Summary Of There Is No Unmarked Women By Deborah Tannen

Essay 1

In “There is No Unmarked Women”, Deborah Tannen explains how women are forcibly “marked” no matter what. During a small work conference, Tannen observes many women’s appearance. She looks at their haircuts, clothing and the makeup they wear. She feels the women are all “Marked”, while men wear nothing to stand out. Tannen observes that there are no standard styles for women, a hairstyle can even define what type of person we are, unlike men who have a standard style for everything. In “It Takes a Tribe” David Berreby looks at “tribes” through universities. He explains the human need to involve oneself with a tribe and to want a sense of belonging in arbitrary groups. Berreby also discusses the identity change many college students

He is showing research in changes of perception. When going into a university, many students begin classifying themselves as “students at a university” and “members of a university social club” ranking higher over other clubs, even race. This infers that joining a club or coming into a university gives you identity. It gives you a sense of “clothing”, meaning it is marking you from anyone else. Berreby adds that, “People need to belong, to feel a part of “us”. Meaning that people want to feel more like a part of a group and will do anything it takes to be in that group. This was shown in the social experiment of social psychologist Elliot Aronson and Judson Mills’ research study. They had one group speak salty words about sex, and embarrass themselves while the other group used mild words. The women in the group who spoke the saltier words rated it more valuable (Berreby 11). Why is this? From Berrebys text it is noted that the more work or embarrassment you put into joining a group the more valuable it is. By being in these groups, it gives one a sense of power and want. This comes into effect when Berreby explains “us” and “them”. “Us” and “them” is explained throughout the whole “It Takes a Tribe” article but, the meaning is deeper. People want to feel like they are powerful. Joining a group gives them power. By using “us” and “them” it puts many people into a category

Her “us” and “them” is comparing men to women. Tannen uses a sense of “us” when she is identifying women’s clothes and when identifying with language. “Us” categories women. The way a women’s hair looks like, the way a women dresses all show their identity and presumes what the person is like, unlike men, who have standard haircuts, and many things they wear is much limited. “Us” gives a women a sense of belonging. By marking her, it puts her into a select group. Tannen explains how language is marked. Such as when a woman marries a man and has to change her last name. This marks a women and it also changes the identity of her. She is becoming a part of something new. Something bigger than she once was. Also by labeling a women Ms. or Mrs. And Miss can tell you the status of a lady, marking them from men who just use Mr. as their title no matter if they are married or single. Tannen also goes into detail about women being marked when wearing makeup. She said,” you couldn’t say the men didn’t wear makeup in the sense that you could say a woman didn’t wear makeup, because for men, no makeup is unmarked (Tannen 445). Tannen is assuming that whatever a women does she can never be unmarked. This goes back into the concept of “us” and “them”. It is explained that women cannot even have a standard haircut because there are so many varieties. Women can’t even fill out their name on a paper without telling a story about