Personal Interview #2

Female, under 18, High School student, 2 parent-family

1. Do you think men and women communicate differently?

“Yeah. I think usually girls talk more than boys do, but I’m pretty quiet and my boyfriend talks a lot. So I don’t know how all men and women communicate, but I think there are definitely differences.”

2. How do you normally communicate with your boyfriend?

“We text a lot. When we’re together we talk and laugh but most days I don’t get to see him after school so we just text.”

3. Do you ever talk to each other on Facebook?

“Yeah. One time I lost my phone so we talked on Facebook chat instead of texting.”

4. Do you think it’s easier to communicate in person or digitally?

“I mean, I think it’s easier to talk to my mom and family in person about things, but I want to talk to Travis (boyfriend) all the time so we have to talk online and over the phone.

5. What would it be like if you had no cell phone or internet?

“I think Travis and I would talk on the phone everyday instead of texting or Facebooking I guess. I don’t really know.”

This interview displays the impact that today’s technology has on relationship and dating communication for youth today. This 16-year-old high school student spends time every day after school digitally communicating with her boyfriend. If this technology didn’t exist? She would use whatever means available, in this case a telephone, in order to remain constantly connected to her significant other. This is a real-life example of the value that youth today places on full disclosure within a relationship. By communicating throughout the day, teens feel more connected in their relationships. Even if little to no actual time is spent together, texting and Facebook communication have become the acceptable norms for high school relationships.

-Submitted my Kaitlyn Kivi

Review for Media report #2

The main focus of this article is whether or not gender roles have changed significantly in the modern world. The article examines how men and women’s roles are more alike than ever in the household as well as the work place. It seems as if now a days women are putting themselves into the role of superwoman: wife, mother, and career woman. The question this article raises is, where does that leave the men?
“We don’t really know which way the current recession is going to affect relationships between men and women-whether men are going to step up to the plate and become much more involved in housework and parenting or whether they’re going to do what other studies have shown them to do-which is try to express their masculinity by doing even less,” says therapist Joshua Coleman. For centuries men have been the bread-winner and women have been the head parent and homemaker. Now that women are adapting to take on more roles can men adapt to take on different ones? Is the fact that women are becoming more well-rounded people hurting the male psyche and ego irreversibly? Or can these gender stereotypes be erased and everyone just do an equal share to keep the modern family running? Hopefully this generation of superwomen bringing home the bacon and frying in the pan only encourages men to be supermen as well.

-Submitted by Erin Farr

Media Report #3/Review

Gender Communication Theories and Analyses From Silence to Performance
By: Charlotte Krolokke and Anne Scott Sorensen
Type of Media: Book
APA CITATION:

Krolokke, C., & Sorensen, A. (2006). Gender communication theories and analyses from silence to performance. (1 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 25-35). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, INC.

From this source I examined two theories. They are so named: Muted Group Theory and Standpoint theory.

Muted Group Theory:
This idea focuses on women and oppression. It was derived from anthropologist Shirley Ardener in 1975. “It posits that women and men within patriarchal, capitalistic societies tend to form two distinct circles of experience and interpretation, one overlapping the other. The masculine circle converges with the norms of the society, providing a masculine signature and overriding the feminine circle. Thus, the female circle is neither visible nor acknowledged-eventually only a small part of it is exposed. Consequently women’s’ experiences are seen as reminiscences in society. The options women have for correcting this are two try and translate their point of view into masculine mode or detach alternate models of communication.
Summary:
1. Men’s views are seen as dominant and if women want to be heard then they must conform to ways of communication as done by the dominant group, in this case men. “Do you have the balls to do this job?” This is a male dominate workplace metaphor.

Standpoint Theory
This idea deals with the oppression again but in terms of the critical paradigm, seeing as the critical paradigm is seen as giving voice to those who are silenced. This idea is that marginalized or oppressed people can give a more objective account for the world. Furthermore, this theory delves into the idea that in order to survive, the marginalized people must conform to the standpoints of the dominant culture even though it is not their own perception of the world or situations. So this is gender neutral. It may apply for men and women depending on factors such as socioeconomic class. So in that way it is possible for men and women to connect similarly based on money and perceptions. For example If a group of people are in the nosebleed seats. They are of a lesser status in the stadium. Therefore they have a different standpoint, and view of the game. Looking at communicating more simplistically, the group in the nosebleeds may communicate in a similar manner without any emphasis on race or gender.

-Submitted by Nick Jarboe

Media Post #2

Jayson, Sharon. "Family Life, roles changing as couples seek balance ." USA Today 18/004/2009. n. pag. Web. 19 Sep. 2011. .


Family life, roles changing as couples seek balance
• http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-04-18-families-conf_N.htm - open-share-help
•
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Changes in family life have made men's and women's roles more alike than ever as couples try to find the right balance between work and home, according to researchers at a weekend conference on relationships, sexuality and equality.
But the family experts, sociologists, psychologists and clinicians gathered for the Council on Contemporary Families' conference at the University of Illinois campus here say the gender convergence they're talking about doesn't mean all is equal on the home front.
YOUNG ADULTS: 'Don't want to be defined by gender, orientation'
And as the economic crisis continues to lay off greater numbers of men in the workplace, family experts say old notions of who does what in American families may be more even more unclear.
"We don't really know which way the current recession is going to affect relationships between men and women — whether men are going to step up to the plate and become much more involved in housework and parenting or whether they're going to do what other studies have shown them to do — which is try to express their masculinity by doing even less," says California psychologist and therapist Joshua Coleman, conference co-chairman.
Such issues as how couples balance their work and family lives, how they manage gender roles and how they divide housework and child care were among the topics discussed during two panels on Friday, the meeting's opening day.
Oriel Sullivan, a sociologist at Oxford University in England who has studied men's changing contributions to housework and child care across the globe over the past 30 years, noted that men in the United States have made a lot of progress.
"If you look at changes in the time trend for father care of children, the USA has shown one of the most dramatic rises in that over the last decade of any country, despite the fact that these kinds of policies have only very recently entered the U.S. policy agenda," she says.
Coleman, who has offices in San Francisco and Oakland, says there is still "a lot of confusion in society about what is appropriate for men to do and what is appropriate for women to do."
Boston-area couple Marc and Amy Vachon were among panelists at a session on gender convergence in families and intimate relationships. They explained what works for them, calling it "equally shared parenting." They've created a website (equallysharedparenting.com) to get out their message.
Amy Vachon, a clinical pharmacist and mother of two, says the couple's definition of equally shared parenting is about "conscious and purposeful sharing" in four domains of life:
•Child-raising ("There's no primary parent. There's no helper parent," she says.)
•Breadwinning ("There's no more important or less important career — no career that always gets sacrificed when the children are sick," she says.)
• Housework ("There's no household manager who directs the other one or makes more of the decisions or does more of the work on average," she says.)
• Recreation or rejuvenation ("Both partners have an equal chance at time for their own pursuits, and of course, to be with each other," she says.)
Marc Vachon, who has a degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA, cautions there is a risk of focusing too much on the tasks.
"Who does what? How many dishes have you washed? You owe me three hours because I was home with the kids this morning," he says. "No one wants to live that way. That kind of leads you right down the path of a lifestyle that we don't subscribe to at all. We like to call that lifestyle 'equally divided parenting' instead of 'equally shared parenting.' "
Also at the meeting, Pennsylvania State University's Robert Drago, a professor of labor studies and women's studies, presented data on a study of parents of infants that found differences between single mothers and those in couples, as well as differences in race and ethnicity and maternity leave.
Among the findings were that mothers in coupled relationships provided almost twice the hours per day involved in child care (11.1 hours) as did fathers in coupled relationships, (6.29 hours) while single mothers provided 9.5 hours a day in child care.


-Submitted by Abbie Schickler

Media Post #1

Galvin, K. M. (2006). Gender and Family Interaction: Dress Rehearsal for an Improvisation?. The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Communication (pp. 41-51). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

In 1983 Cahill theorized that children spend formative years in a dress rehearsal performing their impressions of roles such as boy, girl, man and woman. That theory is now irrelevant to culture because of differing socio-cultural values, adults are forced to improvise their lives.
Humans are not born with gender, rather it is a learned behavior passed on by elders. Men can posses feminine characteristics and women can possess masculine ones depending on individual goals, cultural structure and overall experiences.
The definition of ‘family’ is becoming more diverse over time, and conventional roles of mother and father are not present for observation in every household (single-parent families, gay/lesbian couples). Heterosexual parents tend to adhere to more traditional social roles for children, talking more to daughters about emotion and playing more aggressively with boys. Heterosexual fathers may distance themselves from sons who express different or gay qualities.
“As children are exposed to different family forms, they encounter multiple models and messages regarding gendered family life.”
The mother-daughter relationship is the primary forum for mutual care and support. A mother’s early nature to listen to her child’s opinions sets up the building blocks for a strong, communication- centered relationship through adolescence, while fathers tend to talk less with children and to focus more on activities. This can be attributed to the fact that males are traditionally socialized to see speech as a means to complete a task rather than a casual or bonding activity.
As families shift to a more co-parenting style than in the past, these ideas are evolving but still present in everyday family life.

-Submitted by Kaitlyn Kivi

Personal Interview #1

Female, Age group: 18-25, Highest level of education: currently in college

1) In your opinion, what are the fundamental differences between how men and women communicate?
A) Women need to say more words to express thoughts than men do. Men are more direct. Women need points completely explained whereas men sometimes leave out details.

2) In your opinion, are either men or women better communicators? If so, why do you believe that?
A) Women are better communicators to women. Men are better to men. Because women and men communicate differently, it would be easier to communicate with the same sex,

3) In your opinion, what factors make communication, between anyone, effective and successful?
A) Understanding that people need to communicate to gain information, share feelings, and gain comfort from each other.

- Submitted by Erin Farr

First Impressions

As a group we have put together our first impressions when we think about Gender Communication.
_______

Elyssa Sykes Bidwell:


Gender communication appears, to me, as a struggle between males and females in both a public and private setting. Males and females use different pitches and tones, along with words and phrases, that translate into different meanings. A majority of the time, however, males and females become upset over a missed cue to execute an order or comment. (Example: Female asks a male to take out trash, but male misses the command. Result: Female get angry at male for not listening. Fight ensues.)
_______

Abbie Schickler


I believe that in Gender Communication, women are taken less seriously than men. For example, in a family the mother has a ruling word, but there is always something about the father that makes children listen or obey better than they do for the mother. I believe that in the workforce today, it is very similar to this situation. Women may have a voice, but there is something about the men, and their voice is heard louder than the woman’s.
_______

Ian Goldman

I felt like it was important to look at some the stereotypes that exists about how men and women communicate. Some stereotypes of how women communicate are that they like to gossip and be indirect. While guys tend to be more direct and more competitive ie "dick measuring" trying to see whose the best. Some of the stereotypes of men and women
communicating are girls want a relationship and guys just want well... and another is that guys and girls can't just be friends.
_______

Kaitlyn Kivi

The key to understanding Gender Communication is how genders have been socially trained to interpret one another. Men talk to men differently than they talk to women, and women are taught from childhood hidden social clues and phrasing that makes inter-gender communication a breeze. Understanding gender communication comes down to understanding how genders are taught to speak to one another.
_______

Erin Farr

I believe there are many factors that influence widely excepted gender stereotypes. Such factors include sex, education level, and age. Due to this, in our interviews i plan to examine these factors in every interviewee to see if there is a correlation between any/all factors and a certain stereotype.