Communication Between Men and Women in Today's Society

A detailed Summary of Communication Between Men and Women in Today's Society

With the advent of technology in the present day, it seems face-to-face communication is becoming a more and more of a difficult process. E-mail and instant messaging has made easier to communicate but unfortunately, has not brought us closer together. This isn't the first time our society has had problems effectively communicating. Since the beginning of time it has been thought men and women have had difficulty communicating especially in their personal relationships. Two authors, Deborah Tannen and John Gray, discuss, the common communication problems between men and women, their causes, and solutions. Their critic's thoughts show other's thoughts about this important topic.

Deborah Tannen has written several best-selling books about language and communication (8). John Gray has also written several books. Men Are from Mars and Women are from Venus, the first of his series, has sold over six million copies worldwide and has been translated into forty different languages (16). Unlike Deborah Tannen, who is a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and started her research in an academic setting, John Gray initiated his career as an assistant to transcendental meditation leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and then became a w

As with all theories, there will be critics. The ideas of Tannen and Gray are no exception. Katha Pollitt, an equality feminist believes that both men and women are equal in their empathy, nurturance, and do not mind nonhierarchical relationships. She criticizes Tannen and Gray because they believe in difference feminism and believe that men and women are truly different (62-67).

John Gray in his writings uses the idea that women use generalizations when they talk and men misguidedly understand women's talk literally. According to Gray, if a woman were to say, "We never go out" a man might react like this, "That's not true. We went out last week." Along with Gray's writings, what the woman really meant was, "I feel like going out and doing something together. We always have such a fun time, and I love being with you. What do you think? Would you take me out? It has been a few days since we went out. (18-19)"

Gray believes men and women talk so much differently they might as well be from different planets. He says that men speak Martian and women speak Venusian. He even included a phrase dictionary so men and women can decipher each other's speech. In his book, Gray does not really state any causes for these differences he just states them as fact (18-25).

Throughout history many writers have written on the subject of communication pro

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Approximate Word count = 914
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English