Genderlect Styles

In Deborah Tannen's Genderlect Styles Theory, she described the conversational styles of men and women. According to Tannen, conversations between men and women are cross-cultural conversations. For example, Tannen states that men and women "speak different words, from different worlds. Even When they use the same terms, they are tuned into different frequencies" (Griffin, 429). Tannen then, went into detail to describe all of the differences between male and female conversational styles.

I do not fully agree with her theory. Deborah Tannen has come up with a decent basis that further research and studies should be focused around. I did not find her argument's to be strong, because I thought her results were too extreme, without enough evidence to prove her findings.



This is a simple video of a man (Stevie) talking into the camera about the differences in communication styles, between men and women. According to Stevie, he states that "when it comes to communication, women are subtle [and] men are direct." He says that when a woman wants a man to do something, she throws him subtle hints, instead of just asking him directly. Tannen did not mention anything about women being subtle, but she did mention that women are more sensitive in nature. Tannen and Stevie do agree that men are more direct, in nature. Stevie also stated that women will not let you know, if they are mad at you. They might drop subtle hints or ignore the fight altogether. Tannen agrees that women try to avoid conflict, at all costs. She states that women view conflict, as being a threat to connection, therefore they will try to avoid it at all costs.

--Bret Schlein