The Gender Communication Connection

Teri Kwal Gamble, Michael W. Gamble

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317456704
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Études sur la communication

The authors explore the many ways that gender and communication intersect and affect each other. Every chapter encourages a consideration of how gender attitudes and practices, past and current, influence personal notions of what it means not only to be female and male, but feminine and masculine. The second edition of this student friendly and accessible text is filled with contemporary examples, activities, and exercises to help students put theoretical concepts into practice.

PART I

Foundations of Gender Communication

We all experience gender. We talk about it with our friends. We talk about it in class. We talk about it at work. And we talk about it in our families. We read books about it, view films devoted to its exploration, and even listen to and watch others discuss it on the radio, on television, and online. Our interest in gender is so pervasive that college courses exist to explore how gender is constructed. Some of us also now follow the progress of lawsuits being fought to restore personal rights and ensure gender equity.

In Part I of this book, we explore why it is important for us to study the rapidly expanding area of gender communication. We focus on how and why we incorporate gender into our selfconcepts, and how the expectations of others can elicit gendered behavior on our own part. We also explore how we come to develop gender roles and identities in the first place, the use of verbal and nonverbal styles of gendered expression, and the existence of gendered perception styles.

In order to get our conversation about the foundations of gender going, consider these questions:

1. How does creating standards or differences between males and females and then reinforcing such differences through our actions constrain or present opportunities?

2. In what ways are gender practices and views regarding women and men changing, and what does this suggest about how we view ourselves?

Why We Study Gender Communication

CHAPTER 1

What are little boys made of, made of?

What are little boys made of?

Sticks and snails, and puppy dogs’ tails.

That’s what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice, and all things nice.

That’s what little girls are made of.

English Nursery Rhyme, c. 1820

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Explain the meaning of doing gender.

2. Define and distinguish between communication and gendered communication.

3. Discuss standpoint theory and its use in conceptualizing gender.

4. Define and distinguish among the terms sex, gender, androgyny, sexism, and sexual orientation.

5. Describe the interaction between gender and communication.

6. Identify and explain four principles of gendered communication.

Think about gender’s impact on you and those around you. For many, gender and identity are linked inextricably. As we begin our study of gender communication, consider how being a member of your sex makes you feel. What is it about being male or female that you like and dislike? Do you think others of your sex feel otherwise? Could this be because they “see and do gender” differently than you?

We cannot seem to stop “doing gender,” with many, if not all of us doing it most—if not all—of the time.¹ Gendering is a process. Society, sometimes overtly but other times covertly, shapes thoughts and actions, reminding us of what it expects—what it considers masculine and feminine.² Thus, when we do gender, we are expressing our views regarding what we consider to be “normal” or “natural” for a member of our sex.³

Through the Years

Consider the extent to which you have revised your personal definitions of gender and opinions relevant to gender issues over time.

To begin, explain what thoughts, if any, you had about gender during your high school years. Then explain what gender means to you today, identifying at least one gender issue that currently concerns or involves you.

How do you account for the sameness or the differences in your thinking about gender through the years? How has your interest in or concern for the issues you identify above changed you or caused you to reconsider what you believe or value? Explain.

Gender also is a product of interaction. We participate in gendering. However, if we are open to change, and if we are willing to challenge those standards and values that limit us from fulfilling our potential, then it is possible for us to free ourselves to act in new ways. Over time, as we revise our beliefs and reshape our behaviors, our personal definitions of gender also will shift and move. Rather than being static, or fixed, we can free them to be fluid and evolve.⁴ Where will they take us in the years to come? That’s what we’d like to know.

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The Gendered World: Where Would You Like to Go from Here?

We are about midway through the second decade of the new millennium. What do you hope for, and what do you expect when it comes to your gendered life? How you answer could influence your life choices. To be sure, discussions about gender likely will continue well into the millennium. Why? Because communication is key in altering attitudes and bringing about change, and much of communication is filtered through a lens that is gendered, raced, and classed.⁵ We do not yet live in a post-gender, post-race, or post-class society.⁶

Through history, gender inequity has assumed many forms, with some issues of gender inequality never having been fully addressed. Despite this, progress occurs. We have been witnesses to the first marriages of gays and lesbians, the first woman commander of a space shuttle, the first woman candidate for president of the United States, the first woman CEO of a Dow 30 company, the U.S. Women’s Soccer team attracting over 90,000 fans to the Women’s World Cup finals, and women allowed to serve in combat roles in the armed services.

More of us now accept that knowledge and art ought to be produced not just from a man’s point of view, but also from a woman’s. We see men taking larger roles in child care, supporting women’s sports teams, and serving alongside women in war. In the years ahead, there will likely be many more firsts. Certainly, your generation’s children may assume different sex-role behaviors than those you now enact. In addition, if we continue to challenge gender categories, we probably will have even more choices regarding roles believed appropriate for us to fulfill than are currently accepted.⁷

A healthy diversity exists among men and women.⁸ Some continue to assert that men and women differ in so many ways, they might as well hail from different planets—the contention of John Gray’s now-classic best seller, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Popular culture, however, is not alone in its obsession with differences between the sexes. Since 2000, more than 30,000 scholarly articles on the subject of sex differences have been published.⁹

All of us, regardless of gender, are similar in some ways and different in others, overlapping with each other at different points.¹⁰ Even where we expect to perceive similarities and differences, expectations are not always borne out. On the other hand, the members of all societies participate in the construction of gender differences. We are taught rules and pressured to adhere to different gendered norms. Many of us use these rules and norms as behavioral guides.

How we are gendered also is influenced by social class, race, and ethnicity. These variables intersect, creating great diversity among men and women across cultures, races, and ethnicities, including but not limited to Chinese Americans, Latin Americans, African Americans, and European Americans. In the United States, for example, the day-to-day communicative activities of men and women have become more and more similar over the last few decades, with Judith Lorber, ...