Unit 2

Question 1

Are there any differences between men and women in writing, if so how much?

Answer 1

A computer could guess 86% of the time whether it was a man or a woman, a person couldn’t do any better than guessing. Men tended to express more independence (I, my) Women used more question marks, emotionally expressive adjectives like very, really.

Question 2

What is the Whorfian Hypothesis and how does it relate to gender?

Answer 2

Language determines/influences thought
Gendered language is correlated with more sexist attitudes. Also, Passive voice was used more often for assault or rape perpetrated by men, as opposed to women. Resulted in more blame being assigned to victims and less responsibility assigned to perpetrators