Deborah Tannen proposed, “Male-female conversation is cross-cultural communication” (Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2015, p. 432). In essence, Tannen speaks of how men and women speak past each other and not too each other. She goes on to synopsize that not only are men and women speaking as though they are from different worlds, and are utilizing the same words or terms, they appear to be on different frequencies(Griffin et al., 2015, p. 432). Although not originally coined by Tannen, Genderlect is “A term suggesting that masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinct dialects” (Griffin et al., 2015, p. 433).
The term captures Tannen’s belief that men and women’s ways of dialogue are best viewed as two separate languages rather than lesser or greater ways of …show more content…
Women and men react differently when listening. Women will hold eye contact longer and will make physical gestures that acknowledge that active listening is taking place such as a head nod or utilizing eye contact. Men on other hand will tone down their physical response when listening as it states to them that they are agreeing with that said and can put them in a submissive state. Additionally, when listening if a starts to speak prior to the other person finishing, they will often add a word of agreement or support. Tannes identifies this as cooperative overlap (Griffin et al., 2015, p. 435). Men on the other hand will regard this interruption as a power move or a possible hijacking of the