Language and Gender
Language is an important tool of communication among human beings. In addition to strengthening the society, it also helps to maintain society’s social existence. Language reflects the perspective of gender and can cause an impact on how people perceive gender in over time (Talbot, 2010). Therefore, sociolinguists and feminists have tried describing the differences in how language is used between men and women. There has been an interest between language and gender within related disciplines and sociolinguistics. Linguistic anthropology studies focused on differences in gender speeches across various languages. In this case, distinct male and female language forms were identified. Gender has always been used as a social variable in quantitative studies ever since 1960s (Talbot, 2010). It was always founded that from every social class, women use more standard language features while men associated with vernacular features.
There are approaches that can help to relate between language and gender. Biological approach as initially focused on in language research accounted for the difference between men and women in their behavior of speech on lexical, morphological and phonological forms (Talbot, 2010). For instance, males have different voice characteristics from that of women. The cultural approach argues that females and males belong to a sub culture and their use of language is aimed to maintain identity in their groups (Talbot, 2010). Girls have a tendency of getting engaged in small groups of discussions and their speeches aim to build loyalty, intimate friendship, equality, a win-win situation and a always lack a desire of leading. Males are always contrary of this and they prefer to work in larger groups where they have a great concern of leading, status and control. They like showing skills and ability to act dominantly even in a midst of their leaders. Therefore, this cultural approach shows the difference on how genders of convey ideas on the way they converse.
On examining the power and dominance approach, several scholars claim that patriarch women have low social position hence standard language aims increase their self esteem. The difference in the interaction approach between the two genders is based on the assumption that males aim to dominate (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013). There is interpretation of problems of communication between the two genders due to difference in the status of hierarchy. Women were considered to use language forms in line with their low position. The forms of languages used by females include politeness, strategies, question intonations, etc. on the other hand, men’s language was an implicit tool for patriarchal power and they learnt to always dominate a conversation through having a talk time and interruptions (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013). However some of the traditional forms of language may not be applicable to the current two genders.
Findings
It has been discovered that women and men have a different forms of language. Women and men have varying expressions, personal representation and ways of conveying ideas. On use of online blogs like Facebook, women have unique features of communication different from those of men. Social media has been suggested to make way through in relationship (Hudson et al, 2015). 75% of couples stated that internet has a positive influence in their relationships and the highest percentage of social media users are women. They have a tendency of writing texts that arouse the curiosity of the readers. Females are well versed in expressing their feelings and in their expressions; they do have intimate closeness and a friendship which makes them easy to approach someone to talk to. It was also discovered through Face book posts that women do not always support issues of their fellow women but always have a negative view of their fellow women. It was also founded that women do not get asked and if they are asked, there is an assumption that you need one. Women are seen to be less experts unless to women issues (Hudson et al, 2015). Normally, women are associated with a prejudice of not speaking in public and in case one dares to speak out her opinion in public is at risk of being threatened. This case is different with online men. Men do not always express their thoughts to an individual but they like shouting it to their friends of Face book. Men may not be willing to express their thoughts face to face like the women do.
Another research from Northwestern University showed that men are more likely to share online their creative work such as music or art and around two thirds of them post their work online compared with half of women. When men are communicating through a technological channel, they always have a feeling of being less threatened and hence they can freely share their thoughts because they are not dealing with the other individual’s reactions directly. This is preferable for men because they easily get frustrated and always have a negative reaction for the frustration.
To be a woman means to be attractive and this is shown by the following physical traits which include vibe, body language, style, and social interaction. The aspects of femininity include the body type, hair style, and the dressing style. A woman with attractive qualities of these aspects is regarded more feminine (Santacreu-Vasut, Shoham & Gay, 2013). Appearance and dressing is another form of passing non verbal communication and most especially, women are judged depending on how they appear and dress which may not necessarily apply to men. Usually, women are being perceived frivolous or unimportantly basing on their code of dressing. For a woman to be taken serious, she has to be more careful on how she dresses. A woman aspect of femininity also involves body language, eye contact, demeanor and how she generally uses language (Santacreu-Vasut, Shoham & Gay, 2013). If a woman is so aggressive in her body language and voice, then she is more likely to appear less feminine. Therefore women can communicate what their true femininity through their physical appearance and dressing and they are judged by their attractiveness. However, this may not fully apply to men. While women dress to appear attractive, this is different with men because they dress to look presentable. They do less to make themselves attractive; however they have to look smart.
In an open mic music scene, women normally have a variety of what to dress on to fit a specific music scene (Santacreu-Vasut, Shoham & Gay, 2013). Women are good in creating a suitable fashion for every mic music in progress and their aim is always to look attractive and impress the author. Though men also dress what is suitable for a particular concert, they do not have a variety like it is the case with women.
In comparing the profiles of female friends on Face book and the profiles of the male friends, there is a systematic difference (Hudson et al, 2015). Profiles of female friends normally have a variety of photos compared to those of men and they are found of updating their photos every now and then due to the influence they get from comparing themselves to others (Santacreu-Vasut, Shoham & Gay, 2013). With men, they have a tendency of posting their issues and share them on face book.
Analysis on the findings
Language is expressed differently by people of different genders. This can be determined on how the two genders express themselves. Female expression is always different from how men express themselves. Majority of females have a tender expression and standard language while men are characterized with vernacular language always tough and irritating. Men are traditionally and naturally known to be leaders and their expression normally shows their strong quality of leadership which can even be revealed in their voices (Santacreu-Vasut, Shoham & Gay, 2013). Face book has always objectified women more on face book compared to their male counterparts and they spend averagely two hours in a day on face book and always check the sites in a short time interval. Majority of women compete on posting photos and uploading ever now and then, however, men prefer posting their creative works like music and art (Hudson et al, 2015). Men are also not found of expressing their issues face to face unlike females who find it easier. Normally men can easily get frustrated and that is the reason why they do not prefer face to face expression. Majority of women dress to look attractive and they are always judged based on their appearance.
References
Talbot, M. M. (2010). Language and gender. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2013). Language and gender.
Hudson, M. B., Nicolas, S. C., Howser, M. E., Lipsett, K. E., Robinson, I. W., Pope, L. J., & ... Friedman, D. R. (2015). Examining How Gender and Emoticons Influence Facebook Jealousy. Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 18(2), 87-92. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0129
Santacreu-Vasut, E., Shoham, A., & Gay, V. (2013). Do female/male distinctions in language matter? Evidence from gender political quotas. Applied Economics Letters, 20(5), 495-498. doi:10.1080/13504851.2012.714062
