Gender and Communication Exam 2

Responsiveness and Emotional Sensitivity

The awareness of and sensitivity to others’ emotions

• Often manifests through nonverbal cues such as eye contact, tone of voice, and body posture

• Women tend to be more responsive: feminine speech communities - encouraged to prioritize relationships and emotional engagement

Gender Performativity

Artifacts

Personal objects that express our identity and how we view ourselves: Toys, clothing, jewelry, furniture, etc.

• Gender is also reinforced by institutional structures—like public bathrooms or dress codes

Haptics

How people use touch

• Men: tend to use touch to assert power, status, or dominance. In social settings, may be more forceful, less frequent, and less intimate

• Women: often use touch to express care, affection, or emotional support; tend to be more nurturing and intimate, particularly in close relationships.

• Parents tend to touch daughters more often and more gently than they touch sons

  • It teaches girls to expect touching from others.

  • Boys are more likely to learn to associate touch with control and power.

Kinesics

• The study of body movement (e.g., posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact)

• Kinesic behaviors are socially learned, culturally shaped, and deeply gendered

• Shaped by gender norms and power relations

• The same behavior can be interpreted very differently depending on who is performing it (but also intersects with race, class, age, and other identities)

Paralanguage

Vocalizations (sounds) that are not words themselves: such as pitch, tone, volume, and speaking rate that accompany verbal communication

• These expectations are tied to power: voices associated with masculinity tend to be taken more seriously, while those associated with femininity may be dismissed or judged

• Men: typically speak in lower pitch, with a more monotone or controlled voice

  • May speak louder and slower to convey authority, confidence, or assertiveness

  • Interruptions and fewer vocal cues (e.g. "uh-huh") are more common, reflecting dominance in conversations

• Women: tend to use a higher pitch and more variation in tone, which can convey warmth, friendliness, or emotional involvement

  • Often speak faster, use more vocal inflections, and employ supportive vocal cues (e.g., “mm-hmm”) to show attentiveness and responsiveness

Encoding Accuracy

• Women are more accurate than men in producing and conveying nonverbal cues

• Others are more accurate in reading women’s nonverbal behavior than they are at accurately reading men’s expressive behavior

• Sex differences in sending accuracy increase with age, such that there are greater differences among adult men and women than among boys and girls (J. A. Hall, 1984)

• This difference is mostly driven by a definite decrease in the accuracy of facial encoding by boys after 4 years of age (Buck, 1977)

Decoding Accuracy

• Women are also more accurate than men in correctly deciphering the nonverbal behaviors of others, regardless of the gender of the target person

• Ex. When the nonverbal cues in question are ambiguous: men “see” more sexual interest

  • Males tend to perceive significantly more flirtatiousness, promiscuousness, and seductiveness than female perceivers

  • Farris et al. (2008) found that male participants often mistook friendliness for flirtatiousness

Face-to-Face vs. Side-by-Side

Social Aggression

Instrumentality

Covert Intimacy

Homosociality

Demand-Withdrawal

Second Shift

Unpaid Labor

Cognitive Labor

Time Poverty

Gender Intimidation

Intimate Partner Abuse

Sexual Assault

The Tough Guise

Toxic Masculinity

Hegemonic Masculinity

Complicit Masculinity

Subordinated Masculinities

Manosphere

Trivialization

Sex Objects

Mother

Child

Iron Maiden

Maternal Wall

Benevolent Sexism

Sturdy Oaks

Fighters

Breadwinners

Glass Ceiling

Glass Escalator

Glass Wall

Androcentric Pay Scale

Glass Cliff

Elizabeth Gilbert - Nonverbal Communication

• Eye contact: women- as a sign of liking

• Too animated, too flirtations, too appreciative, too attentive, too available: “pull her gaze back”

• Laughing/smiling: expected to smile; too “inviting”

• Body posture: being stiffer

Verbal:

• Interrupt people

• Curse recklessly

• Never apologize

• Never talk about your feelings

• Only talk about your accomplishments

• Win arguments through exaggeration and mockery

Elizabeth Gilbert - “Being Bound”

• Performance of heterosexuality is a way to reinforce masculinity: homophobia

• Becoming masculine is a process of making oneself “unavailable”

• Men want to talk to one another, to be less “bound,” and more available, but disciplined by traditional masculinity

Types of Gendered Nonverbal Communication

Notion of Responsiveness and Emotional Sensitivity

Cross-Cultural Variations in Haptics

• Grown men in the United States are supposed to physically touch each other only in very ritualized ways (like the back slap in the “man hug” or the butt slap in football for a job well done)

• In France and Argentina: men kiss on the cheek when they
  greet one another

• In some Middle Eastern societies: men even hold hands

Gendered Differences in encoding accuracy and decoding accuracy

How is gendered power and control achieved?

How are proxemics gendered, and what is the implication for power and domination?

How do traditional masculine norms affect men’s friendships?

Unique Characteristics of Queer Friendships

Research Findings About Heterosexual, Gay, and Lesbian Relationships

Similarities and differences in men’s and women’s friendships

How does “social aggression” operate in women’s friendships?

Characteristics of Queer Romantic Friendships

Gendered Unpaid Labor in Heterosexual Relationships

How is time poverty gendered in heterosexual relationships?

Why is violence fundamentally a gender issue?

Different Forms of Gender Intimidation

Why is sexual assault a gendered social and cultural issue (rather than a personal failure or a result of individual mistakes)?

What are the different connotations between “intimate partner abuse” and “domestic violence”?

What are the particular challenges that LGBTQ+ communities face regarding intimate partner abuse?

Tough Guise 2 - How do cultural and racial factors influence men’s experience of their gender roles?

Social and Cultural Background of the Manosphere

Problematic Media Representations of Violence and Its Effects on People’s Perception

Discuss the gender pay gap globally and across racial lines.

What are the notions of masculinization of wealth and feminization of poverty in relation to the gender pay gap?

Stereotypes Women and Men Face in Professional Contexts

Double Bind Women Face in Professional Contexts

Masculine Norms in Professional Contexts

The Role Conflict Women Face in the Workplace

Gendered Job Segregation and Its Consequences

What are the challenges that gender and sexually non-conforming people face in the workplace

How do work-life balance expectations differ for men and women, as well as for LGBTQ+ individuals?