Genderlect Styles

Genderlect as stated in Griffin (2009, p. 430), is "a term suggesting that masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinctive cultural dialects. In this post, i will use the interactions between the cast from the hit tv series That 70s Show to show how does Genderlect Styles are viewed in men and women and better understand how opposite sex communicate with each other and why is it important to understand Genderlect Styles.

Tannen argues that women more than anything seek 'human connection' where as men seek status in a relationship, or in other words, 'rapport talk' by women where their usual conversation style is to establish connection with others where as 'report talk' by men is a mono-logic style that they establish to command attention, carry information and win confrontations (Griffin, 2009, p. 432-433). Tannen views this as cross-cultural communication. This can been seen as Michael Kelso's constant hook ups with various women such as Laurie Forman, Pam Macy, Angie Barnett, Annette Berkardt and many more women with this Michael Kelso tends to show off his status as a womanizer to the rest of his friends in the series, this supports Tannen's claim that men seek status.  Whereas Donna Pinciotti, a character who is in love with Eric Forman; the lead series character, seeks human connection or love in her case, she doesn't show off her status unlike Michael Kelso does.

Tannen claims that women talk more in private conversation whereas men only talk more in public speaking situations where men always seek a 'one-up' position among men (Griffin, 2009, p. 433). In episode 17 of season 2, we can see that Donna and Jackie are having a private conversation about Eric's and Donna's first time in intercourse, and also can be seen in other episodes, while later in that episode, Eric tries to establish a 'one-up' position among his friends by telling how good was his first intercourse with Donna and insist on an agreement with his friends.

Donna's and Jackie's many private conversations together

According to Griffin (2009, p. 433), men tell far more stories especially jokes than women do and "telling jokes is a masculine way to negotiate status." Tannen further added that men see themselves are heroes in their stories and women tell stories by sharing stories about others (Griffin, 2009, p. 433). Throughout the TV series, there can be seen a series of 'one up-ship' among the men; Eric Hyde, Fez, Michael especially from Kelso where he more than twice had the 'upper hand' when he had slept with Eric's and Hyde's respective sisters and the way he had told the stories or jokes would always make him the 'hero'. Tannen further claims that woman tend to show more attentiveness during conversations with men while the men are seen avoiding being attentive as they can be seen weak (Griffin 2009, p. 433-434). From this, the reaction how Hyde treated Jackie for 3 seasons in the series, he was the opposite for the more attentive Jackie when having conversations. Hyde shunned himself from being more attentive with eye contact, listening and even agreeing with her most of the time. Tannen also adds that men do not ask questions as it is a sign of weakness while women ask questions to seek connection where women use tag questions to avoid potential conflicts (Griffin, 2009, 434). Moreover, as described by Tannen, men prefer and are more comfortable with conflicts as they are wary of being told what to do in the other hand, women find conflict as a threat to connection which must be avoided no matter what (Griffin, 2009, p. 435). Before and early during Hyde's and Jackie's relationship, Hyde had feelings of animosity towards Jackie due to Hyde's poor perspective on authority. Hyde tries his best to establish conflicts with Jackie as seen in episode 18 of season 2.

Steven Hyde and Jackie Burkhart

In conclusion, as stated in Griffin (2009, p. 435), Tannen suggests "sensitivity training as an effort to teach men how to speak in a feminine voice, while assertiveness training is an effort to reach women how to speak in a masculine voice...hope that men and women will alter their linguistic style." The statement made by Tannen is supported by Gilligan's 'ethical reflection'. Genderlect Style may be heavily sided on the men's side as to the women's. There are flaws in  where these 'styles' between men and women are worth looking into, to have a better judgement how the contemporary men and women communicate with each other.

References:

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.