An Analysis Of Deborah Tannen's There Is No Unmarked Woman

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. She also posits that “The unmarked forms of most English words also convey ‘male’” (88). Tannen is incorrect in her premise because females are able to choose unmarked hair and clothing styles, many unmarked forms of words no longer convey “male,” and men are marked just as often as women.

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

She also says that “[men have] the option of being unmarked” by simply choosing to wear the expected clothing and displaying the standard hair style (88). Tannen is incorrect in this statement because women have the option of being unmarked as well. For example, by simply following standard business attire for women (suit/blazer, skirt/pants), they can choose to be unmarked. As for hairstyle, having a long (around shoulder length) hair length is the unmarked case for women, but this would be marked as different if a man had such a hairstyle. For example, there were two young men in my Boy Scout troop who let their hair grow long. If they were girls, this difference would have been overlooked, since they were men, this sent a message, and most of the other youth marked them as strange. A woman with long hair is seen as the standard, unmarked case, a man with long hair, not so much. Just as Tannen says that “Men can choose styles that are marked, but they don’t have to” women also can choose to be unmarked

As much as Tannen says that “[the men] had the option of being unmarked”, she neglects the fact that other factors like race, speech, and how someone carries themselves can all affect how they are marked by their peers (88). For example, in Junot Diaz’s “How to date a brown girl”, his character is instantly marked by his date when she says, “I like Spanish guys” (103). Even though he is not from Spain, he will always be marked in this way when he is around racially different groups. This can apply for any race, and it is impossible for someone to choose to not send that message. Another area where people can be marked is speech. When a person is from a particular region of the U.S., they will have a noticeable accent that connects themselves to the stereotypes of that