Issue number five is centered around the woman’s brain and how it is developed to reflect their communication style. The first half of the argument is brought forth by Brizendine. In her argument she explains the biological impacts of child bearing and their effects on an unborn child. She brings forth important facts that show the fetus of a boy and a girl are identical until the 8th week of pregnancy. It is during this 8th week that baby boys are introduced to a heavy dose of adrenaline. This adrenaline kills certain brain cells and reorganizes the young child’s brain forcing it to reconnect in other areas. Since girls are not introduced to this dose of adrenaline they are able to continue building their bridges from right brain to left brain without the destruction of brain cells. Brizendine gives these connections between right and left brain the reasoning for difference in communication styles.
The other half of the argument comes from a woman with the last name of Allen. She claims that the differences between men and women’s communication styles come from a societal influence and are not related to biology and what happens inside the mother’s womb. Based on this she argues that this communication styled is learned from birth and that communication is a performed act like the gender performance we discussed earlier in the semester. This starts at birth when those surrounding the newborn treat the baby in different ways merely based on the sex of the baby. From then on the baby learns and adapts to the expectations of those surround him or her based on the way they are interacted with. Not only does a person learn their gender in such a way but they also learn how to communicate based on gender expectations.
I guess I really can’t argue one way or another when determining who is right and wrong on this subject because I think both play a key role in determining a woman’s communication style. Having a background in engineering I tend to agree with Brizendine a little more. I believe seeing how my knowledge of physics and chemistry and how they are applied to everyday life I think that there is a biological factor that helps determine a communication style before birth. With regards to what Allen has found in her findings I believe society plays a pivotal role in reinforcing these basic principles that were found on a biological scale. Regardless of who is right and wrong women definitely have a different communication style than men. It doesn’t matter whose brains or bigger or who has the larger vocabulary because each style of communication seems to work fairly well for that gender.
Should men and women have a more similar style of communicating?
Is a lack of power evident in a woman’s communication style?
Thinking about your second question, it can kind of relate back to what we talked about two weeks ago. We talked about how women cant get jobs in the career field of math and science, there is a great deal of power in those career fields and with that power comes a great deal of communication. So depending on what side of that argument someone is on they could also make the argument that women lack a certain communication style because they are not working in a career field that deals with a great deal of power.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your first questions I would ahve to say that no, we shouldn't have more similar communication styles but rather find a way to use the two together in a proficient way.
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