I definitely agree that men and women use language differently. Though, not all men communication in a certain way, and not all women communication in the opposite way, but from personally experience and observation, I have noticed that most men and women use language in the same way as their own sex. I agree with Trenholm’s suggestion that females use rapport talk and males use report talk. Rapport talk is defined as interpersonal topics in intimate settings, while report talk is defined as focusing on content, such as decision-making or opinion making, in public situations. I live in my sorority house with 48 other girls, so I see firsthand how women communicate, which makes me agree with most of the differences in communication in table 4.5 on page 89. In different situations, women will react and communicate differently than men. For instance women will talk more about private matters compared to men, and men will talk more about public matters compared to women.
Kylie Jones, I definitely agree with your belief that not all men communicate in the same way and that not all women communicate in the same way. Although generally, it has been studied and proven that the majority of men have particular communication traits as do women and that they traits are greatly caused by gender roles. I believe that gender communication can also be affect by culture as well as the social constructs one grows up in. For instance, a woman who grows up in California will have different communication practices than a women who grows up in Japan. Californian women seems to be much more outspoken while Japanese women are much more submission and this is due to the differences in culture.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that women are more intimate terms in order to get their point across, whereas men will be more blunt in their views. I think, unless they're with people they're very comfortable with (or they're always fairly opinionated), they will sugar-coat what they're saying to avoid hurting someone's feelings.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I, too, live in my sorority, and I have see how girls can talk to each other. I think they do respect each other, but they are definitely more assertive with girls than they are with men.
Hello Kylie, I agree with you about women being more intimate when communicating with other women. We are more emotional than men, so we tend to talk about more personal and intimate things to others. That is not to say that men aren't emotional, they just don't show their emotions because society expects men have to be tough. We are raised the way we are because of societies expectations of us, that is why men and women use language differently amongst other things. It's funny how you mentioned that women will talk more about private matters because now that I think of it its true. We talk alot about our families and what goes on in our personal life especially when we are around family members and friends. While men talk about sports, for example, or something more general which is more public. This is very interesting and we can see how divided we are.
ReplyDeleteHey Kylie,
ReplyDeleteI would definitely have to agree with you on how men prefer to discuss public matter versus private matters. This is based on the text, “women are encouraged to focus on intimacy and connection, whereas men are taught to display autonomy and individual achievement.” (pg.86)" So I can understand why men have a hard time with getting that type of support from another person, especially since that would contradict their "individual achievement". I also found it interesting on how these gender expectation roles were given to us since birth. However, I feel that a lot of it has to also do with your cultural background as well.
Hi Kylie Jones
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you that most of the time men and women use language in the same way as their own sex. I think that people can just relate better to one another when they feel that their language is the same and use it in the same way. I know from personal experience that I talk different to my guy friends opposed to my girl friends. And I also liked how you pointed out that women will talk more about private matters compared to men. I definitely think that women gossip more and men find it annoying and they don’t really care as much. And men seem to talk more about public matters than women. It seems that men will see something online or in the newspaper about something and want to talk about it more than women. I mean women do but it seems like its more about which celebrity is dating who, or who’s having who’s baby, etc; where as men talk about sports and who won game or who’s getting traded to a new team, etc. And with those examples its usually geared towards the same gender when talking about it.