Blog 19

Blog #19: Post a draft introduction and literature review for your research essay.  The more writing you post - the more you will have to work with on Thursday.  This does not need to be perfect.  It can include questions, requests for help, and drafty sentences that you know you will need to re-write.  The point is to get started on this!!!

Introduction & Literature Review for Research Study

INTRODUCTION

In society today, there are many stereotypes between men and women. Women are said to be excessive talkers and rather emotional. Men on the other hand, are said to be more on the quiet side and like to bottle up their emotions. Stereotypes have also been determined that in a relationship, women have more to say than men do about the same topics, stories, feelings, and thoughts that may occur.  The goal of my research is to determine if this is true or if these ideas are indeed stereotypes that we as human beings believe. Studies have proved to find that men talk more than women in all, if not most conversational areas.

     How do women tell stories differently than that of men? How do men and women whom share the same stories, express their emotions? How do hand movements and eye contact play a part in the features of the actual storytelling? In my research below, I will explore how men and women engage in conversations and how women tell stories of love and romance differently than that of men.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation” by Deborah Tannen, she finds that men talk too much and women on the other hand talk less but express themselves more. Tannen elaborates on the fact that men and women do in fact have different ways of speaking and it is important to note how. She states, “Many women and men feel dissatisfied with their close relationships and become even more frustrated when they try to talk things out” (Tannen, pg. 17). This gives an idea how men and women feel when it comes to expressing their emotions when it comes to their significant other.

     How men and women converse is like a language of their own based on gender. Tannen explains, “If women speak and hear a language of connections and intimacy, while men speak and hear a language of status and independence, then communication between men and women can be like cross cultural communication, prey to clash of conversational styles”  (Tannen, pg. 42). Each gender plays a role in how they talk and how their language is interpreted.

     Tannen also believed that men took more pleasure in having strength and being the protector because this attracts women, and therefore the men receive emotional feelings of pleasure and satisfaction of being with their loved one. She mentioned that men and women have different ideas of what they find important and that is why they tell stories and express emotions differently and not the same.

     Women seem to gossip more than men do and in which this is an obligation in a woman’s life.  Tannen tells a story in which a women tells a story of her breakup over and over again, because if she did not mention this to all her close friends they would feel neglected if they found this out from a different individual. The man in this situation decided that it was best not to tell a soul and continue his daily routines as if nothing has changed. The woman in this case had more to say, but that is because women tell stories of romance in more detail than that of men, who may not express themselves as clearly as the women do.

      In my other source, “In a Different Voice” by Carol Gilligan she expresses that women’s relationships are more mysterious than more difficult to describe. She feels that women’s relationships have a lot more to do with that of imagery (Gilligan, pg. 25). Gilligan tends to mention that women are misunderstood and how theories have been built around observations of men in terms of conversation.
     In conclusion, studies have proved that men are the ones who talk more overall, but when it comes to a relationship women are the ones who are more expresses and tend to show more interest in the topic. Men and women have different ways of communication, especially when it comes to intimacy rather than when men are talking to their friends about sports or a meeting at work.

Questions:
** I need help with interpreting Gilligan’s book, it was very confusing to me**

-Looking through my sources I was wondering if i should speak about how boys converse growing up and how girls converse? I have been reading A LOT about how childhood plays a part in the conversations of men and women as they grow into adults. If so, what kind of questions should I ask my subjects?