What is it that makes a woman a woman, or what makes a man a man? Deborah Tannen, author and Ph.D. of linguistics, investigates this question within the essay, “There Is No Unmarked Woman.” An excerpt from a larger publication, “Talking from 9 to 5,” written in 1994, “There Is No Unmarked Woman” is an effective examination of the social injustice as to why the state of womanhood is “marked” while the state of manhood is “unmarked”, and what this means for each sex. The book itself is a result of real-life research about the conversational styles in a workplace setting and how conversation impacts productivity and success. Although Tannen uses many effective strategies within the excerpted essay, she most pointedly uses devices such as narration, vivid description, definition, compare-contrast, and example to make herself heard. She also adopts a critical, but humorous, outlook in order to effectively analyze why these social structures exist without discrediting her own voice or style. In the opening paragraphs of “There Is No Unmarked Woman,” Tannen narrates a past experience from a professional conference, therefore beginning the essay on a more personal and relatable note. She begins with, “Some years ago I was at a small working conference of four women and eight men. Instead of concentrating on the discussion I found myself looking at the three other women at the table, thinking how each had a different style and how each style was coherent.” These few sentences allow the reader insight into the author’s thinking process and that even she may judge other women for how they dress and act, creating a more intimate atmosphere between the audience and the author. “One woman had dark brown hair in a classic style, a cross between Cleopatra and Plain Jane...Because she…
Gender socialization is the process of learning the social expectations and attitudes associated with gender. Socialisation itself, marked the beginning of sexism – the discrimination against others based on their gender. Many say, that this bias relates back to the Bible, as it’s said that man (Adam) was created first, and woman (Eve) was created second from one of Adams’ ribs. This strongly implies that male is the more dominant sex and is therefore superior to females. This idea has been practiced throughout history and could be due to the fact, that religion was more prominent in the past. For example, school and education was originally only intended for boys, as women were expected to be homemakers. This, in many ways devalues and degrades women as it suggests they are somewhat incapable of doing anything but raising children. Additionally, this can be seen through the English language and the use of unmarked terms. The word “waiter” an unmarked term referring to a man, has had a suffix added to the end in order to make “waitress” the term for a woman. This form of lexical asymmetry reinforces and gives and insight into how women were degraded and are still being patronized as this particular word is still used in modern society. Some may argue against this, as “stay as home dads” and career women are accepted today and many females hold powerful jobs, however, gender socialization still occurs subconsciously through diverse means, such as schools, peer interaction, the media and parental attitudes – as girls are often brought up performing household chores like cleaning, whereas boys are sometimes required to perform more “manly” tasks such as mowing the lawn.…
His boyish looks make him seem to young for politics whereas in comparison his political opponent Stephen Harper is a older male who is settled down giving the framing that to be a true candidate in politics one must be older more mature, this is not a clear definition that Trudeau is not able to run a country. Trudeau has made mistakes in the past from being young which the Conservative party is sure to mention to the public to get votes. By the Conservatives exploiting Trudeau makes Stephen Harper look good as a candidate. The media itself puts into societies minds that a political leader of the country should follow certain qualities. They are as follows; to be masculine, take charge and make decisions that will help all, put aside the personal life, engage or communicate with people and to be confident just to name a few. Through these gendered stereotype’s Trudeau is no reason he does not fit under these categories, his voice may be higher pitched and less monotone as Harpers but this is not a linguist reason for him to be categorized into a female role. Trudeau has put aside his personal life; only the conservatives pull out his past to put him down as a leader. He engages people through communication and this specific event is a way to specifically focus on women and their concerns and questions yet media easily takes this and makes it become a sexist event, which was…
It gives a thorough explanation to two words, which concern the main topic – manly and womanly. According to the dictionary, manly means “having qualities appropriate to men: bald, resolute, and open in conduct of bearing,” while womanly is defined as “characteristics suitable to women: conforming to or motivated by a woman’s nature and attitudes, rather than a man’s.” In that way the authors prove that language still differentiates the two genders in an uneven way, making men…
Withers Osmond and Patricia Yancey Martin’s article discuss the topic of sex and sexism. It’s an analysis of sex-role attitudes by sex of respondent highlights the sex role concept. They examined both roles of both sexes in terms of four theoretical components; marcolevel social change issues, familial role of both sexes, extrafamilial role of females and the stereotype of both sexes. Within the four components males and female tend to have the least differences in macrolevel social change issues and the familial role of both sexes. They however…
The use of masculine pronouns as generic references is an indication of the extent of linguistic sexism.…
“Masculine bias in the English language is not confined to word meanings alone, it is built into every structure the linguist and supports the male as normal paradigm.”…
The gendering process frequently involves creating hierarchies between the divisions it enacts. One or more categories of sexed identities are privileged or devalued. In modern western societies, gender divides into two. This is not necessarily the case in other times, places and colures. Gender in the modern west usually refers to two distinct and separate categories of human beings as well as to the division of social practices into two fields. “The gendering of social practices”, according to Beardsley, “may be found, for example in contemporary western societies, in a strong association between men and public life and between women and domestic life, even though men and women occupy both spaces” (10). The more gender differences are narrowed down, the more optimistic scope feminism…
Also, worshiping and praising the male figure may lead to scolding and degrading the feminine side. Similarly, when she grew older she assumed that her father was very courageous and intelligent to discover the idea to hide her posters while crossing the border. Meanwhile, the mother was irritated by her daughter assumption because she figured out that brilliant and courageous idea, while the father was frightening at the notion. However, the daughter acknowledged the mother’s idea (Satrapi, 1969, p.130). Another notion of gender bias, the book examines is the separation of boys and girls in their schools (p.4). This separation may lead professors to educate their students that the masculine sides are superior while the feminine sides are inferior and submissive this notion creates gender discrimination. Lastly, howling at a woman should not be condoned in the society and defending the women’s right should be encouraged. For instance, in the book, the father was yelling at his wife for unnecessary reasons. However, in delight the daughter stepped in and defended her mother,…
A Closer Examination of Sexism Sexism has been woven through the backbone of humankind throughout history and is still in place in a variety of aspects of our society today. Sexism plays a key role in how jobs, salary, and occupations are filled nowadays. Sexism also appears in everyday life. For example, women often spend more time getting ready because of the burden to feel pretty and fit into the model image that is displayed to young girls so adolescent girls grow up feeling the weight of needing to be beautiful (Thorne). Additionally, men are often pressured to be chivalrous and pay for a meal or give there jackets just so that their partner is not cold.…
While not denying that language is used in different contexts with different intents, we should also recognise the overarching context of the sexist society we live in. Words don't exist in neutral space, from where we grab them as we choose and inject our own meaning into them. The meaning of words — how and why they are generally used by the majority of people — is determined by the social setting.…
Sexism is also a very large issue our society possesses today that could be discontinued if acted on in multiple ways. Sexism consists of inequality between genders and is a large issue that needs to be stopped in our society, and there are numerous ways we can help. Sexism consists of stereotyping and prejudices against women. The reading, Night to His Day, states that “[…]everyone does gender without thinking about it” (323). For example, a father who takes care of his child in public is “doing” gender by playing the role of a father.…
The question posed is our society sexist? The answer is yes, for many reasons benevolent sexism to start. An idea that women are inferior and but she is okay with it as long as you tell her she is pretty. is This opens our society up to hostile sexism which tells a woman that being a woman is not okay and do not dare rebuke a man. These two forms of sexism open the question of how a woman deals with this sexist society. The paper will speak about these forms of sexism and what women use to navigate through our society focusing on the gender strategy of emphasized femininity.…
The question has been asked throughout history whether or not the United States is ready for a woman president. It is debated that the reason behind this question is one of the ideal of sexism and stereotypes of women. However, some believe that the lack of women’s success in politics is directly linked to their personal beliefs and campaign platforms, as well as the party that they identify with. For this study, the researchers hypothesized that this party identification nullifies whether or not people support a female presidential candidate when faced with other candidates. Sociodemographic variables that were taken into consideration included sex, age, race, ethnicity, education, marital status, and frequency of attending religious services. Party identification and political ideology were also considered.…
Language is a complex communication system that formed by development, acquisition and maintenance. At the same time, it is shaped as social reality as well as reflects its underlying dimensions. “Women’s language” (Lakoff, 1973) – the configuration identifies of American speech patterns – highlighted that the latter function, but bore implications for speakers altering their social realities by altering the use of their language. Lakoff (1975) stated that women’s speech and the use of language reflects their subordinated position status. And all these language features where unified by their functions which are expressing insecurity and lack of confidence by women.…