I've recently finished reading Deborah Cameron's The Myth of Mars and Venus; do men and women really speak different languages?. It is really interesting because it shows how wrong the books are which constantly tell us communication between men and women must always be fraught with pitfalls. This is a small book with a somewhat chick lit cover but inside the text is easy to read and full of information to allow you to research the subject further if you wish.
The author highlights the research studies which have shown little or no difference in the way men and women use language. Contrary to accepted myth men actually talk more than women and gossip just as much - though they call it information gathering. The book suggests it could be in some people's interests to perpetuate the so called differences and to suggest they are inbuilt so that we can't do anything about them.
Interesting reading.
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Don't wish to lower the tone, but it always makes me laugh when people say there's no difference between men and women. Er... take your clothes off. I think you'll see a few differences! But seriously, in terms of communication, there are many differences in the way different people communicate and perhaps more men fall into a particular group than women, and vice versa. It's a broad generalisation though.
ReplyDeleteI know what you're saying Leigh but this book was primarily aimed at communication rather than physical differences - which after all no one can deny!!
ReplyDeleteI think one of the biggest things I got out of it was that there are more differences in communication styles between individuals than there are between the genders.