W7_P2

Do you agree that men and women use language differently? In what areas?

I agree men and women use language differently in the following areas: self-disclosure, quantity of talk, topics of talk and vocabulary. According to Laurie Arliss, her “Conclusions Drawn from Research on Gender Differences in Communication revealed that women tend both to self-disclose more and to receive more disclosures from others more then men do. The quality of talk: who talks the most? In friendly same-gender dyads, women prefer to spend time talking; men prefer to share activities such as sports or hobbies. Topics of talk: What do Men and Women talk about? Men talk more about public matters (sports, money, and news) than do women. Women talk more about private matters (family, relational problems, other women, men, and clothing) than men do. Vocabulary: Do Women and Men Use Different Words? Women more often use weaker expletives (‘Oh dear’), whereas men more often use stronger expletives including obscenities. Women use certain evaluative adjectives (adorable, cute, and fabulous) that men do not use” [Arliss 1991, p. 93].

I have a hilarious example about men who will not stop and ask for directions when they are lost. My husband and I had to be in San Francisco on a Friday night by 6:30 p.m. to board a Dinner Cruise with all his co-workers. It was raining very hard. My husband forgot to bring the invitation with the map, so since he lived in San Francisco, he said I know how to get there. I just kept quite. Well, to make a long story short, he didn’t stop to ask for directions, instead he went around in circles and we ended up missing the boarding time. We missed out on one heck of a company party. LOL.