1) Communication
1) Communication
This week’s topic is communication, which in our society comes in forms influenced by gender, among
different components. Communication encompasses verbal, written, and physique language, together with varied forms
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 in the communications industries, in addition to the capitalist system that
sells merchandise and avoids offending potential customers with extra real looking pictures. If we add race,
sexual orientation, class, incapacity, and age to what is lacking in the facilities of energy, this absence of
many underrepresented teams serves to get rid of correct pictures of many teams of individuals in the
media” (Disch 222).
Some of the pervasive ideologies about communication in our society is that women and men inhabit
completely different “communication cultures.” Widespread books like John Grey’s Males Are From Mars, Girls Are
From Venus have propagated notions like ladies being extra emotional and attuned to relationships
whereas males are inclined to lack empathy with others and are much less emotionally expressive. In accordance with such
pop psychological theories, ladies’s higher attunement in direction of others is intrinsic and qualifies them to
be higher listeners, associates and fogeys than males, whereas males are extra susceptible to being emotionally
unavailable and unsupportive of others. In accordance with one other common e-book, You Simply Don’t Perceive,
writer Deborah Tannen argues that girls “use their distinctive conversational type to indicate involvement,
connection, and participation, whereas males use speech to point independence and place in a
hierarchy”—and due to their differing communication types, males typically 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 in the night time” (227).
In “Males and Girls Are from Earth,” Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers argue that such notions are
merely not true and usually are not backed by empirical proof. Males don’t continually interrupt ladies,
particularly in conditions the place ladies are in positions of energy. As one examine exhibits, it is 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 types and emotional inclinations are extra comparable 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 count on much less of
one another and act based mostly 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 in massive half by
mainstream mass media, the “new momism” or “intensive mothering” entails “honey-hued beliefs of
excellent motherhood” in which “motherhood is eternally fulfilling and rewarding, that is all the time one of the best and
most vital factor you do, that there is solely a narrowly prescribed option to do it proper, and that when you
don’t love each second of it there’s one thing actually fallacious 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 troublesome and messy. They write that the brand new momism is outlined by “the
insistence that no lady is actually full or fulfilled except she has children, that girls stay one of the best
caretakers of youngsters, and that to be a remotely first rate mom, a girl has to commit her total
bodily, psychological, emotional, and mental being, 24/7, to her youngsters” (238).
With the cutbacks to social packages for moms and households starting with the Reagan administration
in the 80s, many ladies with youngsters have been in conditions with few structural aids and collapsing public
establishments. On the identical time, the conservative Republic administrations that ruled the US from 1980
to 1992 engaged in a moralizing observe of “mom blaming” in which moms have been charged with failing
to lift match future residents. In accordance with this ethos, moms weren’t solely alleged to be individually
chargeable for the well-being of their youngsters, however they have been additionally shouldered with the ethical burden of the
destiny of the nation.
Together with media dissemination of pictures of unhealthy welfare, teenaged, and “crack” moms, arose
impossibly excellent beliefs of the “good mom,” typically depicted as white, prosperous, and heterosexual.
Buttressed by Martha Stewart-style representations of domesticity, the nice mom is alleged to be an
wonderful housekeeper, prepare dinner, have interaction in handmade crafts and different stimulating actions together with her youngsters,
and take part in furthering and guaranteeing their correct schooling. Even when a girl works a full-time job,
she is nonetheless alleged to make her youngsters a precedence and never count on her male companion to choose up the
slack—in quick, 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 robust,
aggressive, and behave like males on the job whereas on the identical 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 a better 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, although the fact is that many ladies have both been one or one other
at varied factors in their lives. In flip, ladies who usually are not moms get minimize out of the image.
QUESTIONS
1- Gendered communication cultures
This week’s topic is communication, which in our society comes in forms influenced by gender, among
different components. Communication encompasses verbal, written, and physique language, together with varied forms
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 in the communications industries, in addition to the capitalist system that
sells merchandise and avoids offending potential customers with extra real looking pictures. If we add race,
sexual orientation, class, incapacity, and age to what is lacking in the facilities of energy, this absence of
many underrepresented teams serves to get rid of correct pictures of many teams of individuals in the
media” (Disch 222).
Some of the pervasive ideologies about communication in our society is that women and men inhabit
completely different “communication cultures.” Widespread books like John Grey’s Males Are From Mars, Girls Are
From Venus have propagated notions like ladies being extra emotional and attuned to relationships
whereas males are inclined to lack empathy and are much less emotionally expressive. In accordance with such pop
psychological theories, ladies’s higher attunement in direction of others is intrinsic and qualifies them to be
higher listeners, associates and fogeys than males, whereas males are extra susceptible to being emotionally unavailable
and unsupportive of others. In accordance with one other common e-book, You Simply Don’t Perceive, writer
Deborah Tannen argues that girls “use their distinctive conversational type to indicate involvement,
connection, and participation, whereas males use speech to point independence and place in a
hierarchy”—and due to their differing communication types, males typically 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 in the night time” (227).
In “Males and Girls Are from Earth,” Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers argue that such notions are
merely not true and usually are not backed by empirical proof. Males don’t continually interrupt ladies,
particularly in conditions the place ladies are in positions of energy. As one examine exhibits, it is 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 types and emotional inclinations are
extra comparable than completely different, Barnett and Rivers conclude that the “distinction rhetoric can hurt each males
and girls” (230). By persevering with to unfold such sex-based stereotypes, each women and men will
proceed to count on much less of one another and act based mostly 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 based mostly
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 in massive half by
mainstream mass media, the “new momism” or “intensive mothering” entails “honey-hued beliefs of
excellent motherhood” in which “motherhood is eternally fulfilling and rewarding, that is all the time one of the best and
most vital factor you do, that there is solely a narrowly prescribed option to do it proper, and that when you
don’t love each second of it there’s one thing actually fallacious 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 troublesome and messy. They write that the brand new momism is outlined by “the
insistence that no lady is actually full or fulfilled except she has children, that girls stay one of the best
caretakers of youngsters, and that to be a remotely first rate mom, a girl has to commit her total
bodily, psychological, emotional, and mental being, 24/7, to her youngsters” (238).
With the cutbacks to social packages for moms and households starting with the Reagan administration
in the 80s, many ladies with youngsters have been in conditions with few structural aids and collapsing public
establishments. On the identical time, the conservative Republic administrations that ruled the US from 1980
to 1992 engaged in a moralizing observe of “mom blaming” in which moms have been charged with failing
to lift match future residents. In accordance with this ethos, moms weren’t solely alleged to be individually
chargeable for the well-being of their youngsters, however they have been additionally shouldered with the ethical burden of the
destiny of the nation.
Together with media dissemination of pictures of unhealthy welfare, teenaged, and “crack” moms, arose
impossibly excellent beliefs of the “good mom,” typically depicted as white, prosperous, and heterosexual.
Buttressed by Martha Stewart-style representations of domesticity, the nice mom is alleged to be an
wonderful housekeeper, prepare dinner, have interaction in handmade crafts and different stimulating actions together with her youngsters,
and take part in furthering and guaranteeing their correct schooling. Even when a girl works a full-time job,
she is nonetheless alleged to make her youngsters a precedence and never count on her male companion to choose up the
slack—in quick, 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 robust,
aggressive, and behave like males on the job whereas on the identical 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 a better 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, although the fact is that many ladies have both been one or one other
at varied factors in their lives. In flip, ladies who usually are not moms get minimize out of the image.
What do you concentrate on 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 excellent motherhood?

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