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Chapter 6: Gendered Nonverbal Communication
I.
Functions of Nonverbal Communication
A.
Supplement Verbal Communication
1.
Nonverbal behavior supplements, or adds to, verbal messages in five ways:
a.
Repeating words (e.g., saying “right” and pointing to the right)
b.
Contradicting a verbal message (e.g., saying “I’m fine” while crying)
c.
Complementing verbal statements (e.g., sealing a threat with a
forceful glare)
d.
Replacing language (e.g., shrugging in response to a question)
e.
Accenting verbal message by emphasizing certain words
B.
Regulate Interaction
1.
Eye contact, body posture, and vocal inflection cue others into when we want
to speak and when we want them to speak.
2.
Women tend to use cues to invite and encourage others into conversations.
Men tend to use more cues to maintain attention and discourage others from
speaking, such as avoiding eye contact.
C.
Establish the Relationship Level of Meaning
D.
Three primary dimensions of relationship-level meaning are responsiveness,
liking, and power, each of which is linked to gender.
1.
Responsiveness
a.
Responsiveness indicates interest in and attentiveness to others.
b.
Nonverbal cues indicating responsiveness include inflection, eye
contact, and open body posture.
c.
Women tend to be more responsive than men as responsiveness is
cultivated in feminine speech communities.
2.
Liking
a.
Liking is demonstrated through verbal cues such as vocal warmth,
sitting close to others, touching, or holding eye contact.
b.
Girls and women tend to be socialized more strongly than boys and
men to communicate liking because they are socialized to be nice to
others and build relationships.
c.
Dislike is communicated nonverbally as well such as through frowns,
glares, or turning away.
3.
Power or Control
a.
Power refers to the degree which people are seen as equal to,
dominant over, or deferential to others.
b.
Three primary ways we communicate power through nonverbal
communication are through voice, touch, and use of space.
c.
Men tend to talk louder and with more inflection than women. They
tend to take up more space and touch people more to communicate
their status. Women are more likely to give up their space than men.
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II.
Forms of Nonverbal Communication
A.
Artifacts
1.
Artifacts are personal objects that express our identity and how we view
ourselves.
2.
Colors and types of toys demonstrate appropriate behaviors and activities
for boys and girls (e.g., building set for boys, dolls for girls).
3.
Clothing, another type of artifact, while less strict than in past generations,
still defines women and men differently. While men’s clothing tends to be
less colorful and allow for easy movement, women’s clothing calls attention
to their bodies with form-fitting styles and clinging materials.
a.
Selecting clothing is particularly challenging for trans and gender
nonconforming people.
4.
Advertising emphasizes what artifacts men or women are supposed to use.
5.
Some people use artifacts to challenge cultural prescriptions of masculinity
and femininity.
B.
Proximity and Personal Space
1.
Proxemics refers to how people use space; space is an index of power and a
primary way to designate who is important and privileged.
a.
Other ways space is used can include who sits at the head of the table,
and what mothers’ and fathers’ spaces look like within households.
2.
Territoriality is personal space, but not everyone’s territory is equally respected.
a.
People with more power have more control over the use of space.
b.
Men are more likely to go into women’s spaces than women are to go into
men’s spaces.
C.
Haptics (Touch)
1.
Haptics, or touch, from parents and other adults communicate different
messages to boys and girls.
2.
Parents tend to touch daughters more often and more gently than they touch
sons, which teaches girls to expect touching from others. Boys are more likely
to learn to associate touch with control and power.
3.
Men are generally taller and stronger than women and tend to be more willing
to use bodily force than women.
D.
Kinesics (Facial and Body Motion)
1.
Kinesics are face and body movements.
2.
Feminine kinesic behaviors include tilting heads, smiling, and condensing their
bodies to take up less space. Masculine kinesic behaviors include using large
gesture, taking up space, and entering others’ territories.
3.
Women tend to make more eye contact during conversation than men do to signal
interest and involvement.
E.
Paralanguage
1.
Paralanguage refers to vocal cues that accompany verbal communication
such as inflection, tone, volume, accent, pitch, and rhythm.
2.
Male and female physiology doesn’t fully explain differences in pitch.
a.
Men tend to use lower pitch and greater volume to assert themselves.
b.
Women tend to use higher pitch, softer volume, and more inflection to
appear polite and caring.
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3.
These are socialized behaviors and not entirely the result of physiological
differences.
F.
Physical Appearance
1.
Western culture places high priority on physical appearance. Both sexes
may feel pressured to conform to a culturally defined ideal appearance.
2.
An increasing number of men feel pressure to embody social prescriptions
for ideal masculinity. Goals tend to be having buff, muscular bodies.
Pressure includes the masculine ideal presented on television and gender-
typed action figures.
3.
Girls and women are more likely than men to feel pressure to look good all
the time.
a.
For girls and women, concern about weight starts early. By third
grade, 50 to 80% of girls say they want to lose weight. Women make
up between 85% and 95% of people with eating disorders.
Dissatisfaction with body size, particularly for Caucasian women,
influences overall self-esteem.
4.
In general, African-American women, particularly those who strongly
identify with their ethnic heritage, tend to be more satisfied with their bodies
and less prone to eating disorders.
5.
More men report body dissatisfaction related to muscularity and are
exercising, working out with weights, taking fitness supplements, and using
steroids. Gay men are more likely to be concerned about appearance to
develop eating disorders.
G.
Interpreting Nonverbal Behavior.
1.
Generally, females are better able to decode nonverbal behaviors and
more accurately perceive others’ emotions. However, men are
noticeably faster at recognizing angry facial cues.
2.
Various theories offer explanations for this strong ability to read feelings:
a.
Biological theories posit that it is a result of sex-related brain
differences.
b.
Another explanation says that from childhood females are
encouraged to be sensitive to others.
c.
Women’s social location encourages them to learn to read their
feelings and needs.
d.
Standpoint theory suggests women’s ability to decode results
from their standing as subordinate members of society.
H.
Respecting Gendered Styles of Nonverbal Communication
1.
Judgment of the way others speak reflect the communication rules we
have learned, and our rules may not pertain to others’ way of
communicating.
2.
Interpreting others on their own terms might lead to clarification of
misunderstanding and to develop communicative techniques to
minimize misunderstandings.
3.
It also enhances personal effectiveness by increasing the range of
options you have for communicating with different people.
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Journal Entries
1.
Violate a gender prescription for nonverbal communication and analyze the
consequences in terms of how others responded to you and how you felt. How do these
reactions challenge or reinforce cultural prescriptions for gender?
2.
Think about society’s standards for beauty and physical attractiveness. Choose and
respond to one of the following questions: (1) How do we learn what the standards are for
beauty in our society? Are there different messages for women than for men? (2) Are you
or someone you know currently suffering from an eating disorder? Explain how gendered
messages work to encourage and influence eating disorders.
3.
Reflect on some of the messages you received about nonverbal behaviors when you were a
child. For example, did parents, teachers, or friends comment on your attractiveness or
weight? If you were raised a boy, were you admonished to act tough and/or not to cry? If
you were raised a girl, were you told to be “lady-like”? What kinds of artifacts were you
given; here, reflect on toys and clothing. Reflect on your feelings about the messages you
received both then and now. Do the messages you received as a child continue to
discipline you to enact certain behaviors today?
Suggested Activities
1.
Masculine and Feminine Posture: At the beginning of your first day on nonverbal
communication, you may want to try the exercise that follows. This exercise is useful for
demonstrating some ways women are more constrained than men by norms of nonverbal
behavior. Though male students may find the requests humorous, female students more
than likely will recognize these rules as taken-for-granted assumptions about their posture
and dress.
a.
Have students sit down in a chair with a straight back. Instruct them to
cross their legs at the ankles and keep their knees pressed together.
Have them hold this position and count to 10.
b.
Tell students to drop a pencil on the floor and bend down to pick it up.
Remind them to bend their knees so that their rear end doesn’t stick up
and place a hand over the front of their shirt to hold it in place. Have
them repeat this motion several times, quickly.
c.
Have students sit comfortably on the floor. Tell students to hold
this position for 30 seconds.
Note: This exercise is taken and slightly modified from page 305 of Eakins, B. W., & Eakins, R.
G. (1991). Sex differences in nonverbal communication. In L. A. Samovar & R. E. Porter (Eds.),
Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
2.
Performing Masculinity and Femininity with Nonverbal Behaviors: Show all or
segments of the video Boys Don’t Cry to your class. This film is particularly effective
because it is based upon a true story. Because this film includes a graphic rape scene along
with other acts of violence, some students may become disturbed while watching the film.
Therefore, talk to your students before viewing the film and create a safe space for
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discussion following the video. It is not necessary to show the graphic scenes in the film in
order to provide rich examples of nonverbal communication. Encourage students to pay
attention to the modifications Hillary Swank makes in her nonverbal behavior as she
undergoes the transition from living as a woman to living as a man. The film is filled with
subtle and blatant messages about gender and sex roles and expectations in the United
States and should provide ample material for discussion and consideration. Conduct a class
discussion after showing the video. Discussion should focus on nonverbal communication
and how Brandon’s nonverbal communicative acts are used to conform to prescribed
gender and sex roles. Discussion can also be extended to address how nonverbal
communication influences how individuals view or label others’ sexuality. Finally, this
film does an excellent job of showing the dark side of what can happen when individuals
choose to challenge and deviate from what society deems as “appropriate” gendered and
sexual practices. Therefore, a discussion of moving out of traditional gender roles, and the
difficulties in doing so, should also be addressed.
Other films that will work for a discussion of how men and women perform the other sex
include: She’s the Man (2006, with Amanda Bines), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993, with Robin
Williams), One of the Guys (1985, with Joyce Hysner), Tootsie (1982, with Dustin
Hoffman), and Some Like It Hot (1959, with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack
Lemmon).
3.
Communicating Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality: Show part or all of the movie
In & Out to your class. One of the most pedagogically rich scenes occurs when Kevin
Kline decides to play an audiotape titled “Be a Man: Exploring Your Masculinity” in order
to ascertain if he is gay or not (at approximately 42.30 minutes, DVD chapter “Exploring
your Masculinity”). Encourage students to pay attention to the nonverbal and verbal
communication lessons that Kevin Kline is being taught. After the clip is shown,
brainstorm on the board “what we learned was masculine.” Add questions to the scene
such as: “What are masculine instruments? Masculine sports? Masculine eating habits?”
Then, ask them to brainstorm how one communicates femininity. Push them past simply
stating “doing the opposite of what is masculine.” Ask them to act out feminine versus
masculine ways of sitting, drinking, and so forth.
One way to push this conversation further is to ask students to consider why one’s
gendered communication styles lead others to assume one’s sexuality. How does
homophobia become a tool for reinforcing rigid gender roles? If you show the entire film,
save time for a class discussion after viewing the video. You also may want to assign a
related journal entry.
4.
Observing Nonverbal Behaviors: Allow students to leave the classroom for a portion of
the class period (30 minutes works well) and go to a populated area of campus. Have them
watch the people they see, looking for examples of gendered nonverbal communication,
both those mentioned in the text and new ones they may identify. Remind them that men
may engage in feminine nonverbal communication and women in masculine nonverbals.
Afterwards, have them return to class to share their findings. Did men and women tend to
follow traditional expectations for nonverbal communication? Did they notice any other
