352 Final paper

RUNNING HEAD: MUTED GROUP THEORY—GENDERED COMMUNICATION STYLES

Muted Group Theory – Gendered Communication Styles

By: Didi Hill

November 30, 2015

CMST 352

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Abstract

Muted group theory and gendered communication styles correlate in a way that women

are considered a marginalized group. Muted group theory describes the ways that this relegation

is caused. Gendered communication styles describe why this relegation is produced. Cheris

Kramarae is the main theorist that put the theory together. She describes in depth the reasoning

why this theory is important and gives examples to help diminish these occurrences to women.

One of the examples was a feminist dictionary. There is not much research left to do on neither

the theory nor the phenomenon but both will continue to adapt to the world around them.

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Introduction

Men and women have communicated in different styles since the beginning of language.

Gendered communication styles have begun to explain this. Different communication theorists

have tried to explain why men have dominated the language portion of communication. An

example of this comes from men and women in the workplace. The stereotypes for men tend to

be that they have good leadership skills and are competent while women have bad leadership

skills and are incompetent (Latu, 2015). Theorists have also tried to figure out why there is so

much miscommunication and misunderstanding when it comes to communication with a man

and woman conversation as well as tried to make sense of their different reactions. Cheris

Kramarae, the main theorist behind the muted group theory, elaborates on the main reasons why

women have problems with language and with expressing their experiences they endure to men.

Literature Review

Women have always had a disadvantage when it comes to communication and language

(“Muted Group Theory”, 2015). Muted group theory originated from social anthropologists from

Oxford University named Edwin and Shirley Ardener in the 1970s. This theory gives the

explanation to why women are treated the way they are as well as why men act the way they do.

Cheris Kramarae took the information Shirley and Edwin Ardener founded and create the theory.

She was a professor and the director of Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign. “Her main idea of muted group theory is that communication was created by men

and allows them to have an advantage over women”(“Muted Group Theory”, 2015). Muted

group theory focuses on power-related struggles among different minority groups other than

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women. Karmarae concentrates mainly on the disadvantages of women in the world today as a

muted group and different ways women can get out of the shadow in communication among

men. An example of this looks toward words that describe a women’s tone of voice versus a

man’s tone of voice when they are both upset. There are many terms such as bitchy and catty

(Griffen, Ledbetter, Sparks, 2015) while men do not have specific words that are directed toward

their gender. Language is a man-made mode of communication. This means that when women

want to express themselves, they use language that was defined by man and are unable to reflect

their true experiences (Wall & Gannon-Leary, 1999). According to A First Look at

Communication Theory, there are over two hundred words that describe sexually active women

while there are only twenty-two words that describe sexually active men. These words consisted

of very demeaning names to call both genders. Cheris Kramarae emphasizes the use of a female-

made dictionary. She says that “in order to change muted group status we also need to change

dictionaries” (2015). Kramarae established a feminist dictionary with Paula Treichler with words

that were outlined by men and changed the meaning around a little. They added words as well.

One example was that they added a word to their dictionary that described a man who was

unfaithful to his wife (“Muted Group Theory”, 2015).

There are many differences in gendered communication styles. Deborah Tannen (1990)

explains that men communicate to gain status, seek control and avoid failure while women

communicate to obtain connections, seek understanding, and avoid isolation. This shows that

when a man and a woman are communicating there is a good chance that there will be some

miscommunications because of the different goals of the conversation. Women also tend to want

empathy while men just give solutions. A study conducted in 2013 argued that women tend to

use computer-mediated communication for maintaining their relationships by social networking.

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On the other side, the study also argued that men used computer-mediated communication for

obtaining information on random topics and the news. The study surveyed 381 men and women

on how much they use the Internet and what they do while surfing the Internet. The study

concluded that their argument was correct that women do tend to try to establish and maintain

relationships while men use the Internet for information. It also proved that women use Face

Time or another type of video chat more than men to be able to have a face-to-face conversation

(Kimbrough, Guadagno, Muscanell, Dill, 2013). Since men are seen as trying to gain power, this

is where the demeaning of women in language comes in. Men wanted to be in control; therefore

they defined the words of language. This makes women unable to express themselves equally as

men can therefore language is not gender neutral (Thompson, Murachver, Green, 2001). It also

complicates women’s ability to communicate to men in a public setting due to the man being

dominant. The study displays one of the many ways men and women’s communication styles

differ. “ In the book, Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus, John Gray

(2004) wrote:

Men mistakenly expect women to think, communicate, and react the way men do;

women mistakenly expect men to feel, communicate, and respond the way

women do. We have forgotten that men and women are supposed to be different.

As a result our relationships are filled with unnecessary friction and conflict. (p.

4)” (Cinardo, 2011).

John Gray also arrange the differences in an easily understood way. Throughout his book he goes

into detail about how men and women will never be able to fully understand each other’s

experiences.

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Muted group theory and gendered communication styles go hand in hand when trying to

understand why there is so much misunderstanding and miscommunication between men and

women. Muted group theory describes the ways a man is driven to dominate. Amanda K. Harris

writes, “language is literally a man made tool used by a dominant culture to marginalize other

groups (women in this case) and to deter them from full participation in their given societies.”

This brings us to the point that women often times remain silent in public places instead of using

language to voice their opinions due to this marginalization (Wall & Gannon-Leary, 1999). An

example of this is how the President of the United States has always been male. Cheris Kramarae

believes that due to the differed communication styles, “women are more constrained than are

men in what they can say, when and with what results”. Male-centered theories have caused

these many struggles for women (Kramarae, 1999). Men have been viewed as the head of the

household, better for leadership positions such as CEO, and other positions such as President.

But in a study conducted in 2001, Sarah Burke and Karen S. Collins found that female

accountants leadership styles are more associated with success than males. This was shown to be

the case because of the encouraging and motivating attitude the female generally possessed while

the male had a strict, dominant attitude (2001).

In the textbook A First Look at Communication Theory, it states that men do not

necessarily mean to “mute” women and other groups. This is something that society has led them

to believe is how they should act and the majority of the time they do not realize they are doing

it. Deborah Tannen says that feminist theorists place to much blame on the men for “trying to

control women”. She firmly believes they are unaware of their motives for doing so and credits

these motives to the different communication styles. Cheris Kramarae on the other hand thinks

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that men do realize that they are marginalizing women. She also believes that Tannen’s opinion

is letting men off the hook to easily. Kramarae explains that she thinks that these motives come

from the environment men are in such as the “political, educational, religious, legal, and media

systems” (p. 467).

Discussion

In Cheris Karmarae’s article Asking Dangerous Questions, she discusses if the muted

group theory is outdated. She believes that it seems to be outdated because of the different

“status quo” of today in comparison with the “status quo” of in the 1970s. The research that

remains is very little. The theory will adapt, as it gets older. In conclusion, as the world is more

willing to accept women in higher positions in the workplace, home, etc., women will gain more

access to words within the languages to express their interpretations of their experiences. With

this happening, men will be able to understand women more just like women will be able to

understand men more. All that still needs to be done is the need “for combination of disparate

types of research” (Wall & Gannon-Leary, 1999). This will include more hands-on research and

studies done between men and women.

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References

Cinardo, J. (2011, December 1). Male and Female Differences in Communicating Conflict.

Gray, J. (1992). Men are from Mars, women are from Venus: A practical guide for improving communication and getting what you want in your relationships. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., Sparks, G. (2015). A First Look at Communication Theory, 9th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/0077842448/

Harris, A. K. (1999). A Revolutionary View of Communication; Cheris Kramarae's Theory of Muted Groups. Women & Language, 22(2), 54.

Kimbrough, A. M., Guadagno, R. E., Muscanell, N. L., & Dill, J. (2013). Gender differences in mediated communication: Women connect more than do men. Computers In Human Behavior, 29(3), 896-900. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.005

Kramarae, C. (2005). Muted Group Theory and Communication: Asking Dangerous Questions. Women & Language, 28(2), 55-61.

Latu, Ioana M. (2015). Gender Biases in (Inter) Action. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 39(4), 539-552.

Muted group theory. (2015). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/muted_group_theory

Sarah Burke, & Karen M. Collins. (2001). Gender differences in leadership styles and management skills. Women in Management Review, 16(5), 244-257.

Thomson, R., Murachver, T., & Green, J.. (2001). Where Is the Gender in Gendered Language?. Psychological Science, 12(2), 171–175. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40063606

Wall, C., & Gannon-Leary, P. (1999). A Sentence Made by Men. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://ejw.sagepub.com/content/6/1/21.abstract

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Annotated Bibliography

Muted group theory. (2015). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/muted_group_theory

This source goes in depth into the muted group theory. It begins by explaining the

origins of the theory came from Edwin Ardener in the 1970s. He was a social

anthropologist at Oxford University at the time. From here, Cheris Kramarae became the

main theorist to put it together for communication studies. She was a professor at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as the Women’s Studies director. This

source elaborates on how Kramarae believed language is man-made causing man to have

an advantage over women. For example, she explains that the words women use to

describe what they are feeling are actually words that probably mean something totally

different since man created it. The source also talks about the derogatory words man

shaped and that it is degrading to women.

Gatekeepers are known as the people who decide what books, essays, etc. go into

mass media. Kramarae states that women were not allowed in the publishing business until

1970 and this could be a major lack of influence for women on mass media. She performed

research about the Internet and if men gate keep. The results showed that muted group

theory was displayed almost just as much as it is in person. The source goes on and talks

about sexual harassment and the theory across different cultures. It explains that sexual

harassment was the first legal term defined by a woman in the 1970s. Then, the article

describes how a man named Mark Orb stretched out Kramarae’s theory into African-

American males and other groups. This source is very helpful for the literature review. It

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has provided a great deal of information and also has guided me to different sources. It is

the main source I am going to use throughout the review.

Wall, C., & Gannon-Leary, P. (1999). A Sentence Made by Men. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://ejw.sagepub.com/content/6/1/21.abstract

This source was about the muted group theory and how men have dominated language.

It starts off by Virginia Wolfe describing how men have eliminated “neutral” language and

that it does not exist anymore. It then picks up to describe who and what Edwin Ardener

accomplished with the theory. He was the original theorist who considered the idea. The

source then describes the phenomenon that Ardener used to construct his idea on muted

group theory. This was that women are less dominant because of their structural positions.

He also believes because they are often taking the nonverbal route to communication while

males tend to go right to the verbal aspect.

T.F. Puckett begins to elaborate on why he believes this theory is not very useful. He

thinks this because the muted group theory states that women often times do not express

themselves verbally and especially in public. Puckett completely disagrees with this

because he states that they (women) “do in fact speak in public”. The source also describes

how men and women see the world in different points of views. This is what cause

communication to get messy between the genders.

The source highlights a few studies that have been conducted and also offers the

results. Overall this was one of my most helpful sources. It went in-depth into different

opinions of the topic and made it easy to understand.

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352 Final paper