the diversity model Flashcards
what does the diversity approach say?
puts the emphasis on individual differences amongst men and women rather than the differences between them. focus is on how people within groups use language, viewing gender as only one aspect of our identity. gender is treated not as a fixed identity but as a social construction (judith butler)
what was the term judith butler (1990) coined?
the term ‘performativity’ in her book ‘gender trouble’ (1990)
what does it mean for something to be performative?
- this means that it produces a series of effects. we act and walk and speak and talk in ways that consolidate an impression of being a man or being a women
- to say gender is performative is to say that nobody really is a gender from the start
how should this notion of gender performativity change the way we look at gender?
how did gender norms get established and policed.
the best way is to disrupt these norms and to overcome the police function.
judith believes its most important to resist the violence that is imposed by ideal gender norms especially against those who are non conforming in their gender presentation
what did janet hyde (2005) propose?
a ‘gender similarities hypothesis’
what did janet hyde (2005) claim?
that in fact there are substantially more similarities than there are differences between male and female language. where there are differences, these maybe due to a number of other variables such as age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality and politics
what is judith butler’s argument?
in butler’s publication ‘gender trouble’, judith first coined the abstract noun ‘performativity’. they argue that we are constantly engaged in constructing gender - gender is something we do, not what we are.
their argument is that language is performative: our language contructs our gender rather than reflects it.
what is deborah cameron’s (2008) book called?
‘the myth of mars and venus: do men and women really speak different languages?’
what does deborah cameron say?
the idea that men and women use language in very different ways is one of the great myths of our time’
before cameron’s research, what conclusions did the gender difference theorists draw about women?
that women are caring, good at emphasising and communication and emotionally articulate
what conclusions did the theorists draw about men?
men are analytical, dominated by their ‘urges’, not good at listening or talking about their feelings and cannot reasonably be expected to have anything beyond the emotional awareness of a toddler.
what exactly are the assumptions that cameron seeks to challenge?
- women talk more than men
- women talk to build relationships and men to obtain information
- women are averse to direct commands or requests whereas men are blunt and straight to the point
what is the ‘file drawer syndrome’?
the phenomenon that leads research uncovering gender similarities to linger unpublished in file drawers, either because researchers don’t see it as containing relevant results or because they know it to be unpublishable due to lack of interest.
what is the connection between the venus and mars myth and cases of rape and sexual assault?
defence lawyers can now argue that because the sexes communicate differently, a man may genuinely and through no fault of his own, have understood a women to be consenting to sex when by her own account she was doing no such thing. if this argument is accepted, the defendant may be acquired or punished less severely on the grounds that he did not intentionally disregard the women’s wishes, he simply misinterpreted them.
how do the ideas of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ findings relate to research on gender and language?
if a study finds a difference between male and female subjects, that is considered to be a ‘positive’ finding and had a good chance of being published in a scientific journal.
a study which finds no significant difference is less likely to be published. this means that some negative findings are never even submitted for publication
