RECENT LANG AND GENDER THEORIES.

INTRO TO DEBORAH CAMERON:
More recently, Cameron (2008) has criticised the idea that there are innate differences in male and female speech. Cameron argues: 'The idea that men and women... use language in very different ways and for very different reasons is one of the great myths of our time' (p.163)

Source: The Myth of Mars and Venus.

Cameron outlines how these myths have evolved from ideas that:

• Women pay more attention than men,
• Men have a natural desire to be competitive that results in an aggressive speech style,
• Women talk more about people, relationships and feelings,
• Men talk more about facts and things.

Cameron challenges various aspects of research by Lakoff, Fishman and Tannen. She argues that these myths have acted to shape our expectations of men and women, and the types of linguistic behaviour that we deem to be normal or deviant. In short, they continue to promote further myth making.

RECENT THEORIES (CRITICAL OF DEFICIT/DIFFERENCE):

Cameron's work represents recent studies into language and gender that have moved away from categorising speech male and female speech styles as polarised and driven by biological differences. 

Instead, focusing on how speakers construct and perform gender identities for themselves, which may either draw on or challenge perceived stereotypes. The idea that gender is something that speakers and writers 'do' as part of a deliberate  projecting of identity is critical of the deficit and difference models of language.

GENDER SIMILARITIES HYPOTHESIS:

Psychologist Janet Hyde (2005) proposes a 'gender similarities hypothesis'. She says that there are actually more similarities than there are differences between male and female language, which  may be due to a number of variables such as age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality, politics etc.

GENDER PERFORMATIVITY:

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (1990)

Butler argues that it is a mistake to reinforce a binary view of gender and to assert that women are a group with common interests and characteristics. Her view is that gender is 'performative' and we are playing a role when we speak: 'We act and walk and speak and talk in ways that consolidate an impression of being a man or being a woman.' 

So, we are not biologically constructed but conform to social norms.