1) Communication
1) Communication
This week’s matter is communication, which in our society is available in kinds influenced by gender, amongst
different elements. Communication encompasses verbal, written, and physique language, together with varied kinds
of print, analog, and digital media—all processes which might be inflected by energy relations. In US society,
face-to-face in addition to mass media communications are sometimes formed by unequal energy relations,
together with “the absence of girls within the communications industries, in addition to the capitalist system that
sells merchandise and avoids offending potential customers with extra practical photographs. If we add race,
sexual orientation, class, incapacity, and age to what’s lacking within the facilities of energy, this absence of
many underrepresented teams serves to get rid of correct photographs of many teams of individuals within the
media” (Disch 222).
Some of the pervasive ideologies about communication in our society is that women and men inhabit
completely different “communication cultures.” Common books like John Grey’s Males Are From Mars, Ladies Are
From Venus have propagated notions like ladies being extra emotional and attuned to relationships
whereas males are likely to lack empathy with others and are much less emotionally expressive. In keeping with such
pop psychological theories, ladies’s larger attunement in direction of others is intrinsic and qualifies them to
be higher listeners, associates and fogeys than males, whereas males are extra vulnerable to being emotionally
unavailable and unsupportive of others. In keeping with one other common guide, You Simply Don’t Perceive,
creator Deborah Tannen argues that ladies “use their distinctive conversational fashion to indicate involvement,
connection, and participation, whereas males use speech to point independence and place in a
hierarchy”—and due to their differing communication kinds, males usually interrupt ladies. If we’re to
go by the prevailing pop psychology, women and men’s completely different communication cultures destine them for
fixed misunderstandings, “ships eternally passing one another within the night time” (227).
In “Males and Ladies Are from Earth,” Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers argue that such notions are
merely not true and should not backed by empirical proof. Males don’t always interrupt ladies,
particularly in conditions the place ladies are in positions of energy. As one research reveals, it’s energy, extra
than intercourse variations that affect who will get interrupted, how, and when. Citing varied analysis research
that present that women and men’s communication kinds and emotional inclinations are extra related than
completely different, Barnett and Rivers conclude that the “distinction rhetoric can hurt each women and men” (230).
By persevering with to unfold such sex-based stereotypes, each women and men will proceed to anticipate much less of
one another and act primarily based on gendered expectations, thereby turning such inflexible stereotypes into
“self-fulfilling prophecies” (229).
2) “The New Momism” by Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels
2) “The New Momism” by Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels
In “The New Momism,” Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels chart a “set of beliefs, norms, and
practices” which have emerged and gained in energy because the 1980s. Propagated largely by
mainstream mass media, the “new momism” or “intensive mothering” entails “honey-hued beliefs of
good motherhood” by which “motherhood is eternally fulfilling and rewarding, that’s at all times the perfect and
most vital factor you do, that there’s solely a narrowly prescribed method to do it proper, and that should you
don’t love every second of it there’s one thing actually incorrect with you” (237). Such beliefs,
Douglas and Michaels argue, merely create impossibly excessive requirements for moms for whom the on a regular basis
realities of mothering are sometimes tough and messy. They write that the brand new momism is outlined by “the
insistence that no girl is really full or fulfilled until she has youngsters, that ladies stay the perfect
caretakers of youngsters, and that to be a remotely respectable mom, a girl has to dedicate her total
bodily, psychological, emotional, and mental being, 24/7, to her kids” (238).
With the cutbacks to social applications for moms and households starting with the Reagan administration
within the 80s, many ladies with kids have been in conditions with few structural aids and collapsing public
establishments. On the similar time, the conservative Republic administrations that ruled the US from 1980
to 1992 engaged in a moralizing apply of “mom blaming” by which moms have been charged with failing
to boost match future residents. In keeping with this ethos, moms weren’t solely imagined to be individually
accountable for the well-being of their kids, however they have been additionally shouldered with the ethical burden of the
destiny of the nation.
Together with media dissemination of photographs of dangerous welfare, teenaged, and “crack” moms, arose
impossibly good beliefs of the “good mom,” usually depicted as white, prosperous, and heterosexual.
Buttressed by Martha Stewart-style representations of domesticity, the great mom is meant to be an
wonderful housekeeper, cook dinner, interact in handmade crafts and different stimulating actions together with her kids,
and take part in furthering and making certain their correct schooling. Even when a girl works a full-time job,
she remains to be imagined to make her kids a precedence and never anticipate her male companion to choose up the
slack—briefly, she must be a superwoman. Douglas and Michaels argue that these beliefs are
prohibitive and serve to redomesticate ladies who had benefitted from the feminist actions of the
70s.
The “contorting contradiction” of the “good mom” who additionally works is that she is inspired to be powerful,
aggressive, and behave like males on the job whereas on the similar time being affected person, compassionate, and
selfless at dwelling. The irony is that each stay-at-home moms and dealing moms, assert Douglas and
Michaels, “get to be failures. The ethos of intensive mothering has decrease standing in our tradition
(‘stay-at-home moms are boring’), however occupies the next ethical floor (‘working moms are
neglectful’)” (244). Mainstream mass media have been staging “mommy wars,” which pit stay-at-home
moms in opposition to one another, regardless that the truth is that many ladies have both been one or one other
at varied factors of their lives. In flip, ladies who should not moms get reduce out of the image.
QUESTIONS
1- Gendered communication cultures
This week’s matter is communication, which in our society is available in kinds influenced by gender, amongst
different elements. Communication encompasses verbal, written, and physique language, together with varied kinds
of print, analog, and digital media—all processes which might be inflected by energy relations. In US society,
face-to-face in addition to mass media communications are sometimes formed by unequal energy relations,
together with “the absence of girls within the communications industries, in addition to the capitalist system that
sells merchandise and avoids offending potential customers with extra practical photographs. If we add race,
sexual orientation, class, incapacity, and age to what’s lacking within the facilities of energy, this absence of
many underrepresented teams serves to get rid of correct photographs of many teams of individuals within the
media” (Disch 222).
Some of the pervasive ideologies about communication in our society is that women and men inhabit
completely different “communication cultures.” Common books like John Grey’s Males Are From Mars, Ladies Are
From Venus have propagated notions like ladies being extra emotional and attuned to relationships
whereas males are likely to lack empathy and are much less emotionally expressive. In keeping with such pop
psychological theories, ladies’s larger attunement in direction of others is intrinsic and qualifies them to be
higher listeners, associates and fogeys than males, whereas males are extra vulnerable to being emotionally unavailable
and unsupportive of others. In keeping with one other common guide, You Simply Don’t Perceive, creator
Deborah Tannen argues that ladies “use their distinctive conversational fashion to indicate involvement,
connection, and participation, whereas males use speech to point independence and place in a
hierarchy”—and due to their differing communication kinds, males usually interrupt ladies. If we’re to
go by the prevailing pop psychology, women and men’s completely different communication cultures destine them for
fixed misunderstandings, “ships eternally passing one another within the night time” (227).
In “Males and Ladies Are from Earth,” Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers argue that such notions are
merely not true and should not backed by empirical proof. Males don’t always interrupt ladies,
particularly in conditions the place ladies are in positions of energy. As one research reveals, it’s energy, extra
than intercourse variations that affect who will get interrupted, in addition to how, and when. Citing varied
analysis research that present that women and men’s communication kinds and emotional inclinations are
extra related than completely different, Barnett and Rivers conclude that the “distinction rhetoric can hurt each males
and ladies” (230). By persevering with to unfold such sex-based stereotypes, each women and men will
proceed to anticipate much less of one another and act primarily based on gendered expectations, thereby turning such inflexible
stereotypes into “self-fulfilling prophecies” (229).
Do you agree with Barnett and Rivers’ argument that sex-based communication variations are primarily based
extra in fantasy than reality? What do you make of common notions that women and men are basically
completely different and are destined to misconceive one another?
2- The New Momism” – Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels
In “The New Momism,” Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels chart a “set of beliefs, norms, and
practices” which have emerged and gained in energy because the 1980s. Propagated largely by
mainstream mass media, the “new momism” or “intensive mothering” entails “honey-hued beliefs of
good motherhood” by which “motherhood is eternally fulfilling and rewarding, that’s at all times the perfect and
most vital factor you do, that there’s solely a narrowly prescribed method to do it proper, and that should you
don’t love every second of it there’s one thing actually incorrect with you” (237). Such beliefs,
Douglas and Michaels argue, merely create impossibly excessive requirements for moms for whom the on a regular basis
realities of mothering are sometimes tough and messy. They write that the brand new momism is outlined by “the
insistence that no girl is really full or fulfilled until she has youngsters, that ladies stay the perfect
caretakers of youngsters, and that to be a remotely respectable mom, a girl has to dedicate her total
bodily, psychological, emotional, and mental being, 24/7, to her kids” (238).
With the cutbacks to social applications for moms and households starting with the Reagan administration
within the 80s, many ladies with kids have been in conditions with few structural aids and collapsing public
establishments. On the similar time, the conservative Republic administrations that ruled the US from 1980
to 1992 engaged in a moralizing apply of “mom blaming” by which moms have been charged with failing
to boost match future residents. In keeping with this ethos, moms weren’t solely imagined to be individually
accountable for the well-being of their kids, however they have been additionally shouldered with the ethical burden of the
destiny of the nation.
Together with media dissemination of photographs of dangerous welfare, teenaged, and “crack” moms, arose
impossibly good beliefs of the “good mom,” usually depicted as white, prosperous, and heterosexual.
Buttressed by Martha Stewart-style representations of domesticity, the great mom is meant to be an
wonderful housekeeper, cook dinner, interact in handmade crafts and different stimulating actions together with her kids,
and take part in furthering and making certain their correct schooling. Even when a girl works a full-time job,
she remains to be imagined to make her kids a precedence and never anticipate her male companion to choose up the
slack—briefly, she must be a superwoman. Douglas and Michaels argue that these beliefs are
prohibitive and serve to redomesticate ladies who had benefitted from the feminist actions of the
70s.
The “contorting contradiction” of the “good mom” who additionally works is that she is inspired to be powerful,
aggressive, and behave like males on the job whereas on the similar time being affected person, compassionate, and
selfless at dwelling. The irony is that each stay-at-home moms and dealing moms, assert Douglas and
Michaels, “get to be failures. The ethos of intensive mothering has decrease standing in our tradition
(‘stay-at-home moms are boring’), however occupies the next ethical floor (‘working moms are
neglectful’)” (244). Mainstream mass media have been staging “mommy wars,” which pit stay-at-home
moms in opposition to one another, regardless that the truth is that many ladies have both been one or one other
at varied factors of their lives. In flip, ladies who should not moms get reduce out of the image.
What do you consider the “new momism”? Do you discover that the beliefs and practices of the brand new
momism dominate US tradition and media representations? What do you make of the double bind of
working moms who really feel pressured to “do all of it”—be attentive caregivers and profitable profession ladies?
In case you are a mom, do you end up influenced by beliefs of good motherhood?

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