Muted Group Theory Essay

This book review is on the book, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, which was published in 2014. Rebecca Solnit writes a book of essays that interprets the silence that women hold towards men in their everyday life. Young women must know the reality that we do not live a fairy tale life where women are treated as royalty by their husband or boyfriend. Women are treated as objects in where men could play with them as if they are dolls, whom they pay attention to whenever they would like to or need something from them. Despite what a woman says to men, all men are always going to have the reason, even if they are not right. The silences that a woman holds towards men are creating an even broader issue towards women in the present and in the future. The author mainly argues that women should not silence themselves and their issues such as abuse, harassment, rape, violence, stalking or any other crimes that are hurting them emotionally and physically. “Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender” (Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me, page 21). If women continue not to speak up and take action, men are going to continue to take abuse and control over their power.

For example many women are controlled by men who think they are more powerful. In Deborah Tannen’s article, His Politeness Is Her Powerlessness, she talks about how men are taking advantage of women and how they always want to seem more powerful than women. In one section it says “Labeling of “women’s language” as “powerlessness language” reflects the view of the women’s behavior through the lens of men’s.”( Tannen,1) That right there is

Another interesting statement I would like to bring to the surface is Alvarez writes in her book that “boys are born men but girls turn into women” (72). This made me think of the BBC YouTube clip we watched in class. Within this video a mother, father, and daughter are getting prepared for their daughters sweet fifteen. One of the first things I recognized in this film was that the father a male was speaking about and for the females when they were in the same room as them listening to what he had to say. This is a problem in itself as the male voices his and silences the women, in addition, he is speaking on a subject that he does not even fully understand, women. For arguments sake a women would never speak about a man and what it means to be one. This power dynamic within this family is troubling and shows the dominance of one gender over

On July 28, 2015, Thom Dunn wrote about an issue that is often ignored by society today on upworthy.com. In his article, “What is 'Vocal Fry,' And Why Doesn't Anyone Care When Men Talk Like That?” Dunn analyzes the unnecessary criticism women receive due to their use of the lower register. His point is mainly addressed towards societies trying to define gender roles through this trend. Moreover, he recognizes how males aren’t panned for using the vocal fry while females continue to be punished for it. He suggests that we should worry less about the tone of a person and actually listen to the words they’re saying. While he uses strong logic and effective style in his writing, Dunn lacks credibility and fails to make an emotional appeal to his audience, causing his persuasive argument to be ineffective.

The author explains to us that many women are subject to subservient functions (Lakoff 46). The roles the sexes play in society have a determination in how they are treated Robin states (Lakoff 46). She tells us about her first hand experiences of this, which cause the reader to sympathize for her (Lakoff 46). The author thinks that we will find two different ways of discrimination women face in language. The author explains the way that women are taught to use language and the way that general language treats them (Lakoff 46). This is where the reader starts to see the problems that women may face. The rhetorical strategy ethos used helps the reader feel for her cause as if it were happening to them first hand. This makes the reader aware of what is going on. At this point the audience can start to

Based on Muted group theory, men and women think of the world differently and perform different actions based on their experiences. In the world today, men want the role of power, and they want to be able to make their own informed decisions. On the other hand, women are more worried about what other’s think of them so therefore they seek connection rather than hierarchy. Because of this, men are thought to have dominance over women so therefore they are able to shape and formulate the ways that people speak and the ways in which people are heard. Kramarae believes that there is a “lexical bias” in the public language such as cartoons, and metaphors which plays a role in Muted group theory. She also believes that women are not represented highly

What does it mean to express ourselves as women? Gender shapes our interpretation of what it is to be at home within ourselves. As James Baldwin eloquently reminded us, “The world’s definitions are one thing, and the lives one actually lives is quite another” (Baldwin, ). How can we be sure of the complex nature of our gender identities and gender expression, be genuine, when we have been socialized into looking at the world through the lens of a binary gender system since we were born? It seems to me that the definition and expression of womanhood are constantly evolving, and that is good news.

We all commonly assume that we act freely, that we make our own decisions without regard to the opinions of those around us. We all like to think we create our own stories, and choose the way we tell them. However, many of us are probably at least tempted to wonder if this a thing completely within our control, how much of it is, and how we can resist attempts of others to write our stories for us, regardless of what we actually desire. Particularly when it comes to women, the society around us is very sure of what it wants our stories to be, and who should tell them and when. This is, of course, a process that begins early. As Foss,

Kinzel and Solnit both aimed their articles at the male population to point out an issue that is usually swept under the rug. A man being the intended audience strongly affects the argument because they are the ones that the authors have a problem with. They want to get their point across but need to do it in a way that does not anger the reader. Kinzel shows her great understanding of the issue by talking about how women are capable of this type of attitude. She even describes her behavior in situations like this “I’ve always called it “lecture mode,” and I even have this habit where I take a deep, semi-dramatic breath before it shifts on, and I begin, on the exhale, with, “Well--” I always begin with “Well--” and I always conclude with, “Does that make sense?” (Kinzel). By acknowledging this male readers are more receptive to her message and more likely to be open minded.

An important part of our learning and growing experience must stem from our ability to analyze and reflect upon the groups that we have been members in. This reflection can define our understanding of the weaknesses both in ourselves and in the others within our group; and it can help to shape the way that we act in future groups. Adjusting ourselves to compensate for our weaknesses, based upon an honest and thorough examination of our actions within a group setting, is one of most important thing for any person to do. It is only through this evaluation that we can improve ourselves and our interactions with others. This paper will examine a group that was required to make an important decision about adding a new member

As people, when confronted with a problem where a solution must be found, our ideal situation is to come up with the best possible one. To do this, we ideally gather the most knowledgeable, intelligent individuals into a group and attempt to derive the best solution to the problem. With the collection of these people, one would think that finding the best possible answer to the problem would be a rather simple task. However, what has happened in many situations is the complete opposite. Rather than finding the best possible solutions, many ideal, cohesive groups arrive at the worst possible answer largely due to problems in communication within the group. This is what we call the radical theory of

According to Kramarae groups within our society are muted, or go incompletely heard due to the lack of an effective means to express certain groups of ideas, experiences, or thoughts. Kramarae calls these groups muted and focuses specifically on the muted group of women. She argues that language is "man-made" and "aids in defining, depreciating and excluding women" (Griffin,1997,459). Muted Group Theory sees language as excluding women based on several factors. For example the

Theses: women's voices and opinions being suppressed, men being able to hold females as property, the double standard of males and females.

Question 1 - Would you grant any of the special requests of the four expat candidates? Provide your rationale.

Language refers to the method that humans use to communicate either through speech or written. It consists of the use of the word in a structured and conventional way. Language has been referred to as ‘our means of classifying and ordering the world; our means of manipulating reality. In structure and in its use we bring out the world into realisation and if it is inherently inaccurate, then we are misled. (Dale Spender, 1980).Language has power that allows us to make sense out of the reality we live in. Sexism is discrimination of a person based on their gender, especially on women. Sexism in language is the use of language which devalues members on one sex, almost always women, showing gender inequality. In the 1960/70’s there was a