Tannen’s analysis of the communication between males and females
From my experience, I find Tannen’s analysis of the communication between males and females somewhat accurate. The author explains that the socialization process of girls and boys is what plays a significant role in the way they communicate. As a child, I realized that the conversation between girls was more about telling each other secrets and expressing emotions. Girls would ask each other more questions than boys. Boys, on the other hand, were often talking about doing things. In my class, for instance, girls were more focused on comparing their clothes and hairstyles, while the boys would talk about football and races.
I think it is essential to study the communication patterns of males and females as it helps to understand how gender roles affect the communication process. According to Hancock and Rubin (47), people’s communication styles are closely related to their psychological differences as well as the gender constriction in a society. For instance, the position of men and women in society affects how they communicate and relate to each other. Therefore, while men tend to assume a more rational style of communication, women tend to be more emotional in their style of communication (Giles, 4). This is because their position in the hierarchy of the genders in society makes them the weaker sex. Men, on the other hand, intend to pass information as directly as possible and avoid being misunderstood. This fact explains why there is often little communication from men as compared to women. Studying how they do things differently also determines how they relate. For example, women tend to communicate more to create and maintain contacts, while men tend to communicate to build a mutual understanding.