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October 05, 2005
Language According to Gender
When reading the Tannen article, I was struck by how true it described the behavior of women. I never realized just how much women are always trying to divert attention away from themselves and are always ready to compliment others, but never feel comfortable receiving compliments themselves. When Tannen described the behavior of boys as practically the opposite, always needing to "one up" other boys and never wanting to represent themselves as weaklings, I was not surprised because this is definitely true of most young boys, and I have observed this many times.
However, I always thought that this self promoting use of language that young boys employ was something that they eventually grow out of. I didn't think that grown men still felt the need to avoid the "one down" position through their use of language, but rather I assumed that as men grow older, they slowly depart from this practice and begin to use language as women do.
I realize after reading this article that this is not always the case. Some men live their whole lives feeling as though they need to be the boss, and what one grown woman may consider to be a very innapropriate or rude remark, a grown male may find perfectly acceptable. It is sad to think that for some men and woman there will always exist this communication barrier, but if more people were informed of the psychological reasons behind the behavior of men and women, perhaps fewer conflicts would arise from these differences.
Posted by lcissullivan at October 5, 2005 03:48 PM
Comments
I also found this article very interesting. Language and its connotation really is different to men and women, which is something that I haven't thought about before. That's maybe why some women like men with a "sensitive side" so we can relate to them more easily.
Posted by: Ariel at October 6, 2005 11:45 PM