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Short notes on gender bias
Cultural norms and stereotypes about women in society
Stereotypes about the sexes
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Tannen’s main argument is that women are viewed as “marked” and men are seen as “unmarked”. This is because women must look, act, dress a certain way and if they do not they are “not caring”. It is a label that society gives us women. As she said in the essay, she was solely looking at the way the women had looked and were dressed but did not notice the men and the way that they were dressed. She realized that we women must try compared to the men. In the essay, it was said that she noticed had each of the three women were dressed differently. The first was wearing a suit, the second dressed casual, and the third was dressed “sexy”. The way the women were dressed is what caught the attention first hand. Us as women are “marked” by our appearance. …show more content…
Men do not have an image to maintain as us women do. Men have it so much easier than us women. They can act, dress however they want and they are not looked down upon they are just as men as men being men. They do not have to try as hard to get something they want. Anything a man does not influence how others see them but for women if you want to dress comfortable and not wear make up, they are seen as lazy and unwilling to try. Why is this? It is because women are seen in a sexist way. Women are not looked at based on their intelligence and/or qualifications, they are sex objects. If you do not “sexy” you are considered boring and uncaring, but when you do look “sexy” you are seen as easy and unprofessional. We as women will never have the freedom of getting rid of this “mark” we are automatically given when we are born. This sexist stereotype is still around in today’s society just as it was many years ago when this was first written. Women will also be judged based on their looks no matter where we go or what we do. As it was then image will always be the first thing we get stereotyped as in whether we care or do not
Tannen’s style of language tells the reader that she is a smart women that isn’t messed with by men.
In her essay, Tannen analyzes how everything that women do will mark them in some way. Her point is that everything a woman does is somehow sending a message. For example, Tannen notes that, “The unmarked tense of verbs in English is the present” and that you can mark them
In “Marked Woman, Unmarked Men”, Deborah Tannen argues many points about how women are targeted based on their style choices, such as makeup, clothing and hair, as well as their last names, and titles they choose to take on. Tannen argues her stance when she says, “Each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories…. Men can choose styles that are marked, but they don 't have to… . Unlike the women, they had the option of being unmarked.” here you can clearly see that Tannen is illustrating her point by showing the difference in how men are looked at compared to women. She clearly believes that men don’t have to take their style, and lack of makeup, into consideration. In other words, this is a perfect representation of her argument in “Marked Women, Unmarked Men”
In the essay Tannen claims, "There is no woman's hairstyle that can be called standard, that says nothing about her" this along with Tannen’s similar statements regarding women’s appearances suggest that every choice a woman makes about herself is used as a way to evaluate her personality. For instance, if a woman wears revealing or tight clothing with lots of makeup and tousled hair then she is viewed as attention seeking and even as a hoe to some. Because of personal experience, I completely agree with the point Tannen is making. As a teenage girl I can easily say that I have looked at a woman's outfit whether it be a tight dress and heels or a turtleneck with loafers, and formed my own opinions about who they are. Tannen goes on to use the clothing styles of three ladies in her conference meeting as examples to further her point. Carefully analyzing each of them, she observes that they all had different styles; while the men were all dressed alike because they have the freedom to. Tannen continues to argue her point that every woman's style is marked stating, "Each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories, and each decision had a carried meaning". While I concede with Tannen that women are indeed marked by their
In their publication, “Doing Gender, ” Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman put forward their theory of gender as an accomplishment; through, the daily social interactions of a man or woman which categorize them as either masculine or feminine. From a sociological perspective the hetero-normative categories of just sex as biological and gender as socially constructed, are blurred as a middle ground is embedded into these fundamental roots of nature or nurture.To further their ideology West and Zimmerman also draw upon an ethnomethodological case study of a transsexual person to show the embodiment of sex category and gender as learned behaviours which are socially constructed.Therefore, the focus of this essay will analyze three ideas: sex, sex
Some men don’t even consider that the reason women wear makeup is to feel better about themselves. Women spend an average of $15,000 on beauty products and $3,770 goes to mascara alone. (Goldembewski) Women spend so much money, to feel confident, but end still be marked for the choice to do so. In addition to women being marked for their choice of wearing makeup, women are also constantly judged for their physique. Women who don’t have an “ideal” physical appearance, tend to be judged negatively and marked for not having these characteristic. The “ideal” body for a woman in the eyes of society is having a flat stomach and long legs. Those women that do not contain those characteristics are victims of bashing on social media, which leads to insecurity. Women who have the “ideal” body also fall to be victims of being marked on a daily, because they are given unwanted attention for their looks, which can make some women feel uncomfortable. Women are also greatly criticized for their clothing
Deborah Tannen’s essay, “There Is No Unmarked Woman”, explores the idea of “marked” and “unmarked” words, styles, titles, and how females have no ability to choose an unmarked position in life. She posits that “The unmarked forms of most English words also convey ‘male’” (88). Tannen is incorrect in her premises because females are able to choose unmarked hair and clothing styles, men are marked just as often as women, and many unmarked forms of words no longer convey “male.”
In her essay “Marked Women” she talks about her personal experience at a conference she attended which consisted of four women and eight men. Tannen mentions that “I found myself looking at the three other women at the table, thinking how each had a different style and how each style was coherent”. By this she shows how even women tend to judge other women. She tries to compare the three women and see the similarities between them. Women are judged from their hairstyles. Tannen marked the second woman full of dignity and composure
Everyone in today’s society has pressure put on themselves because of the way they look. No matter if you are the most gorgeous/handsome person on this planet, that specific person has their own faults with their image. Financial success now a days puts pressure on others image. For instance, for women to work at “Twin Peaks,” “Hooters,” “Bone Daddy’s,” “Bombshells,” or any of the other sports bars, you either have to have one of the following, “Boobs, butt, pretty face, or a flat stomach.” If you are hired with one or the other, let’s face it… you will get talked about and or made fun of. As for men, it is pretty much the same. Just as the new “Tallywackers” that opened up in Dallas. People (women mostly) that go into the restaurant, get to choose their server before they sit down. To others that is completely unfair, because their body image depends on their pay that night. With how bad people are getting teased/bullied, changing to the opposite sex, getting plastic surgery and etc. no one seems to have tried to do anything about any of it. It is probably because we have all kinds of different ways with technology to make someone feel beautiful and good about themselves, that it does not need to be fixed. Though in some cases, others do not have money to do what
The double were set based on the cultural ideas, values, norms, and expectations. Women since then have always been reminded of another women, even idol that is socially exposed to them to look up and forward to, physically for attractiveness. Undeniably making the standards of attractiveness most salient. Even at the time, obviously magazines, television, social media did not exist, but it has always been physically and "virtually impossible for women to escape the media's constant reminders" as the article describes it to be. There's always a standard, or a person to look up to withhold that standard as to what one should look or strive to look like. The article on beauty politics it also states that, "men are less likely to feel guilty about not meeting such standards." That's a double standard in itself. Although, other qualities receive equal or greater importance such as occupational success, social eminence, or athletic competence. The fact that men aren't judges and categorized my their attractiveness as to how important it is made by them to women proves the point into which they are standardized and held to that double standard to which they do not obtain to other than set and reinforce it. Therefore, the double standards portrayed in the media do both result from and contribute to double standards that exist in real
I understand where Dave Barry’s points and assertions on how women view themselves in a different and perhaps a problematic way. However, I believe there is a fine line between dressing up for someone else and looking good for your own enjoyment. If I wanted to dress up and look good, I wouldn’t be doing it for another person or to ‘fish for some man’s compliments’. I would be dressing up because I felt good on that day and my outfit should demonstrate that. Additionally, perhaps the reason many women, and some men, like to pay close attention to the way they look is due to fear of being judged and outcasted from our functional society. This fear can be demonstrated by several movies and even comments by celebrities on social media. For instance,
In Deborah Tannen’s “Marked Woman, Unmarked Men” she illustrates how she believes the way women carry themselves are more looked upon then the way a man does. When it comes to women they had to take what they look like into consideration and each decision that the woman has made, carried a meaning. Men have to make decisions as well, however their decisions are not as notable as woman. I support Tannen’s argument about women being marked. Woman are marked by what they wear to who they marry. Nonetheless, I do believe both genders are marked in some kind of way. Men are marked, just not to the extent as woman are. And when they are marked it is not as open and discussed. When Tannen did include men into her argument she made her observation
As if women are not objectified enough beauty is now classified as to how sexy and revealing you look. A large portion of people believe that women should have sculpted bodies and perky breast to be beautiful. A women’s beauty is being measured by how prefect and revealing her body can be. In some ways women have lost respect for themselves fighting for the attention of men and became sexual objects in the process. Being judge solely on a women’s sex appeal and failing to see that there is a difference between being sexy and beautiful. This behavior is forcing young women to conform to unrealistic habits of trying to be sexy in order to be seen as
Why have we as males become more concerned about our looks and body? It seemed that only twenty years ago it was just the girls really worrying about their make up and nails. Even though we have not come so far as to put on make up and paint out nails weird colors to match our 300 dollar outfit to go to the mall, we have become more aware of looking cool and more attracting to the opposite sex. Yet it seems as if instead of looking to better out grades and get a good job to attract females we’ve started to look more and more at our looks then what we do and who we are.
In society, there are different reasons as to why men and women are judged based on their experiences such as sex and what they do with their lives such as the types of choices they make every single day. Every person has an experience that they either regret or that are happy that it happened. Women are seen differently than men are mainly because of the way that they dress. Society tries to compare both men and women with how they run their lives when it comes to sex and what is acceptable and what isn’t. Women and men are looked at differently when it comes to not having sex until marriage or until they are sure of the person that they want to have sex with which Girl by Jamaica Kincaid shows and Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy.