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Maddie McClellan, Andrew Nerison, Joel Rudy, Kevin WinnEnglish 209: Intro to Linguistics

Dr. Bruce Maylath

8 Dec. 2011

Genderlects: From Birth to Adulthood

When do men begin to speak like men, and women like women? If differences in language arise from isolation, when and where is this isolation happening? It basically comes down to how children are being socialized into gender roles. Gender is a social construct that defines men and women in society as masculine or feminine. At a young age, children are socialized to act masculine or feminine; they quickly learn what is normal for a boy or a girl to act like. When people act outside of the normal gender constructs that society has created, they may be judged. Once children are socialized into their gender constructs, children that speak or dress in contrast to their physical sex may end up being ridiculed by their peers. These gender differences occur in language, as well. These differences in language are often referred to as genderlects. Boys and girls acquire these genderlects at an early age, as their differences are socialized and reinforced as they grow older and enter the school system. The acquisition of these gendered differences in language will be explored, starting at birth, through childhood, adolescence and middle-school years, and the continuation into adulthood.

Often before children are even born, the process of gender socialization has already begun, as parents decorate the childs room in blue or pink. Almost everything, starting before childhood, becomes geared toward a certain gender, including cards and balloons presented after a baby is born. They may say Its a boy! or, Its a girl!, which reveals nothing about the child as a person. The parents could just as simply say something as nondescript as, Its a redhead to label the baby without the stress on gender. Even if parents paint the babys room with gender-neutral colors, gifts often come in blue or pink to define the babys sex until the infant becomes recognizable as a boy or a girl (Arter 1). Even childrens picture books play a huge role in gender socialization and discrimination, as male characters are depicted far more than female characters. This is illogical, as the boy to girl ratio is roughly the same (Arter 16). Lisa Arter states in her article, Childrens Perceptions of Gender as Studied Through Pronouns that gender stereotypes begin at birth and have years of reinforcement before children enter the classroom (Arter 9). According to a study in Janell Carrolls book, Sexuality Now; Embracing Diversity, as early as the age of two, children start to recognize a difference in genders according to the differences they see in their mother and father, especially in the way that they behave and how they speak (Carroll 214). It is something that children pick up from such an early age that stick with them their whole lives. It is not surprising that genderlects occur, as boys and girls usually play with same-sex friends as they are growing up. This makes sense, as we know from previous accounts that isolation creates different dialects.

Once children grow to school-age, gender is even more reinforced as even school supplies are gendered (Arter 6). Arter quotes in her article that both behavior and thinking are influenced by knowledge structures (Arter 10). Therefore, if a gender neutral learning environment were desired it would be prudent kids were taught earlier with non-stereotypic methods, these gender gaps in language would be less likely to occur, and the gap between the gender divide would start to shrink. Cognitive associations between activities and gender (gender stereotypes) as well as gender and self (gender identity) may influence the more personal association a person makes between these activities and the self (gender typing). (Franz 2). We can begin to bridge the gap by using androgynous pronouns that refer to male or female, such as you, they, etc. These pronouns are part of what is referred to as fair language (Arter 14). This takes the place of gender-specific language, or the overgeneralized usage of the pronoun he. Using more inclusive language is a start to students entering the school system equally, without genderlects in place.It is not only in English that these gender-specific pronouns occur. It is found in languages such as French, German, Italian, and many others where there are only masculine and feminine pronouns to describe people. According to a study done by Janell Carroll, language formation plays an incredibly important role in how children develop in their thoughts on gender roles (Carroll 214).

Once in school, students begin to establish their genderlects in the classroom. It does not take long for this to be noticeable. Boys have been found to be more controlling and directive, while girls are often more passive or interpersonal (Tulviste 319). According to An Introduction to Language, is has been found that boys are as much as eight times more likely than girls to freely offer answers in class (Fromkin 449). Although boys are found to be more assertive, it has been found that at the pre-school age, girls are often more talkative. As mentioned earlier, boys and girls often play with friends of the same sex, which largely isolates them from each other; this separation occurs around age three, lasting through childhood (Tulviste 320). This is when boy and girl appropriate play is differentiated; children are likely to quickly pick out kids who do not conform. For example, boys from Estonia were found to value power and conformity, while girls did not pay as much attention to categories such as social justice (Tulviste 321).One can even clearly see in everyday places the amount of separation between genders. Walking through a department store is a perfect example of this. Looking down the toy aisles, it is easy to see what sections are aimed toward girls and which towards boys. The girls toys are typically pink and other bright colors, mainly full of dolls, or plush animals. The boys toys tend to be darker and geared more towards violence and action. The different aisles are usually not specifically labeled as boy and girl, but one gets the strong feeling of separation just by observing the differences. Furniture and room decorations have similar separation. Girls items tend to, again, be brighter colors and have more feminine features, while boys items lean towards a more masculine or tough look. Even these simple divides, which may be easily overlooked, really strengthen the feeling of separation and differences between genders.

Early adolescence is also a time when the lives of boys and girls become even more gender differentiated than in childhood (Blair 315). In some cases, teachers are concerned that girls are discriminated against in the educational community, because there are gender inequities in schools (Blair 315). This is the time that girls may lose confidence in their academics, and it is important that girls are able to see themselves as just as competent in school as boys. As stated earlier, adolescence is when boys and girls further define what makes them masculine or feminine. Students are not as separated from each other, or isolated, as they were when they were children, but they become more gendered in order to create identity. They take on gender expectations with different ways to dress, stand, walk, and talk as they continually construct their gendered selves (Blair 315).These expectations on their standards of dress, poise, and language are often taken by the children with varying levels of enthusiasm. In general, the strength of identification with ones gender should strengthen or weaken the identification of gendered stereotypes. (Franz 3). Quite simply, males who identify strongly with masculine behaviors tend to show more negative behaviors towards more feminine behaviors. Predictably, the same, but opposite, attitude occurs in women in regards to their views on feminine and masculine qualities.

One belief that has propagated itself particularly well is the belief that woman have an innate predilection to language. While there is some truth to this belief, there are also misconceptions that go with it. The Shucard study found that girls do, in fact, learn language earlier. What the study did not find was any indication that adults had any appreciable differences in lingual skills. According to studies by William Labov conducted in urban environments, women tend to use less offensive words and more prestige words. This translates to womens language being closer to Standard English or at the very least, less aberrant (Philips 5). An Introduction to Language reports similar findings; children as young as six show this pattern that girls speak more properly and avoid vernacular terms, where boys are less likely to care (Fromkin 450).

In response to changing social and cultural norms regarding gender roles, authors and publishers have made concerted efforts to address the issue of gender stereotypical activities and occupations and to effectively neutralize them so that children do not as readily associate certain activities and occupations with a specific gender, which risks the exclusion of the opposite gender. When certain activities and occupations become overly associated with one gender, a person of the opposite gender who participates in the activity or is employed in that occupation risks being targeted for confrontation and abuse (often in the form of teasing) (Arter 2). Although there have been movements to promote gender equality and gender neutrality so that kids are able to participate in whatever activity they wish without worry that it is too girly or boyish, kids still are highly gendered beings. It has been found that childrens favorite toys at ages three to five are stereotypically influenced; boys like technology and action while girls like more feminine and brighter things (Arter 4).

Gender differences in language, or Boy and Girl talk continue on into the middle-school-age. Heather Blair talks of these kinds of differences in talk in her experience in an eighth-grade classroom. She noticed that talk was an important part of gendering (Blair 316). She states that genderlects have their own set of sociolinguistic rules that are central to the construction of gender, indicative of relations of power, and implicit in all classroom communications (Blair 316). It was found that genderlects are very active in middle school classrooms, as differences between boys and girls were found, such as boys referring to sexuality, goofing around, and referring to homophobia were much more common than girls, who talked more about personal lives with their friends, and whispered more often than boys (Blair 317). This difference in talk influences, and is influenced by, how boys and girls interact with each other; for instance, girls had a greater need to create interpersonal relationships, which is aided by their personal talk (Blair 321).

Another example of gender difference is language is actually categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. There is a condition where a child will not acquire any sort of genderlects or any sexual roles at all. According to Nancy Nangeroni, the condition can arise from a few different cases. The first one is the lack of sexual role stimulus, in other words, if a child is brought up with little to no stereotypical gender influence. For example, a girl who doesnt get dressed in pink dresses, but instead with gender-neutral clothing. In a case like this, the child is likely to either develop gender roles that are not normal, or develop both of the gender roles equally. Following the assumption that isolation causes changes in dialects couldnt be truer than in the aforementioned case. First of all, it seems as though the girl would have to be isolated not only from girly clothing, but from any excessive stereotypically feminine toys, decorations, etc. If one were to grow up with a different set of gender roles than that of normal society, and continued on with those different roles, it is possible that the child may be subject to harassment in school by children who prescribe to typical gender norms (Martino).

One of our group members, Andrew Nerison, has had a great deal of experience withthe pressure to conform to the prescribed norms through certain social tests supplied by peers in middle school. There was a great deal of small tests conducted by my peers, both male and female, in middle school. These tests would, by and large, be used to establish some sort of stigma to those they were conducted on. If the boy being tested reacted in a way that was deemed wrong, he would likely be subject to ridicule. Most of the time, what was deemed wrong was arbitrary. There was one incident that remains quite vivid in my mind. It was while I was in the locker room after gym that I was approached by a classmate, who was a member of the popular clique. This classmate asked to see my hands. I extended my right hand forward, palm up with the fingers slightly curled. The classmate nodded; apparently I had passed the test. According to him, girls would stick their hands out, palms down and fingers straight, and homos would stick their hands out palms up but with fingers straight. While this personal example is not of adolescent language, this story does give a remarkable image of the social pressure placed upon young adolescents by their fellow peers to conform to a specific gender stereotype.

Maddie McClellan provided an example from a female perspective in which she had similar humiliating experiences in middle school, as she was judged by her peers based off of gender stereotypes. Maddie grew up not prescribing fully to gender norms as a child; she was what one would call a tomboy. She was not accepted by her teammates in gymnastics at a younger age because she had short hair and was shy, and she often got along better with boys. Because she was at an awkward middle-school age in which students were still finding out where they fit in, she was especially vulnerable to teasing about her short hair, baggy clothes, and avid reading. When she got a boyfriend, some of the more popular girls made fun of her boyfriend in front of her for being a Maddie-lover. Soon enough, this stage was over, but it remains vivid in her memory, just as Andrews memory goes unforgotten.

Genderlects dont simply last through adolescent stages; rather than fade out, they continue on from adolescence into the adult world. Although, hopefully, full-grown men and women dont ridicule each other as middle-schoolers often do, the difference in adult genderlects is still seen, for example, through the differences between mens sense of humor and womens sense of humor. It is often assumed that women do not share the same sense of humor as men do. Men are more often looking for a laugh, which was touched on earlier; this begins early in adolescence (if not earlier). Women do not seek attention in this way as much as men do, which also began at an early age, thus it is often assumed that women are just not funny. Of course, this finding is based only on folklore studies and it just backs up the belief that women lack humor (Crawford 1).But even though these so-called findings are not really legitimate, the mere fact that there is an assumption that women do not have a sense of humor, and that men are supposed to be the funny guys, just further illustrates the gender roles prescribed to men and women by society, and how these role specifications come through in language.

Another example of gender difference in language that continues on through adulthood is the idea of implicatures. An example of this is found in Mary E. Crawfords book, Talking Difference: On Gender and Language: about a married couple in which the woman asked her husband if he would like to stop for a drink. He replied No, and they did not stop. However, the woman was annoyed because her husband did not realize from her question that she wanted to stop for a drink. He, in turn, was frustrated because she had not stated her preference directly (Crawford 11). The analysis of the situation explains that neither the man nor the woman were wrong in their actions, but they must try to be conscious of what the other means in order to avoid future confusion and conflict. Men and women just communicate differently, as we have found out. Most likely, everyone can think of another example similar to this in their own lives; a time when some small misunderstanding snowballed into a fight that started at the root of these problems: communication.

The biggest issue facing men and women regarding communication is a direct result of how we grow up learning how to speak. Men tend to acquire more direct and technical ways of speaking, while women tend to take a more passionate and emotional approach to speech. This may cause issues when communicating, because women tend to use more implications in their speech, that is, rather than state directly what they want, they just imply things. This directly contrasts how men tend to speak. Men typically are very direct in their speech, which can lead to issues when a woman implies something and the man doesnt understand. This is one of the leading causes for marriage counseling (Navran).

Communication is something that, although necessary to have functional relationships, can obviously be very confusing to people. Implicatures and genderlects only make this process more difficult. Genderlects occur because of isolation and gender socialization that starts early in a humans life, creating differences in gender roles that eventually come through in language. Because boys and girls are socialized to use genderlects as early as age two, and are reinforced throughout childhood by their surroundings and favorite toys, and through adolescence by pressure from their peers to conform to normal gender roles, these genderlects refuse to fade and continue into adulthood. Genderlects in language just mean that men and woman function a little differently, and have to make sure to think about the implications of what they are saying, and what the other is thinking. Even though genderlects may add confusion and gender seperation, they assist in evolving males and females into their gendered selves. Genderlects start early, and because of reinforcement throughout life, are here to stay.

Works Cited

Arnett, Jensen.Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood; a cultural approach. 4. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc., 2010. Print.

Arter, Lisa Maxwell. Childrens Perceptions of Gender as Studied Through Pronoun Use.Arizona State University (2011): 1-66. Proquest. Web. 14 Nov. 2011

Blair, Heather A. Genderlects: Girl Talk and Boy Talk in a Middle-Years Classroom.Language Arts 77.4 (2000): 315-323. National Council of Teachers of English. Web.315-321. 14 Nov. 2011.

Carroll, Janell.Sexuality Now; Embracing Diversity. 3. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 214. Print.

Crawford, Mary E.Talking Difference: On Gender and Language. Sage Publications: 1995.1-11. Print.

Franz, Stephanie. Gender Identity and Gender Stereotypes as Interacting Influences on Childrens Adjustment. Florida Atlantic University, (2009). Proquest. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language. 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 448-51. Print.

Martino, Wayne and Maria Pallota-Chiarollo. Being Normal Is The Only Way To Be. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2005. Print.

Nangeroni, Nancy. "Gender Identity Disorder: What To Do?". GenderTalk. 1996-2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

Navran, Leslie. Communication and Adjustment in Marriage. Family Process 6.2 (1967):173-184. Print.

Philips, Susan. Language, gender, sex in relative perspective. Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print.

Tulviste, Tiia, Luule Mizera, Boel De Geer, Marja-Terttu Tryggvason. "Cultural, Contextual, And Gender Differences InPeer Talk: A Comparative Study." Scandinavian Journal Of Psychology 51.4 (2010):319-325. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.