Myth? Yeth?

[differenceblog]

The Guardian has printed an excerpt from Oxford sociolinguist Deborah Cameron's new book, The Myth of Mars and Venus, which will be released later this month. Three excerpts in total are due to be printed. The first excerpt, printed yesterday, ambitiously lays out a plan of attack against the "myth of Mars and Venus... that men and women differ fundamentally in the way they use language to communicate". Cameron cites Janet Hyde's gender similarities hypothesis heavily. She then identifies five premises used in most, if not all, science to address this point:

1. Language and communication matter more to women than to men; women talk more than men.
2. Women are more verbally skilled than men.
3. Men's goals in using language tend to be about getting things done, whereas women's tend to be about making connections to other people. Men talk more about things and facts, whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings.
4. Men's way of using language is competitive, reflecting their general interest in acquiring and maintaining status; women's use of language is cooperative, reflecting their preference for equality and harmony.
5. These differences routinely lead to "miscommunication" between the sexes, with each sex misinterpreting the other's intentions. This causes problems in contexts where men and women regularly interact, and especially in heterosexual relationships.

The second Guardian excerpt, printed today, addresses women in Parliament. The tone of the second excerpt feels very different, in that it seems to be upholding the differences between male and female speech patterns. Cameron cites Silvia Shaw (2000) on how women in the House of Commons spoke as often as men, and challenged opponents as often, but did not interrupt or interject "illegally" like men did.

Correction/Addendum: "Venusians in a Martian's world" (about Parliament) is apparently NOT an excerpt from The Myth of Mars and Venus by Deborah Cameron. "Speak up, I can't hear you" was the 2nd excerpt, and "Back Down to Earth" is the 3rd.

I'm a little disappointed that the usually verbose Language Log only quoted a bit of the excerpt and didn't discuss it. Honestly, I'm still up in the air on the "innate" communication differences between men and women. If you can demonstrate language differences between male and female feral children, you'll have a lot easier time convincing me that it's not social. But more importantly, I don't really care if it's social. It's like telling someone with psychosomatic pain that their pain doesn't hurt. It's not helpful.