Deborah Tannen Analysis

Deborah Tannen and William Lutz both discuss the difficulty of communicating. Their point of views may be different, but their conclusion is the same. Men and women have difficulties of communicating. Not because the two genders want to be complicated but simply because we don’t realize how or what we’re doing when it’s happening.

Since the beginning of time there has been a distinct division between the sexes. Through sheer definition there is a physical difference between the two but as time has passed there has been an indisputable recognition of the differences in personality and cognition. There are also undeniable differences in the life experiences had by the two sexes that

Tannen has unmistakably given a considerable amount of thought about the way children are taught and observe communication. Tannen holds that male and female children are taught to communicate differently as they grow older, which can cause communication problems later in their lives. Children are unquestionably impressionable and girls in particular are taught how and expected to be particularly nurturing and concerned about the state of others. Boys are taught to be tough and strong, and this is where the disconnect occurs. Girls are taught to have an inner state of warmth and concern, and boys are taught to have an inner state that outwardly appears to be somewhat standoffish and disconnected. A child’s actions may gain

The relationship that I see between what Treasure discusses and what Tannen is warning us about has to do with listening and how it affects us in our daily lives. In the article that Deborah Tannen wrote titled “The Argument Culture Moving from Debate to Dialogue,” stated that she believes that opposition is the best way to get anything done. That an argument is the only way to get your point a crossed to someone. Tannen stated that she believes the best way to discuss an idea is to set up a debate. That instead of listening to some else, it is just better to set up a debate instead. Tannen also stated that she believes the best way to show that you are really paying attention to them is to criticize them. That instead of listening to them,

She found that at every age, girls and women faced each other directly. On the other side of things, she noticed that at every age, boys and men sat at angles to each other and looked elsewhere in the room. Tannen demonstrates this when she gives the example of a woman in college who was frustrated because every time she would try and talk to her boyfriend he would lay down and put his arm over his face. This signaled that he was taking a nap, but he insisted that it was the only way he could listen without being distracted. Tannen follows by saying, “I believe these systematic differences in childhood socialization make talk between men and women like cross-cultural communication, heir to all the attraction and pitfalls of that enticing but difficult enterprise”. She backs her claim by discussing a research she discovered in an issue of American Psychologist. The research revealed that children’s development is most influenced by the social structure of peer interactions. The research later showed boys and girls tend to play with children of their own gender, and their sex-separate groups have different organizational structures and interactive

In Deborah Tannen’s article “There is No Unmarked Woman” she focuses on how women are being misconceived and prejudged on solely the way they’re dressed. The main point in the article is that there is no such thing as an unmarked woman – men have the option and women simply do not. To be “marked” in the way Tannen states it is changing the meaning of a word by simply adding a participle, but that participle has no meaning on its own. Deborah Tannen points out that even in the English language marked is a staple of linguistic theory. By simply adding a linguistic participle to a word that already has no meaning by itself can change the meaning of a word. As Tannen states in her article that women must make a decision on how they wish to appear on a day-to-day basis through their makeup, hair style, shoes, clothes, etc. When women are choosing how to appear everyday they’re trying to escape the preconceptions that men never really have to face due to more narrow decisions. Tannen makes a good statement when she refers to the research of Ralph Fasold in which men are actually marked. “Fasold points out that girls are born with fully female bodies, while boys are born with modified female bodies.” Tannen writes. In conclusion Tannen says how she’s upset the

In Marked Women, Unmarked Men, Deborah Tannen discusses the nature of marked women and its consequences. Tannen, a female writer, points out the “marked” aspects of women by first giving an example of three differently clothed women, named No. 1 through 3, in a meeting. She allows readers to visualize the distinct difference between men and women’s appearance. Then she shifts to explaining in depth about the definition of “marked” and how it appears on the daily lives of women. She spends most of her article discussing the conference meeting example and the definition of “marked”. Although Tannen indicates many contradictions surrounding the “marked” female aspects like clothing and surnames, she does not reach to a conclusion. Because the

In every society, there is a profound distinction between the sexes and their roles within said society. In most societies, this is a diverse network of associations that not only covers those features directly related to sex, such as anatomy and physiology, reproduction, the division of labor, and personality attributes.

Conversation is a ritual every person must encounter throughout their lives in order to function properly with one another in today’s society. However, every individual has a “different idea about what’s appropriate” when approaching someone in any sort of conversation; that is why we are referred to as individuals (Tannen 327). There are thousands of diverse languages to speak to one another with, in fact that means there are thousands of different ways to offend each other with our words. Within those languages there are several contrasting gestures that can offend any single person, such as the amount of times individuals apologize in one meeting, giving criticism too harshly, or thanking someone so often it does not seem genuine. In the article “What Do You Mean,” Deborah Tannen touches upon apologies, criticism, and thank yous in further detail to explain where individuals go wrong within conversation and how they can fix their actions. Individuals find it satisfying to please others by being polite because it is the ‘right’ thing to do, however like myself others need to stand up for themselves and get directly to the point now in order to avoid conflict later in life.

This quote is an important representation of when the author Deborah Tannen first realized that it was very common for anyone in society to judge much more on the women about their clothing then the men. In actuality besides clothing, Tannen also realizes that women no matter how they dress, or what they say or do, are marked in some way. She is explaining to the readers how not only are the men’s styles are unmarked or rather, irrelevant, but how the appearance of men is rarely ever judged.

First of all I am going to begin with defining sex and gender. Sex in a sociological perspective is defined as the biological and physiological differences between men and women which are contrasted in terms of reproductive function(Abercrombie et al 2000 :313). On the other hand gender is sociologically conceived as the social roles allocated to men and women in society that is to say gender is learned not innate. However previously it was believed that sex determined gender thus the differences between men and

Some of these gender roles and stereotypes have been created due to the differences in physique, thinking, personality, and behavior that is actually present between men and females. Physical differences are more visible to the eye due to the distinction between primary and secondary sex characteristics for each gender. Males have testes, deeper voices, a bigger body type, and more facial hair, where as women have a smaller body, higher voices, ovaries, and wider hips. (Rathus, 2010, p.448). Cognitive differences have to do with the brain and the way men and women

     Biology too plays a major role in the differences between male and female. Genetically, there are differing chromosomes. XY for male and XX for female. These chromosome differences account for the physical differences that men and women have. In dealing with body composition, males are more likely to be taller and more muscular. Males also have testosterone, the male sex hormone. It is said that males with high levels are more confrontational and smile less. Women that have low levels of estrogen, the female sex hormone, are said to be more disagreeable and confrontational. Maybe because men have such a huge advantage over women by being physically larger, they are supposed to be more aggressive and women having less physical strength are supposed to be the nurturers.

However, overall these biological differences are small.. And they don't account for our stereotypical views of what is masculine and what is feminine. Some of the aggressive behavior of boys could still be contributed to individual

The most basic and obvious differences observed in both genders are the physical developments such as weight, height (in