Is gender really more than what you're born with?
Verbal interaction plays a key role in the diffrentiation of gender, says linguists.
Gender is defined as :”a wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between male and female,” but there's more to the story...
The nature vs nurture debate is something that has been debated for centuries, scientists tend to believe that gender is defined by nature, but linguists take the nurture approach and have argued that gender is more than a state, more than appearance, more than what you're born with but is actually defined by the characteristics you display whilst using language.
Linguistically, men and women are alien to eachother, different species, it's like there's a language barrier and nobody can really interpret the true meaning of an utterance from the opposing gender. The book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus reflects the extrinsic nature of gender communication. If gender was really only down to nature, surely we'd all speak the same language?
So are you linguistically the same gender? It's hard to say. Deborah Tannen has investigated how male / female communication differs and created a model to represent the characteristics one posseses when speaking, you tend to abide by either one of these lists, it is said that linguistic features used in interaction define your gender, and people use language for alternate purposes.
Verbal interaction for either gender have different purposes. As we all know, women use language to express their feelings, to gain sympathy and obtain a sense of intimacy with their 'linguist partner'. Men tend to verbalize only when it's necessary, to solve problems, to assert independence / status and to lecture other people expressing their dominance.
The characteristics defined by Tannen reinforce Robin Lakoff's deficit model theory -she claims that women's language makes them seem weak and uncertain and use language solely for emotive response compared to men who only use language for practical purposes, to achieve a goal or solve a problem. It's clear to see that there is clear gender difference in the way people use language; mainly due to the purposes of which language is used.
Despite the fact that women are seen to be inferior and weak in conversation, it is notoriously known that women work harder in conversations in order to maintain them; this is backed up by the works of Pamela Fishman. She argues that women are more expressive and tend to use more tag questions to keep the conversation flowing, men tend to be lazy during interaction and often give minimal responses to show agreement and that they're listening but don't really offer their own opinions, unless of course they're delivering a lecture; which raises the question, do women really have dominance in conversation if they're maintaining communication or do men possess all the power and let women waffle?!
Typical feminine language has been characterised as expressing uncertainty, having a rising intonation (which makes everything seem as if it's a question) and using superpolite terms, among other things; which makes female use of language the more favourable style, women tend to be the supportive figure, showing keen listening and expressing sensitivity, in addition to this, women avoid using strong swear words which makes females the more approachable gender.
In terms of male communication, they tend to ask questions in order to extend their understanding and obtain the information they desire, in comparison to females who often use questions in a rhetorical manner in order to attract attention to themselves. Males use strong statements to get their message across effectively, they don't avoid the usage of strong statements as these are seen as most effective and help to affirm their status.
MALE
VS FEMALE COMMUNICATION.
Women
= Rapport > Men = Report.
Women
= Sympathy > Men = Problem solving
Women
= Listening > Men = Lecturing.
Women
= Private > Men = Public.
Women
= Connection > Men = Status
Women
= Supportive > Men = Oppositional.
Women
= Itimacy > Men = independence.
*Gender difference model created by Deborah Tannen to show the purposes of language usage dependant on gender.
O'Barr and Atkins tested Lakoff's ideas, they came to the conlusion that the features characterised were actually used by both genders and are linked to lack of power thus challenging the nurture debate, although they have stated that gender is one of the significant variables which contribute to the genderlect of an individual.
Another theorist that challenged the idea of women being insuperior is Janet Holmes, she investigated the use of tag questions and concluded that they didn't always show uncertainty and were instead a means of maintaining conversation and showing an interest; contrasted against the works of Deborah Jones who reinforced the idea that women still fulflled their matriachal roles and only used language for these purposes: gossip, housetalk, scandal, bitching and chatting which is a view which seems a little outdated these days as society has changed and gender equality is at an all time high.
Jennifer Coates argues that men use language competitvely, interupting a lot more than women do, and express verbal agressiveness. In contast to women who use language cooperatively, in order to support the other participants, create links between speaker turns and provide self-disclosure.
Despite all of the theories which argue that gender is actually constructed through nurture and is actually learnt behaviour, there's one theorist who challenges them all. Deborah Cameron believes it's all a myth. She thinks that gender doesn't affect language at all and there are significant similarities in the way men and women use language with insignificant differences, stating that language isn't a variant at all!
Taking the evidence into account, you can only make your own interpretation about whether gender is more than what you're born with... you may believe that it's innate, you may believe that it's learnt behaviour.. there isn't a definitive answer, although it's clear, that to an extent, your language use does define you as a person.
