Debroah Tanne Book review
Deborah Tannen’s book, The Argument Culture is full of many arguments, some more intriguing then others. In this book, she tackles everything from politics to the Internet, and everything in between. I was especially taken by the gender issues that she addressed. Such issues were approached in nearly every chapter, it did not seem to matter what the topic was; she always managed to bring the battle of the sexes into it somehow. One chapter was dedicated strictly to this very topic: Chapter 6, entitled “Boys Will Be Boys: Gender and Opposition”, was among my favorite parts of the book. She really tackles the differences between boys and girls, which start at a very young age. I was awe-struck by the examples she uses of very small children who already are playing the gender specific roles which society has assigned to them. Children learn very quickly what is expected from them and how they are supposed to act. Very young boys know that they should not play with dolls just as little girls do not want to play with trucks. The example about the blocks was especially intriguing, the way that boys just want to destroy and wreak havoc on each others ‘creations’, and girls keep the blocks
Another issue addressed in chapter six is a ritual thought to be common in many college campuses: hazing. This was a very poorly backed part of the book. If Tannen wanted to broach such a subject, I believe that she should have presented more evidence to back her claims. Hazing is a very serious crime, and she just comes out and accuses fraternities and sororities as a whole of hazing. I was quite offended by this; she lacked the evidence I felt was necessary to make such an allegation, in addition, I found myself questioning her warrant. Based on my own experience, I believe hazing to be at thing of the past. As a member of the Greek community at UCLA, I have found that hazing is, for the most part a myth. First of all, the term ‘pledge’ is no longer used, however, I do not believe that referring to someone as a pledge would be hazing. Most of the stories you hear about hazing incidents are false. Contrary to popular belief, a goat plays no part in the initiation ceremony. I found this part in the book to be outdated and hypercritical. She shows no evidence for her claims and I found that to be quite offensive. The conversation that she documents is completely one-sided and misleading, I believe that it was blown out of proportion by an outsider who did not know any better. Tannen failed to mention that hazing is against the law, and that every single national sorority h
Some common words found in the essay are:
GI Joes, Gender Opposition”, Argument Culture, Deborah Tannen’s, evidence claims, book tackles,
Approximate Word count = 946
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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