Gender and Communication: Is it Social or Biological?
Imagine the moon and the sun having an opportunity to communicate, what would they talk about? How would it come across? Although the two constellations dwell in the same galaxy, it’s pretty clear they do not see the world the same way. Their perception of the world appears different just like when it comes to women, men and communication. The sexes seem to have difficulties understanding each other. Misinterpretation is a common happening when a female talks to a male and vice versa. The other sex has a hard time figuring out what the other means; a simple “ok” or “I’m fine” can carry so many meanings when used in a conversation, or argument. “Ok” can mean simply ok, but in an
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Communication differences can be traced back to the human biology. Females have some male testosterone hormone and men have some progesterone and estrogen in their body. Maybe this is the reason why the genders have a hard time communicating with one another. In the words of John Gray “Both the Martians and Venusians forgot that they were from different planets and were supposed to be different. In one morning, everything they had learned about their differences was erased from their memory. And since that day, men and women have been in conflict” (11). What Gray is trying to push across is that gender differences have been there since birth. Females having XX chromosome and Males having XY chromosome, there have always been a genetic/biological difference in the way the two genders address and see one another. In “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: a Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in a Relationship ”, Gray reasons that men and women have diverse communication styles, needs, goals, and values, and that the key to a successful relationship between the genders are for both to understand these differences. Gray mentions some differences that include women wanting to feel treasured and men wanting to feel necessary, and women wanting respect and commitment and men wanting appreciation and admiration. He also talks about women being relationship oriented and men being goal oriented. He explains that when it
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.
Some presidents had their busy starts and ends. However, no one had it worse than the president who got us out of the depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. While FDR served twelve years as president, he was able to do many things to change America for the good, specifically during the Great Depression, when the United States needed it most. He created Social Security, jobs, and saved banks. If he did not step up with his plan, known as the New Deal, the U.S. would not be what it is today. Instead, we would still be in the depression. He saved generations to come, with the help of the New Deal.
In the essay Sex, Lies, and Conversation Deborah Tannen focuses on the differences and lack of communication between men and women though observations. She came to the conclusion that men were not lacking in their listening, but they were however listening in a different way than the women did. On the other hand, men aren’t the only people that have terrible communication skills. In many ways, these differences between the two genders can cause major conflict when not understood by the opposite side. A few examples of lack of communication may be when women don’t decide where they would like to eat, men who walk away from an argument rather than talking it out, and their decision making processes.
Male and female differ in their use of communication because their reasons for communicating are different. Men
The typical stereotypes of communication are that women talk more than men, that is not necessarily true. For example, Tannen states, “...another explanation is that men think women talk to much because they hear women talking in situations where men would not: on the telephone; or in social situations with friends, when they are not discussing topics that men find inherently interesting, or; like the couple at the women’s group, at home alone-in other words, in private speaking” (Cooper and MacDonald 11). Men and women have two different conversational styles, different ways of talking. They also have different ideas of what is important and what is not. For example, Tannen points out that the man thought it wasn’t important that his friend was getting married, but the woman had thought that it was important (Cooper and MacDonald 12).
Throughout the 1960s, King engaged in various civil rights movements furthering the cause for civil independence and rights. Through his civil rights, debatably the most famous, is his “I have a dream” speech. The reason “I Have a Dream” speech made massive impacts, is due to It struck directly into the hearts of Americans both black and white making America realize just what is really going on in this world. King informed people about racial equality and fairness. This speech hit home so well just by the way he structured his speech. You can notice that MLK structures his speech to appeal to the different types of audience, supporting it with the three rhetorical modes; ethos, pathos and logos.
Men and women communicate in very different ways. Men want to see the solution, they want to just get straight to the point and then be done with the situation. Women on the other hand tend to be more detail-oriented before they get to
In the process of going through an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter training program, one cannot help but notice a substantial gender gap. For every fifteen females, there are (perhaps) one or two males. Research has suggested that females make up around 85% of the ASL interpreting field (RID, 2014). Does this significate gender differential have an effect on clientele message? This paper hopes to explore that precise question. Through the course of this paper, I will uncover the differences in communication styles between males and females. Additionally, I conducted a survey of interpreters as well as clients in order to gain insight into the possible effects this differential has on clientele. The online qualitative survey allowed me to compare and contrast responses from a small sample of interpreters and clients. The most significant information I gathered related to awareness. Interpreters, it seems, are aware that their gender impacts the client’s message and are taking steps to remedy that. I plan to explore some of these potential solutions within this paper.
Eastern Orthodox Church is known as Orthodox Catholic Church; it is one of three major doctrinal and jurisdictional sects of Christianity (Meyendorff). Today, 225 million people follow Orthodox Catholic Christians they live mainly in the Balkans, the Middle East, some are America, and Russia. “Eastern Orthodoxy is the large body of Christians who follow the faith and practices that were defined by the first seven ecumenical councils” (Meyendorff). The word orthodox means right believing, they also follows the tradition and the doctrine with a strict interpretation. The word Orthodox (rightly believing) was first used by the Greek-speaking Christian who labeled the communities or individuals who conserve the true faith, as defined by those councils,
How one communicates is also influenced by gender. Studies show that ones sex can place a person in a gender role expectation. Women and Men communicate differently and because sexual identity is defined through same sex parent or role model, women and men can get into gender role expectations. These expectations influence their perception attitudes and behavior that will result in a communication style. This early self-concept can effect each one's interpersonal relations. Women for instance are much-attached human beings they have very early identification with their mothers, and this can cause an on going pattern of role expectation. It can lead to interpersonal communication skills that are very nurturing and understanding. Women are not threatened by intimacy and communicating at a close range with people. Similarly, men also have an early identification process not with their mother, but their fathers. Men tend to be fairly reserved, and quite. Men are most comfortable when there is a level of separation. This male role will contribute to the communication processes and it can cause communication to
Deborah Tannen is the author of the book You Just Don't Understand where she analyzes the different meanings of communication between men and women. Her research shows that women and men use the same words and phrases and yet can interpret and react to those same words and phrases differently. Tannen compares the two sexes to find men use their conversation as a type of competition or to preserve their independence. For example, men talk about their knowledge regarding sports, cars, women, exc. Meanwhile, women try to foster intimacy through communication. For instance, women often talk and relate on a personal level. Throughout Tannen's book she uses "cross-cultural communication" to describe the differences between the language of
In order to be able to solve some of the problems associated with gender miscommunications, we should distinguish first between the two different types of communications: verbal communication and nonverbal communication. Verbal communication consists of messages expressed by linguistic means such as the use of intonation, the specific words we choose to say, and the way we are saying them. There are differences in females and males usage of language/verbal communication. As we might expect from traditional sex-role stereotypes, girls tend to establish more egalitarian same-sex groups. Girls use friendly groups as a training ground for cooperation. Boys view friendly conversation among their friends as training for verbal aggression. Females are more verbal, use three times more amount of words than males, they are much more descriptive and use more adjectives. Women are less direct in their communication style. As Prof. Tannen showed in one of her research, women are more indirect in answering questions depends on the situation. They answer questions the way they would like to be answered by men, which means more than just a yes/no answer. However, men answer the way they would like to be answered
Communication is a crucial part of our daily lives which can be interpreted in various ways. Although, many couples think they have no problems communicating with each other; however, the issue among genders still exists. Learning to talk and listen can improve relationships in many ways. Therefore, Deborah Tannen, John Gray, Susan Page, and John Gottman focused on improving communication skills between genders.
There exists a disparity in the communication phenomenon between men and women. This disparity according to scholars can be attributed to the male dominance in the society today and relationship tensions between couples. A study on cross-sex conversations showed that, when men and women engage in a friendly conversation, they do so as equals but they do not play the same roles in the communication. Women tend to ask more questions and likely to utter utterances that encourage responses from the other speaker. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to interrupt their partner’s conversations and make direct opinions and facts to control or dominate the conversation. Thus, the communication phenomenon between men and women is strikingly distinct.
Communication had its verbal and nonverbal understandings, but they also have their misunderstandings. Body language has industrialized itself with different types of language that were brought up by the society. Men and women weren’t use to these body languages towards the similar gender. Miscommunication has been a problem when dealing with these differences. Men and women continue to build body languages that only made sense to themselves and not to the opposite gender. Although one defeats the other in a