April 17, 2008

The Myth of Mars and Venus 4

Cameron writes:

"Since the mid-1990's, a new wave of language and gender research has set out to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge, and correct some of its most obvious biases. This recent research confirms that man common generalizations about the way men and women communicate are at best only partial truths. The more we expand the range of men and women we study and range of contexts in which we study them, the mor difficult it becomes to maintain the belief that men use language in one way while women use it another. That general belief is the foundation of the myth of Mars and Venus."

Cameron notes, "Language and gender research, in common with many other kinds of social research, has had a bias towards studying white western middle-class speakers."

Her obvious point here is that she believes many are excluded from these studies.

In one study, she points out contra the popular myth, many cases involved men who did not go into "caves" ( John Gray metaphor) if women engaged them on a topic they were interested in.

One of her major points in this chapter on "partial truths" is that language-use is linked to roles or activities, rather than gender.

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The Myth of Mars and Venus 4

Cameron writes:

"Since the mid-1990's, a new wave of language and gender research has set out to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge, and correct some of its most obvious biases. This recent research confirms that man common generalizations about the way men and women communicate are at best only partial truths. The more we expand the range of men and women we study and range of contexts in which we study them, the mor difficult it becomes to maintain the belief that men use language in one way while women use it another. That general belief is the foundation of the myth of Mars and Venus."