Gender and Men

Tatyana Telemanyuk
Essay 1
2/4/2013
English 101

Communication in Marriage
Marriage is a beautiful thing, but at times can be very challenging. Making a commitment and keeping it takes a lot of work and patience. One reason that a marriage may face a problem is due to the lack of communication. At certain times women may need someone to hear them out whereas on the other hand men want someone to give them advice and support. In “His Talk, Her Talk” by Joyce Maynard, the author introduces us to her marriage and communication between her and her husband. In the other article “Man to Man, Women to Women” by Mark A. Sherman and Adelaide Haas, talks more about how men talk more directly and women think, and watch what they say. In “His Talk, Her Talk” by Joyce Maynard, she gives us an outlook on her marriage and the way she communicates with her husband. Maynard states that the opposite sexes are usually excluded from the conversation, such as the idea that there is a thing as “men’s talk” or “women’s talk” (Maynard 31). Men and women usually divide into two groups when there is a party or any sort of gathering. Immediately we redistributed ourselves which was a shame (Maynard 31). This tends to happen often and one may wonder as to why? Why can’t men and women have a long conversation about certain subject that both are interested in? Some women may argue that speaking to another woman, their point will be taken a lot more seriously whereas men tend to disregard the entire point altogether. Men like to have more simple straight forward conversation that gets to the point. Women are more verbal and they like to express themselves and detail their conversations. In the article “Man to Man, Women to Woman” by Mark A. Sherman and Adelaide Haas, the authors use a questionnaires, interviews, and observations to see how different types of genders communicate. Herman and Haas, in their research tested one hundred sixty-six women and 110 men, ranging in age from seventeen to 80, returned a questionnaire asking how often they discussed each of 22 topics with friends of the same sex (Herman and Haas 33). Women’s topic tends to be closer to the self and more emotional than men’s (Sherman and Haas 33). This does not mean that men do not have emotional talks; it just takes a right person to bring it out of them. As stated in the article men can be good listeners, as well as women can give direct advice (Sherman and Haas 33).
Communication is key to any happy relationship whether it may be a marriage, girlfriends or just male companionship, women and men due indeed complete each other. When a woman is full of emotions, the man is always there to comfort her. Men tend to bottle up their emotions and they know that they can open up to a woman for emotional support. The first article “His Talk, Her Talk” by Joyce Maynard, was acknowledgement of her own personal life, whereas the second article “Man to Man, Woman to Woman” by Sherman and Haas, was based on the questionnaire and observation of other women and men and how they communicate. I would recommend the article “Man to Man, Women to Women” by Sherman and Haas, because it is well written, explaining the core problems that men and women have in their communication between one another.

Citation
Maynard, Joyce, ”His Talk, Her Talk” Text and Contexts: A Contemporary Approach to College Writing. Ed. William S. Robinson et al. Boston Wadsworth, 2009. Print

Sherman, Mark and Haas, Adelaide. “ Man to Man, Woman to Woman” Text and Contexts: A Contemporary Approach to College Writing. Ed. William S. Robinson et al. Boston Wadsworth, 2009. Print