Renzetti c06

Chapter 6

The Great Communicators

Language and the Media

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sexism and Language: What’s in a Word?

• Language is a medium of socialization

• Semantic derogation

• Linguistic sexism– Ways in which a language devalues members

of one sex, almost invariably women

• How can sexist language be changed?



• Do Women and Men Speak Different Languages?– According to Tannen:

• Women and men have different communication styles and communication goals

• Women and men speak different genderlects


• Gender inequality characterizes much everyday communication– Reflecting differences in men’s and women’s

life experiences, social status, and power

• Common stereotype that women are more talkative than men



• Women’s conversations have traditionally been negatively stereotyped and parodied

• Women’s communications have been considered not only different from men’s: – But also typically inferior– This pattern is not normative in all societies



Box 6.1 Sexism and Language


Gender and the Media

• Reflection hypothesis– The media only give the public what it

expects, wants, or demands

• The media are the chief sources of information for most people– As well as the focus of their leisure activity


• Symbolic annihilation– The media traditionally have ignored,

trivialized, or condemned women

• Gender Differences in Online Communication

• The Written Word: Gender Messages in Newspapers and Magazines



– Men are more likely than women to regularly get news online or on a cell phone

– While women are more likely to turn to social networking sites (e.g., Twitter) for news

– The gender gap in newspaper readership– Women and men certainly have different

interests in news stories– A perusal of just about any news daily gives

one the impression that it is a man’s world



– Gender stereotypes frequently intersect with racial and ethnic stereotypes

– Women have made also progress on national network newscasts in recent years

– Minority men and women remain dramatically underrepresented on the network news



Gender and the Media• Gender Messages in Children’s Television

Cartoons and Animated Movies

Images of Gender in the Media: What Are Their Effects?

• Gender Messages in Advertisements: Does Sexism Sell?– The sexually exploitative use of

women in advertising has increased

– Lolita syndrome



Language and Media as Shapers of Gender

• The gender images communicated by language and the mass media– Impact on men’s and women’s behaviors and

self-concepts

• Symbolic annihilation – Symbolically ignoring, trivializing, or

demeaning a particular group

Renzetti c06

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