Comparative Analysis (Tannen And Pollitt) Essay Examples

Katha Pollitt in her essay ‘Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls’ and Deborah Tannen in her essay ‘Conversational Styles’ talk about the different gender roles and the behaviors of men and women. While Pollitt says that gender roles are more a result of lifestyle and the pressures of society, Tannen’s essay seems to imply that gender roles are inherently different and that men and women act differently in the same situations. Both the authors talk about the gender differences in society but differ in explaining the causes for the specific behavior of men and women. While Pollitt takes a more feminist approach in e essay, Tannen’s approach is the exact opposite and believes in working within the system.
Pollitt in her essay talks about the way girls and boys are told and shown from a young age how they are supposed to behave and what they are supposed to like as they grow up. She says that we have been constantly told that the cause for these gender specific behaviors lie outside of society and can be attributed to hormones and genes, but goes on to break these assertions. She says that boys when left alone and when not told what to do tend to play with dolls and do not see anything wrong with it. It is not the inherent nature of boys and girls that is the cause of their behavior but rather the parents in the beginning and later the society that tries to fit them into appropriate roles. Pollitt also talks about how people use colors to distinguish between the two genders. While girls are brought up in a world of pink, boys are surrounded by the masculine blue. Pollitt says that even women who are feminists do not mind falling back into gender assigned roles now and then. She gives the instance of a woman who would come back from work to do the household chores without complaining and the women who don’t like sports who support their boys in matches and tournaments. Although they are against biases and selective roles based on gender, she says that at times they do not have any compunction going by the norm. But Pollitt’s analysis of gender roles is not altogether grim. She says that since behavior of the genders is not biological there are always ways through which the world does not have to be gender biased. She gives the examples of kids themselves who play two differing roles at the same time. A boy who roller-skates could be equally comfortable in after class cooking while a very feminine girl gets straight A’s in her science classes. She does not believe that feminism has come to a natural demise but says that it has rather helped women in many ways. And it still has a role to play in making sure that every woman gets her equal rights. She says that feminism with its flexibility and converging sex roles is what fits the future of today’s children.
Deborah Tannen’s essay is more academic and has a different tone when compared to that of Pollitt’s essay. Tannen, based on her experiments, studies and teachings says that when it comes to conversational styles men and women are completely different and are driven by entirely different factors. She says that men happen to be better at speaking in public because they are confrontational and are more used to talking in groups. On the other hand she says that women are not confrontational when it comes talking and thus are more timid when it comes to conversations or talking in public. She quotes Walter Ong and his ritual opposition hypothesis saying that the educational system is fundamentally male where public display is followed by argument and challenge. While boys and men adapt to it, it happens to be fundamentally antithetical to woman as they do not ritualize opposition. Tannen gives many examples from her classroom where her students, girls and boys, behave differently when asked to speak up in class. From her examples and studies she says that it is clear that men are more successful at public speaking as it is in built. Admitting that boys and girls are different in the classroom she says that equal opportunity in classroom is something that is not attainable. On the other hand different models of teaching and interacting should be introduces to cater to the diverse nature of the students and the classroom.
Pollitt comes across as a proponent of feminism and equal opportunities. She says although there are a few fundamental differences between the male and the female child, most of the assignment of gender specific roles is as a result of societal indoctrination. She sees a future in which there could be a change in how people look at their assigned roles and where there wouldn’t be such a clear demarcation between genders. Feminism she believes holds the key to such a future. Tannen on the other hand admits that men and women are fundamentally different and rather than try techniques that would bring the inequality down or smooth over the differences, she advocates different methods that would cater to these differences. While Pollitt looks at a future where there is equality and blurred gender roles, Tannen is quite at home with the status quo, where differences reign supreme and where this is a way of life for everyone. Pollitt and Tannen admit that men and women in today’s society are different and act different. It is in explaining the causes of these differences and the future of the current situation that they both differ. While Pollitt is more optimistic of a change, Tannen chooses to go along with the flow and is more interested in catering to the differences. Thus although the two authors talk about differences they have completely different attitudes on how to deal with it and what to expect from it. One is a feminist who likes to see a change in the existing system while the other tries to work within the system to make things easier.