Challenging difference approach

• Deborah Cameron 2008

  'Myth of Mars And Venus: Do men and women really speak different languages'

  criticised idea of innate differences in speech

  "Idea that men and women use language in different ways and for very different reasons is one of the greatest myths of our time"
• Janet Hyde - 2005

  gender similarity hypothesis

  • claims more similarity than differences between male and female language
  • differences are due to age, class, ethnicity, education, jobs, sexuality, etc.
  • Men dominate convo by initiation of topic shifts, interrupting and speaking more, women submissive in convo, less likely to change topic and interrupt less
  • Men have informal register through accent, taboo and slang - likely to use covert prestige to sustain masculine identity. Women create feminine identity by sucumbing into lady like stereotypes, formal lexis and overt prestige