choice, which Tannen uses to her advantage. She uses personal experience to relate with her more female audience. For example, in the criticism section she uses a scenario that occurred between a male and female editors. Tannen “appreciated her tentativeness” that she gave Tannen when wanting to cut out part of her story(301). In contrast to that her male editor gave her a much different response, saying “call me when you have something new to say”(301). By stating a scenario with two very different outcomes, she falls more bias to women. This is effective to her more female audience because it paints women in a positive light and paints the men in a very negative light. The obvious bias towards women can arguably hurt her more than it could help her. Tannen automatically outs her male audience at a very awkward side, and makes it impossible for them to feel sympathy towards her. This hurts Tannen’s opportunity for having a broad audience, but for what she wrote it for she is very effective. If we are simply talking about how effective it was for women then Tannen hit home with them. Tannen’s choice of using what men say is also very smart, and helps with her effectiveness. She heard a man say, that after working for two women he realized neither of them have a sense of humor(304). By using examples like these
Everyone views the world with his or her own sense of gender, equality, and mind. Woman today view the world as a one-sided standard where equality does not exist for them. They believe that men have taken away their chances of happiness and opportunity because there are men and we are woman. Even though both men and women share equal hardships some women believe that men still have the final say in their lives. In Scott Russell Sanders essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” he believes that women have life made essay in his mind but woman must work just as hard as men for jobs, believe that everything should be given to them just because to who they know and what they do, and that men will always ruin the world and that women are the more dominate
In “Marked Woman, Unmarked Men”, Deborah Tannen argues many points about how women are targeted based on their style choices, such as makeup, clothing and hair, as well as their last names, and titles they choose to take on. Tannen argues her stance when she says, “Each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories…. Men can choose styles that are marked, but they don 't have to… . Unlike the women, they had the option of being unmarked.” here you can clearly see that Tannen is illustrating her point by showing the difference in how men are looked at compared to women. She clearly believes that men don’t have to take their style, and lack of makeup, into consideration. In other words, this is a perfect representation of her argument in “Marked Women, Unmarked Men”
Gender inequality has been a major issue for many centuries now. Societies insist in assigning males and females to different roles in life. The traditional stereotypes and norms for how a male and female should present themselves to the world have not changed much over time. But individuals are more than just their gender and should have the right to act and be treated the way they want. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Tannen states "Granted, women have Lower status than men in our society" rendering that Tannen knows about how today 's society sees women as the role follows the males. Tannen also describes the method on how women communicate is indirect while males are more direct. The significance of this is how Tannen later mentions an island of Madagascar
In the first half of the book, “Half-changed world”, “Half-changed minds”, the author argues about how social and environmental factors influence the mind on the gender differences. She also includes the history and impact of the gender stereotypes we see and how science has been used to justify the use of sexism. In the first chapter in the “Half-changed world” section of the book she uses an example of if a researcher tapped you on the shoulder and asked you to write down what males and females were like if you would write down things such as compassionate for females and aggressive for males or if you would look at the researcher and tell them that every person is unique.(Fine,3) Based on the information in the book most people would pick up the pencil and write down descriptions of each gender based on the way the world perceives gender. She also talks about marriage and how “the husband is the breadwinner and works outside the home to provide financial resources for the family. In return, his wife is responsible for both the emotional and household labor created by the family…” (Fine,78)
...ything men can do. Although, women are treated somewhat like there is still room for improvement. Women have the opportunity to take on masculine occupations however; society doesn’t fully accept the change of women in the work field. Women in the work field are supposed to be as equal as men yet, there are some aspects that have not changed such as, respect, power and pay. Women could maintain the same job as a man but, still make less than men. According to United States Census Bureau, women make seventy-seven cents that a man’s dollars. Overall, in a year women are losing money that they have worked for. However, society as a whole is composed of consumers, and if consumers are not willing to changer there ways of thought and allow women and men to become equal then women will always be less than a men. No matter if it’s the same job title, position or education.
Ever since the women’s suffrage movement of the 1920s, there has been a push for eliminating sexism and providing equality between men and women, especially in the workplace. The United States, along with most of the world, has made great strides in gender equality since then. Women can vote, and have careers, and men are able to stay home with the children if they choose to. But are the sexes really equal now? There are three common answers to this question. Some say yes, while the most common answer is no. The debate does not end there, however. It is typically assumed gender inequality is oppressing women and limiting their rights. Regardless, there are those who say the system is harming men instead. So, if gender inequality still exists,
It is no secret that women throughout history have been repeatedly considered human beings of less value than men. In fact, as men have been in a dominant position in most cultures worldwide, they have deliberately established the code of conduct, the beauty standards, and the rights and duties women are supposed to conform to.
Since the beginning of time, women have always been seen as things purely for the pleasure and benefit of men. Women have always been objectified. Objectification is seeing and treating a person as if they did not have thoughts and feelings, as if they had the status of an object.{1} Only in recent years have they begun to be seen as individuals of equal intelligence and ability. You may think, ”Women have had equal rights for a while. I do not see how this is a problem.” It may not seem like women were given their rights recently, but in our history, women have been treated objectively for thousands of years, even dating back to biblical times. Still, even when women have the same rights, opportunities, and responsibility as men, women can be found almost everywhere being treated as though they were incompetent and lesser human beings.{4}
Michael Levin, a professor of philosophy and author of the book Feminism and Freedom, faults feminism for trying to impose an inappropriate equality on men and women that conflicts basic biological differences between the sexes (Levin, Taking Sides, 42). Women are not the same as men, neither physically nor psychologically. In the past, men tended to be the stronger more powerful gender, while women have traditionally been viewed as the weaker, more feeble one. The untrue assumption that men and women are the same in their ways of thinking and physical capabilities leads to the failure of the feminist message. Their agenda of eliminating all observable differences between men and women is doomed to fail and will inflict more pain than gain in the process. Recognizing the differences between the sexes and allowing each to do what they are strongest at will in the long run make society stronger, more efficient, and more effective.
Equality is a concept mankind never is able to grasp correctly. Of course humans will always search for different solutions to create fairness, but factors such as human greed, ignorance of mass populations, and even biological aspects stagnates the process of equality. The oldest and most relevant discussion on equality lies with the difference of sex; man versus woman. Initially, men, because of their physical superiority, were given the prospects many women never even dreamt to have. Conversely, as time has progressed, women have fought this unfair treatment with demands of suffrage and similar rights to those of their male equivalents. Greatly enough, this generation has done an exceptional job in the challenge of overcoming sexism and inequality. However, will this search for equality ever end? When can we say we have created an equal race of men and women? The fact of the matter is that it is truly impossible to have equality between the sexes because of predisposed circumstances that are not easily controllable in the slightest bit.