Summary Of Marked Women By Deborah Tannen

As a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, Deborah Tannen’s acclaim stems from her analysis of communication and its impacts on interpersonal relationships, with some of her most notable works highlighting the disparities of communication between genders. Tannen’s “Marked Women, Unmarked Men” explores how women are actively and passively perceived within society, categorically describing women as ‘marked’ due to their personal choices and actions, such as their appearance or surname. Through a marked identity, women are classified as socially extreme, permitting women to be prematurely judged. Despite one gender being ‘marked’ in society, Tannen dissects the distinction between the ‘marking’ of men versus women and the implications

As Tannen begins to depict her analysis of three women who were present at the working conference, assessing the women’s hair, makeup, clothing, and shoes, Tannen halts, suddenly questioning “why I was scrutinizing only the women” (1). An effective transition, Tannen’s enlightenment about her passive methods of thinking effectively forces readers to acknowledge their passive methods of perception. Further acknowledging the catalyst for this method of processing, it is discussed how “men’s styles were unmarked,” noting that the hairstyles, clothing, and makeup choices that were made were considered to be standard and not extreme in society, therefore the men were unmarked (Tannen 1). Tannen reviews the linguistic theory that encompasses the term marked, divulging that language is commonly expressed in a grammatical gender with negative connotations for words deemed feminine and positive connotations for words deemed masculine. Societal constructs have been influenced by the deemed significance of men, perpetuating an active society that passively judges women due to their personal decisions and actions, consequently leaving them without the option to be declared as ‘marked,’ but allocating men the ability to choose whether they wish to be ‘marked’ by having the ability to present themselves in manners that

Despite Fasold’s perspective that men are to be classified as ‘marked’ in a biological sense, linguistics of scientific literature that perpetuates the notion that men are considered to be active and unmarked, while women are considered to be passive and marked are prevalent within society and serve as foundations for education, such as sex education provided to children. The greatest example of this argument is Emily Martin’s “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Supportive to traditional gender norms in society, men are considered to be active components of society, holding the power to alter or maintain the functioning of society, while women are considered to be passive objects in society, with women being unable