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Chapter 29: Muted Group Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
Chapter 29
Muted Group Theory
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
• Muted Group Theory (MGT) focuses on the power to name experiences.
o Muted groups metaphorically lose their voice (Wood, 2017).
• Cheris Kramarae (1981), the researcher who adapted MGT for the field of communication,
observes that the language of a particular culture does not serve all its speakers equally, for
not all speakers contribute in an equal fashion to its formulation.
o Women (and members of other subordinate groups) are not as free or as able as men
are to say what they wish, when and where they wish, because the words and the
norms for their use have been formulated by the dominant group, men. (p. 1)
• Yet, it isn’t the case that all women are silenced and all men have voice.
o MGT allows an individual to understand any group that is silenced by the
inadequacies of their language.
o Anita Taylor and M. J. Hardman (2000) comment that some feminist groups can
become dominant within the feminist movement and then mute the voices of other
women who question their ideology.
• MGT points out problems with the status quo and suggests ways to remediate these
problems.
II. Origins of Muted Group Theory
• Muted Group Theory originated with the work of Edwin and Shirley Ardener, social
anthropologists who were concerned with social structure and hierarchy.
• In 1975, Edwin Ardener noted that groups making up the top end of the social hierarchy
determine the communication system for the culture.
o Edwin Ardener observes that social anthropologists studied women’s experiences by
talking almost exclusively to men.
o Thus, not only do women have to contend with the difficulties of a language that
does not completely give voice to their thoughts, but their experiences are
represented through a male perspective (Ardener, 2005).
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o Shirley Ardener (1978) observes that women’s mutedness is the counterpart to men’s
deafness.
▪ She explains that women (or members of any subordinate group) do speak, but
their words fall on deaf ears, and when this happens over time, they tend to
stop trying to articulate their thoughts, and they may even stop thinking them.
• For Edwin Ardener, muted groups are rendered inarticulate by the dominant group’s
language system, which grows directly out of their worldview and experience.
o For the muted group, what they say first has to shift out of their own worldview and
be compared to the experiences of the dominant group.
o Thus, articulations for the muted group are indirect and broken.
• Kramerae’s book Women and Men Speaking: Frameworks for Analysis (1981) profiles
several theories that come from other disciplines like MGT and suggests how these
theoretical frameworks can help explain questions of communication.
• Kramarae asserts that MGT’s assertions are especially true for the English language
because English was developed and formalized by male clerics and academics.
o Anita Taylor and M. J. Hardman (2000) observe that “English does not name
concepts important to women but to men” (e.g., one can have a “seminal” idea; but
was one ever described as “ovular”?). (p.8).
III. Makeup of Muted Groups
• Much theorizing and application of Muted Group Theory has focused on women as a
muted group.
• Yet, as researchers such as Mark Orbe (1998, 2005), Michael Hechter (2004), and Liliana
Heradova (2009) note, the theory can be validly applied to any nondominant group.
o The dominant group is the group that holds the power in the culture.
o Non-European groups like African Americans or Asian Americans, gays and
lesbians, the elderly, the lower class, disabled people, and non-Christians, all can be
members of muted groups, in the same way that women are.
an absence, in contrast with the hands-on vital involvement of the mother” (p.
447).
A. Differentiating Between Sex and Gender
• Generally, researchers use the term sex to mean biological categories, male and female,
determined by the presence of XX chromosomes for females and XY chromosomes for
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males.
• In contrast, gender is defined as the learned behaviors that constitute femininity and
masculinity in a given culture.
o Gender is changeable and reflects whatever the culture accepts at a given time for
these roles.
IV. Assumptions of Muted Group Theory
• Cheris Kramarae (1981) isolated the following three assumptions which she believes are
central to Muted Group Theory:
o Women perceive the world differently than men because of women’s and men’s
different experiences and activities rooted in the division of labor.
▪ The explanation lies in the division of labor that allocates work on the basis of
sex, such that women are responsible for tasks in the home and men are
responsible for work outside the home.
▪ The separation of the workplace from the home led to a recognition of the two
as separate spheres; the conceptualization of public and private came about,
and the family was classed as private life (Butler and Modaff, 2015)
▪ Sandra Bem (1993) argues that this division also created what she labels a
gender polarization lens that causes people to see women and men as very
different from each other.
home to do a second shift there.
▪ One study (Turner, 1992) asked respondents to describe situations that they
believe are uniquely experienced by their own sex and for which, currently, no
word exists and then to give those experiences a name.
❖ However, the types of words created did differ between men and women.
❖ Men coined words concerned with drinking and competition, whereas
women created words focusing on relationships and personal issues such
as appearance.
o Because of their political dominance, men’s system of perception is dominant,
impeding the free expression of women’s alternative models of the world.
▪ This assumption states that men are the dominant group, and their experiences
are given preference over women’s.
▪ Specifically, men are in charge of naming and labeling social life, and
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their language to describe their thoughts.
▪ Overall, MGT assumes that men’s, especially White men’s, experiences are
dominant and women and people of color need to subordinate their own
experiences to the extent that they can in order to partake in social and
organizational success.
o In order to participate in society, women must transform their own models in terms
of the received male system of expression. (p. 3)
▪ Women’s task is to conceptualize a thought and then scan the vocabulary,
much because women are collaborative by nature, but rather because they need
to help one another find the right words to encode their thoughts.
▪ Before the 1970s, the term sexual harassment did not exist but it, nonetheless,
existed. The terms domestic violence, date rape, marital rape, and stalking all
name crimes that without the labels might simply be seen as individual
problems and not recognized as serious offenses.
▪ Marsha Houston and Cheris Kramarae (1991) point out that women participate
in silencing as well, which is illustrated by examining some talk between
African American and European American women.
V. The Process of Silencing
A. Ridicule
• “Men label women’s talk chattering, gossiping, nagging, whining, bitching (Cut the
cackle!)” (p. 390).
B. Ritual
• Some people have pointed out that many social rituals have the effect of silencing
• One such ritual is the wedding ceremony.
C. Control
• Researchers have noted that men control many decisions, such as what goes into history
books, leaving women’s history untapped (Wood, 2017).
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• A communication behavior that keeps men in control is interruptions. When men
interrupt women, the women often switch to talk about whatever topic the men raise.
D. Harassment
• Holly Kearl (2015) writes about street harassment, noting that women do not have free
• Sexual harassment in the workplace is another method of telling women that they do not
belong out of the domestic sphere.
o When women who have experienced sexual harassment are labeled as hysterical,
overly sensitive, or troublemakers, their concerns are generally dismissed and
defined as unimportant.
VI. Strategies of Resistance
• Muted Group Theory goes beyond explaining a phenomenon such as women’s muting to
advocating change in the status quo.
• Houston and Kramarae (1991) offer several strategies for these changes.
o Women also are creating a new and more representative language to capture their
experiences.
VII. Integration, Critique, and Closing
A. Utility
• Muted Group Theory has sometimes been criticized for not being useful because it
engages in essentialism, or the belief that all men are essentially the same and all
women are essentially the same and the two differ from each other.
• Some critics fault the usefulness of Muted Group Theory because they note that women
do speak out in public forums, and they point to women such as Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg as examples of women who are not muted at all.
B. Test of Time
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• Some critics of Muted Group Theory assert that the theory has not been utilized much in
• With contemporary topics such as athlete’s concussions (Sanderson, Weathers,
Snedaker, and Gramlich, 2016) and cervical cancer (Kutto and Mulwo, 2015), it is
difficult to argue against the theory’s contemporariness and longevity.
Classroom Activities
1. He Said, She Said
Objective: To illustrate for students the various gender differences in communication that
have been identified in research
Materials: “He Said, She Said” worksheet (see below)
Directions:
c. Discuss the changes that have taken place in communication between males and
females over the years.
“He Said, She Said”
Worksheet
Directions: In the space provided, indicate whether the behavior seems more typically
masculine (M) or feminine (F).
_____ 1. Interrupting conversations to gain conversational control
_____ 2. Taking up more space in sitting and standing regardless of physical size
_____ 3. Being more talkative in mixed-sex conversations
_____ 4. Telling jokes
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Chapter 29: Muted Group Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
_____ 5. Engaging in talk about personal problems
_____ 6. Engaging in self-disclosure
_____ 7. Offering advice
_____ 8. Using greater volume and stronger inflection to highlight ideas
_____ 9. Switching or rerouting the topic of conversation in mixed-sex groups
_____ 11. Asking for directions when lost
_____ 12. Using slang and verbal obscenities
Answers:
1. M
2. M
2. Gender Bias in Language
Objective: To assist students in identifying gender bias in the language of many of our
reading materials
Materials: Copies of elementary and secondary school textbooks, popular children’s books,
magazines and newspapers
Directions:
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Chapter 29: Muted Group Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
a. Divide students into groups, and distribute a variety of reading materials to them.
b. Instruct students to count and identify the women and men referenced in the
textbooks and storybooks.
c. Have students review articles and letters in various magazines and news publications
d. Ask students to identify any sex-biased language used in the various publications.
3. Masculine and Feminine Language
Objective: To provide students with a sample of words that are often associated with being
masculine or feminine in our society
Materials: “Masculine and Feminine Language” worksheet (given below)
(Note: These words are organized into masculine and feminine lists for your reference.
You should re-create this list, delete the heading, and jumble the words so that they are not
in distinct lists.)
Directions:
a. Instruct students to complete the “Masculine and Feminine Language” worksheet
independently.
b. As a class, discuss how students felt when marking characteristics that they would
use to describe themselves. Which words did they feel would be more “valued” by
society? Which words are typically “devalued”?
c. Discuss how different words are valued in various contexts: business, home/family,
peers, and so on. What biases are associated with various terms?
“Masculine and Feminine Language”
Worksheet
Directions: Circle all of the words from the following list that you think describe yourself.
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Chapter 29: Muted Group Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
Dominant
Enterprising
Forceful
Hard-headed
Independent
Industrious
Ingenious
Inventive
Masculine
Opportunistic
Outspoken
Stern
Tough
Vindictive
Appreciative
Considerate
Cooperative
Fearful
Feminine
Fickle
Forgiving
Frivolous
Helpful
Jolly
Sympathetic
Talkative
Timid
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Chapter 29: Muted Group Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
Warm