Chapter 5: Gendered Verbal Communication

Verbal Communication Expresses Cultural Views of Gender

Six ways that language and gender are connected:

1. Gendered Language Excludes

- marked by gender in at two ways.
• Generic Language purports to include everyyet literally refers only to men. Examples of
generic language are nouns such as congressman, spokesman, mailman, and mankind and
pronouns such as he and his used to refer to everyone.

• Gendered Language is apparent in traditional pronouns, which erase people who do not fit
into conventional categories.
Example: Rocko Gieselman was born female and embodies a feminine style, yet Rocko
doesn’t identify as a woman. Instead, Rocko uses the terms trans and genderqueer. Like many
trans people, Rocko also prefers the pronoun they to he or she. They is increasingly accepted
as a singular pronoun that substitutes for he or she.

2. Language Defines Gender as Binary

- Women are frequently defined by appearance and by relationships with others,
whereas men are more typically defined by activities, accomplishments, and positions.

3. Language Shapes Awareness of Gendered Issues

- We reject terms we find objectionable (generic language), and we create new terms to
define realities we think are important. As we modify language, we change how we
see ourselves and our world. Further, we shape meanings of our culture.

4. Language Organizes Perceptions of Gender

- Two ways in which language organizes perceptions of gender are through
stereotyping and encouraging polarized perceptions of sex and gender. A stereotype
is a generalization about an entire class of phenomena based on perceptions of some
members of the class.
5. Language Evaluates Gender
- Language reflects cultural values and is a powerful influence on our perceptions.
Trivializing
language is sometimes applied to women to define them as immature or juvenile (honey, girl,
darling).
6. Language Allows Self-Reflection
- We also use language, inflected with social values, to reflect on and evaluate
ourselves. According to Michael Rich (2008), director of the Center on Media and
Child Health, “Exposure to body ideals of impossibly thin women and unrealistically
muscular men can contribute to negative self-images and viewers’ attempts to alter
their bodies through restrictive eating, exercise, drugs, or surgery” (p. 90).
Gendered Styles of Verbal Communication

In addition to expressing cultural views of gender, language is a primary means by which we

express our gendered identities.

Gendered Speech Communities

Speech community exists when people share understandings about goals of communication, strategies
for enacting those goals, and ways of interpreting communication.

1. The Lessons of Children’s Play

- A classic study by Daniel Maltz and Ruth Borker (1982) gave initial insight into the importance
of children’s play in shaping patterns of communication.

Boys’ Games Boys’ games usually involve fairly large groups—nine individuals for each baseball
team, for instance. Most boys’ games are competitive, have clear goals, involve physically rough
play in large spaces, and are organized by rules and roles that specify who does what and how to
play.

Girls’ Games Many girls today also play competitive games. In addition, most girls play some
games that few boys play. The games played primarily by girls cultivate distinct ways of
communicating. Girls tend to play in pairs or in small groups rather than large ones.

2. Gendered Communication Practices

Feminine Communication
-Tend to regard communication as a primary way to establish and maintain relationships
with others.

Features:
1. Use language to foster connections and support closeness and mutual
understanding.
2. To achieve symmetry
3. Support for others
4. Style is conversational
5. Responsiveness
6. Personal and concrete style
7. Tentativeness

Masculine Communication
- Tend to regard talk as a way to accomplish concrete goals, exert control, preserve
independence, entertain, and enhance status.

Features:
1. Effort to establish status and control.
2. Instrumentality
3. Conversational command
4. Direct and assertive
5. More abstract than feminine speech
6. Less emotionally responsive than feminine speech,
 The Gender-Linked Language Effect
- Language differences between women and men are influenced by a variety
of factors, including topics, speaker status, salience of gender in a communication
situation, and other people present.

According to study:
▪ women tend to speak more tentatively when talking about masculine topics, but
men speak more tentatively than women when talking about feminine topics.
▪ women communicate in more typically feminine ways when they’re assigned
feminine avatars than when they’re assigned masculine avatars. The same is true of
men: They communicate in more typically masculine ways when assigned
masculine avatars.

- Research on the gender-linked language effect reminds us that our gender expression
varies according to context and other factors.

3. Gender-Based Misinterpretations in Communication

1. Showing Support
2. Troubles Talk
- Talk about troubles, or personal problems, is a kind of interaction in which hurt feelings
may result from differences between masculine and feminine styles of communicating.
3. The Point of the Story
- Another instance in which feminine and masculine communication rules often clash is in
relating experiences. Masculine speech tends to follow a linear pattern, in which major
points in a story are presented sequentially to get to the climax. The rules of feminine
speech, however, call for more detailed, less linear storytelling
4. Relationship Talk
5. Public Speaking
- Differences in feminine and masculine communication patterns also surface in public
contexts. Historically, men have dominated politics. Thus, it’s not surprising that the
assertive, dominant, confident masculine style is the standard for public speaking