SEX, SIGHTS, AND CONVERSATION: WHY MEN AND WOMEN CAN’T COMMUNICATE
SEX, SIGHTS, AND CONVERSATION: WHY MEN AND WOMEN CAN’T COMMUNICATE - Deborah Tannen In her article “Sex, Sights, and Conversation: Why Men and Women Can’t Communicate,” Deborah Tannen focuses on gender differences in the use of language and on the frustration these differences cause when women and men converse. She starts with an anecdote about a woman and a man who are lost. The woman wants to ask for directions and the man doesn’t. Tannen outlines the major differences in the ways females and males use language. Beginning in early childhood, girls learn to use language to share feelings with their female friends and to create a sense of closeness. Boys, on the other hand, learn to use language to establish their independence and compete with their male friends. By spending more time, boys preserve their independence and self-respect. Tannen goes on to give several examples of how these difficult expectations about the functions of langu...