Analysis Of Cameron's The Myth Of Mars And Venus

Because of gender expression's layers of complexity, gender is much more than an expression of identity. As Cameron expresses in The Myth of Mars and Venus, "[l]anguage is part of the raw material from which we fashion our identities: many small but significant differences in the speech-styles of men and women are the results, not of pre-existing differences between the sexes, but of their unceasing efforts to create differences" (161). In my experiences, Cameron's argument holds truth. Deflecting influential external forces such as my mother, aunt, and grandmother, I have expressed my gender identity via creating differences between me and the typical female that my family had attempted to mold me in to. In attempt to negate sexual objectification

First, she explores the concept of subconscious cognitive assignment of importance to items listed first in a list (eg. "man and woman", "male and female", "boys and girls"). She then turns to other word pairings and their ordering and relationship to one another (eg. higher-status/authority listed before lower-status/subordinate, "boss and employee", "mother and son"). Third, she points to word pairing listings with words with a positive connotation first and words with a negative connotation last (eg. "good and evil", "happy and sad", "rich and poor"). Bonvillain does contend, however, that there are exceptions to these rules. In public forums where polite speech ("chivalrous" behaviors) is expected, word pairings should be reversed (eg. "ladies and gentlemen") (199). Bonvillain's evidence, and subsequent exceptions, correspond to masculine, or male, language, further defining gender norms in our

Before the wedding, the premarital couple are referred to as the "bride and groom"; however, once wed, the newlyweds are referred to as "husband and wife", and the wife is expected, as is the social norm, to change her last name to her husband's, essentially invalidating her identity (199). In modern America, it is rare for the husband to change his last name to his new bride's; doing so would be, to most men, the equivalent of castrating him of his manhood: his independence and identity necessary to have social status. This concept of men's ownership over their brides weighted heavily on my mind during my marriage in which my ex-husband had attempted (and mostly succeeded) in creating a patriarchal structure within our marriage. This had a lasting effect on me; even after our divorce, I kept his last name to retain some form of agency over my children who still carry his last name and to declare power over myself by not allowing a distance to be created between me and my children by way of carrying a different last