Feminism & Genderlect Theories

“Feminist communication theory...begins with the goals of understanding and explaining gender, refusing to accept stock answers and unchallenged common-sense assumptions. Feminist communication theory begins with an assumption that we are in need of deep structural change to produce new social relations and just societies." Feminist communication theory theorizes gender, communication, and social change. Genderlect Theory views communication between men and women through a humanistic and scientific approach, stating that the differences between the communication styles that women and men use are cultural. Genderlect Theory claims that men are more concerned with power while women focus on connections, leading to "cross-cultural" misunderstandings between the sexes. An example of this difference that a supporter of Genderlect Theory may believe would be how men and women think about personal relationships with the opposite sex and how they talk about their problems in different ways. However, Genderlect Theory claims that men view the world through the lens of hierarchy and that women are only concerned with making connections. Do you believe this to be true? I myself have known plenty of men who think about or view relationships just as the women they are dating do, and miscommunications arise from personality differences, not miscommunications. I believe that Feminist communication theory relates to Genderlect Theory because I believe Genderlect Theory to be categorizing women and communication, using stereotypes to form the theory, which is what Feminist communication theorists strive to avoid.

Here is an example from the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" which tries to show how differently women and men think about relationships, which would support the Genderlect Theory if it were true:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBUj-iF4Tg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m19MuX02mUw&feature=related

Genderlect Styles and Feminine Communication Theory

As I understand it Deborah Tannen views communication between men and women as cross cultural, and follows the rules inherent in learning another language. That language is Genderlect. She goes on to say that men speak with the idea of giving a "report" whereas women communicate in terms of gaining" rapport". This matches the idea that men seek independence and women community. There are certain signs to the language. For instance women engage in what is called cooperative overlap. men view this as a power move to take control of the conversation. Another term, the "tag question" again tries to create community even in a one on one situation such as "That movie was pretty good, don't you think? Tannen has many sharp critics completely opposed to her theory, suggesting that she forgot to consider male domination of women, both physical and mental. In essence this arguement states that men and women are not equal. this is the belief of Carol Gilligan. Gilligan's idea is where the article on Feminine Communication Theory picks up. That article states again that communication as a study has always been to better a white male society. It considers that even calling Feminine Communication a theory is political, basically saying we are not theorizing, Feminine communication is real. The two media texts I have are from movies. The first is from "Diner" by Barry Levinson. just watch the scene and see, but it is an example of two ways of communicating going on here. The man is reporting the signifigance of his records, and the women is looking for rapport with the man, and even with the records. The second clip is a montage of scenes from Annie Hall, BY Woody Allen. After the voice over the scene with them after tennis is revealling. Annie catches herself doing a cooperative overlap, she refers to it saying "oh how dumb, you said I was good, so i had to say you were. I'd like to know what anyone else picks up in the rest of the clips.