Entries with tag "gender"

Prof. Naomi S. Baron will soon publish an article titled See You Online: Gender Issues in College Student Use of Instant Messaging. A highlight:

For example, women tend to use more affective markers (e.g., “I know how you feel”), more diminutives (e.g., “little bitty insect”), more hedge words (e.g., perhaps, sort of), more politeness markers (e.g., “I hate to bother you”), and more tag questions (e.g., “We’re leaving at 8:00 pm, aren’t we?”) than do men. Men, on the other hand, are likely to use more referential language (e.g., “The stock market took a nosedive today”), more profanity, and fewer first person pronouns than are women.

The description of female writing style sounds very familiar to me. I don’t say “little bitty insect” (thank god), but the “affective markers,” hedge words, excessive use of first person pronouns, and relative politeness are right on the money. Maybe that explains why twice now I've had online gay friends profess their interest in me.