Blog #18-I totally agree with you": gender interactions in educational online discussion groups

I found that this statement was interesting, "female-to-female interaction tended to be more positive than female-to-male interactions, suggesting that females were engaging in negative interactional strategies to a greater extent when in response to males, as opposed to females." I feel as though we do disagree with what males have to say some of the time and it is easier to hear what a female is saying...this being that I am female. We are more likely to agree and put positive comments on a discussion between women then on males. I am not sure why this is but I noticed it a lot just with our posts. I also noticed how the males would not agree with what the female was saying but all the females were agreeing with eachother.... Obviously this doesn't happen all the time but I think that it does the majority of the time.

Blog #17-A Sociolinguistics perspective of gender differences in Virtual Communities...

After reading this article, it states that, "women tend to bring up more personal issues." I use facebook to reunite with family and friends and to share my day with others and see how other people live their life. It is definitely a social aspect for me. I get to see pictures, videos, and the thoughts of whoever is in my network of friends. It is quite addicting.... I find myself wanting to check the status box just to see who has said what and so on.... I do have some male friends on there and I feel as though some of the males communicate more personally, where some of the others are just on there. They don't really do the "social networking" aspect of it...

I also have another male friend who often gives challenges to people about life and waits to see who will do these challenges. A quick example of this....On Friday he put as his status update to give something back that you borrowed from someone else regardless how long it has been...
So I guess there is some people who do the informative thing and some who just do the social thing....

Blog #20-Killing Us Softly

Like I said in blog #19, we become immune to these sexist ads, but on the other hand we still do try to be like the women in the ads. I feel as though we still see women as property which means that we can sell the image this way. Sure, not everyone sees this or will admit that they see women as objects but the image does sell.

The major issue for myself is the way they portray young girls and the messages that these girls are getting from the media. If you talked to a room full of adolescent girls, you would hear them talking about diets, working out, what type of hair style they want, what type of clothing that they want, and so on. Almost every young girl wants to be model-like because the model looks like she has everything... I know that as a teenager I wanted to be a model but I am only 5'3, so the chances of that was out for me, but I wanted to have what they had. I grew out of wanting that image and realized that I am, who am, and that is all I want to be!

Blog #19-Stale Roles and Tight Buns

First off, I found this much more interesting then just watching a program and then seeing the commercials or seeing ads in magazines, because you got to actually see what the ads are saying. I often do not pay enough attention to the things that are being portrayed and that is probably because I am so use to seeing these sexist ads.

We are so use to seeing these things that I don't take a second glance because it is normal to see an underwear ad with a guy who is wearing nothing but his underpants but has this muscle body. The image is telling every boy that he should look like this and telling every girl that she should be looking for someone like this. It is wrong that our media shouts this from their rooftops but I'm not sure what we can do to change this. We do not have sufficient regulations for monitoring these types of ads, so people use become immune to them, like I have.

Blog #16-Gender Issues in Advertising Language

While reading through the article I am constantly thinking about what type of commericals I see when watching T.V. I found this part of the article interesting, I guess because I usually don't think twice about what the commerical is talking about or trying to sell... "one interpretation is since day-time television audiences are predominatley female, advertisers are more careful with their language than in the evening when audiences are mixed." --This is soo true, you see most soap opera commericals during the day only versus the night, you see more women talk show hosts commericals and actual shows during the day...

Another part that the article talks about is "both gender-specific language and gender biased language were more prevalent in ads for household cleaning products..." This makes me think about commericals for Windex.. The one that seems to pop up in my head is when the wife asks her husband to clean the windows and she will clean the pool and the husbands doesn't go for it because he thinks that the pool will not take as long; so she go aheads and cleans the windows and she finishes before he is done with the pool. I feel as though this is completely gender-specific because women are known for cleaning the inside of the house and the man is known for cleaning the outside.

Blog #15-Gendered Voices in Children's Ads

"First, ads for kids serve as training for consumer culture.....through ads, kids learn that products for sale offer life style enchancements, fun, peer group status, and up-to-date coolness..." This quote taken from the article is so right on...My little cousin for example thinks that he has to have every new toy that comes out and he sees this from the commericals that are aimed at training to want new and bigger and better things....I feel as though it is shameful to even think that we need to have "toys or fill in the blank" just to fit into a group. Our peer status shouldn't have to revolve around what "new" thing that we got at the store, but we are suckers for spending our money and buying things that we do not need.

Blog #14-Beyond the "He/Man" Approach: The case for nonsexist language

To change the way we use language seems like it can be an easy thing to do, but for so many people is not or they chose to not change their sexist language. I feel as though we are approaching 2010 and times do change along with language. People seem to be so afraid of change and oppose anything that goes along with it. I found a part of the article that stated, "..when the female pronoun has been used to refer to both sexes, as in the teaching profession, males have lobbied for use of the male pronoun. They argue that use of "she" is responsible, in part, for their poor public image and low salaries."

After reading this passage I totally feel soo frustrated with this statement. Women should not have to be known for poor public images and low salaries. (Granted this was written a while ago, but common on people!) We still do have to deal with types of sexist bias. Are salaries are still lower than males and we are in a completely different era..

Blog #13- Henley-Molehill or Mountain?

Some of the things that I found interesting are...

"boys and men may not understand the generic meaning of the masculine generic because they have never formally had to learn to understand.....Girls and women, on the other hand, have to learn formally to use the masculine generic. Barred from continuing to refer to "any person" with their own pronoun, they must believe in its inclusiveness, if they are to think of themselves and their sex as existing."

I really never gave this much thought. I guess we do learn at such a young age what is the appropriate pronoun to use when talking or describing a generic masculine. This is our norm though, this is the difference of language. Since we do live in this "man-orientated" world we (girls/women) know that we are the "outsiders" so to speak. I don't necessarily think that this is a good thing but it is "normal" in my world.

Blog #11- This New Species that seeks a New Language-Henley

The section that talked about "deprecating" was very interesting to me. To read that "sexual insult is overwhelmingly applied to women, in researching terms for sexual promiscuity, found 220 terms for a sexually promiscuous women but only 22 terms for a sexually promiscuous man." This made me think back to one of our first discussion boards, when we listed names for men and women.

WOW!!! to read that their 220 different words that are spoken about women is disgusting but so true. It made me start to think ab0ut the different words that I hear from different people on a daily basis.

Another interesting section was the "defining" section. I always hear a women being defined by what she does or who she is. Especially if they are mothers. Most mothers that I know will be the first person to say something like " I am a mother, and then I am a ......(fill in the blank)." Being a mother is usually the first thing that they mention when talking about themselves and who they are.

Blog #10-"Complimenting"

I feel as though I use compliments all the time. Today for example, my fiance and I had our friends from out of town over for dinner. After they entered our home and we said hello, I immediately notice that her hair was shorter and the color was different and complimented on it. Then our conversation turned into talking about what is different with our body/appearances. I probably use compliments multiple times a day with different people. I think I do this because I do like to make people feel good and that in turn makes me feel good. The one thing I found to be really interesting is how everyone uses the same types of compliments.

Blog #9-"Women's place in Everyday Talk"

After reading this chapter I don't feel as though the similarities between a male/female conversation and also between a parent/child conversation is a negative "thing".

I think, if anything, that it is interesting to read the conversation, in the book, with the overlapping words from the males while speaking to females or when they interrupt the conversations because its a way of showing their dominance. I feel as though men think that they have to have the last say in something in order to be heard. I also think that when a women is having a conversation with a man and he interrupts her, she feels as though he is not listening to her.

Blog #8- Ethnic Style in Male-female Converstation

Miscommunication is soo common, especially in relationships.

I have an example of miscommunication that just happened today with my fiance. I asked Jason if he wanted to go to lunch today. His response was "we have to the rest of our life to go to lunch together" he then noticed my facial expression (which I immediately was irritated) and said "well of course I want to go to lunch with you today, and I was just kidding." He said he just wanted to see my reaction. When I heard him say this I thought to myself what a jerk and no longer wanted to go to lunch with him. If I would've just walked away we probably wouldn't have gone to lunch because I instantly assumed that he just didn't want to go, but since he saw the disappointment on my face he knew that he made a mistake and changed his tone and his answer. He really did want to go but for some reason couldn't just say "yes, let's go!"

I think things like this just happen because we both respond differently to things and his joking doesn't always seem like joking to me and vice versa.

Blog #7-Fishman-Interaction: The work women do

As I was reading this article I starting reflecting on how much more I talk compared to my fiance. I find this so fascinating that I am not the only women who asks questions, tries to start conversations, and always listens when my fiance is talking. I guess I am somewhat aware of this, but reading the information makes it much more alive to me. I also find it interesting that even though the women in a relationship does majority of the work make "conversation" they still do not hold the power. This just goes to show the major differences between males and females and how they communicate.

Blog #6-Cooperation and Competition Across Girls' Play Activities

I think that most people see these distinctions when you observe boys at play and then when you observe girls at play. I know that I notice the differences. Boys' are much more aggressive and their tones show more aggression. Girls' are much more soft-soften and try to make everyone feel comfortable.

Girls tend to ask someone to do something, where boys will command for someone to do something. I found it interesting that when a girl is acting as a "mother" she is more "commanding" in her tone. She will then boss someone that is suppose to be younger around. It's so interesting to watch this because this is what they have observed in their everyday life, so they are acting it out just the way they see it.

Blog #5- "Kings are Royaler Than Queens": Language and Socialization

Okay this article very interesting to me. I guess I never really thought about how many times we use the word "he" or the word "she". I do find myself using "he" to describe something even if I do not know it's gender. I remember playing outside with my little cousin Ryan, who is 3, and we where looking at some bugs. I remember saying to Ryan, "that little guy is really fast!" What I am trying to say is that I used the word "he" even though I do not know what the gender of the bug was. From this point on am going to try and remember this article and remind myself about the way we use these words.

Jespersen

Well I am not sure even what to say about this article. Yes, it is a little dated. Yes, I believe that women are treated more equally then before. I feel as though Jespersen's tone was also quite negative in the section "General Charactertics." He brought in a lot of different studies with a lot of different names to help his point get across. I feel as though he was very one sided an example would be when he said, "....women on the other hand, had a number of domestic occupations which did not claim such an enormous output of spasmodic energy."

Does he really think that just because the women stayed home and took care of everything around the house she would have just as much energy as when she woke up in the morning? Apparently, he is only thinking about how men go out and work and their work means much more than a women's work at home.

"Women's Language" or "Powerless Language"

After reading this article I find the use of both of the terms very interesting. To say that you use "Women's Language" makes you seem a certain way, like you are the average American women. You live in a more traditional environment compared to living in a society where you go out in the working world. This also goes for men. There are many more "dads" who stay home while the "moms" are working outside of the home.

Today's times, I think, generate more people who are educated to speak with more power regardless of how they live. If you are a homemaker than you probably speak using both patterns, depending on who your audience is and vice versa. (Same goes for men as well).

Blog #2- Girl Talk/Boy Talk: Sex Differences in Adolescent Speech

After reading this article, I found myself shaking my head and laughing at some of the points in this article. I feel like we see this a lot in everyday life. I feel as though girls' are somewhat "expected" to be more respectful and responsible then boys'. It's okay for "boys'" to swear or talk disrespectful when it comes to speaking with someone who is older than them.

I feel as though this difference is from our society..girls are expected to be "lady like" while boys' can do as they please and get away with it. This may not be true in all circumstances but I do feel as though boys' can be tough and get into trouble but if a girl gets into trouble or starts fights then she is in the wrong. I guess it is more frown upon in our society.

Blog #1- Yanyuwa: 'Men speak one way, women speak another'

Ok, so I'm not use to doing this type of stuff, so please bare with me until I become a little more comfortable with these reflections.

After reading this article I was very fascinated by the way the children were raised and how there language would have to change (depending on their gender). I could only imagine how difficult it would be to learn a certain language from birth till adolescence, and then if you were male you would have to learn how to speak using the male dialect. It must be very confusing for the young men to have to go through this when they are also going through many other things. It is also interesting to learn how they don't know why they speak two different languages..