Blog response 1/29/08

Deborah Tannen’s article concerning which gender talks more really intrigued me. It is something that I am sure a lot of people have thought of before, especially me when I am bored. So who does talk more, women or men? I agree with Tannen in the sense that it does depend on the situation in which they are in. Tannen has reported that certain studies show that in certain situations men or women may talk more with one another. Tannen never gave a definite answer or valid opinion about who talks more, but my opinion is that women talk more than men. Women are world wide known expert gossipers. All they do is talk amongst one another discussing what they heard from their other girlfriends. That is basically how girls remain friends and how their friendship starts. They tell each other what they are feeling, what they did that day, what they heard about other people, and so on. When men talk to each other, their conversation never gets that deep or personal. This is displayed in everyday interaction between same sex genders. When two guys pass by each other on the street, all they say is “hey, how are you” and the other just replies,” good and you,” and that’s basically the end of the conversation. However, when girls see each other randomly, they give each other hugs and really actually care how the other girl feels and they talk about what they are doing later and wondering if they should go out. It could just be that women are naturally sweeter and nicer to someone else, even if it is all for show, than men are.
According to me, women speak more to each other in private and at home with their husbands as the men just tend to be quiet at home, however, men do speak more in public than women. However, whatever is spoken in public will soon be repeated in private among the gossipers (women) and elaborate even more. Therefore, that is why I believe women talk more than men.