Research Description/Question
The topic of this research is the effects of gender on social communications among young adults. Research shows that there are clear and prevailing differences in social communication between young men and women due to gender. Even new media seem to offer only new routes of sharing traditionally gendered forms of communication not a means of developing a more gender neutral language. As Stern (1) notes in a study of the content of home pages of young men and women, "Personal home pages do not appear to have generated a new type of gender neutral communication among adolescent authors, but rather, they seem merely to provide a new outlet for traditional, gendered communication."
Further, social institutions like the media continue to perpetuate traditional stereotypes of male and female social communication. Teasing is associated with the social communication of "flirting," while sexual messages to young adults portray puberty as "funny" and contraception as "embarrassing" (Beck, Clabaugh, Clark and Kosovski, et al., 157, and Hust, Brown and Engle 3). Men seem to respond to the stereotypical female communication pattern that involves "empathy, sharing similar experiences, and asking further questions," but only "slightly" compared to women who "strongly" favor it compared to male stereotypical communication patterns (Wright, Bates, Ferguson and Tamara 87). The above research begs the question: "Do women suffer a disadvantage due to gender because male social communication patterns dominate patriarchal society?"
Beck, Stephenson, Clabaugh, Sarah Elizabeth, Clark, Ruth Anne, Kosovski, Megan Connelly, et al. "Teasing Among College Men and Women." Communication Studies, June 2007, 58(2), 157-172.
This article provides the results of a study on teasing among college men and women. The authors found that teasing was prevalent and c
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