Cultural Reporter Blog 2

The theory which seems to be most prominent when conducting my research on the culture of male versus female gender is Co-Cultural Communication theory. This theory, as defined in our Intercultural Communications textbook, is “used to understand how people’s location in a social hierarchy influences their perceptions of reality regarding, among other things, relational issues or problems” (Martin & Nakayama p. 73). Co-cultural communication looks at the way dominant and non-dominant cultural groups interact. It studies the basic function of language between the dominant and non-dominant groups and how it is formulated and carried out. Co-cultural communication mainly only affects those of the non-dominant group. Non-dominant group members often find themselves in environments where they are forced to act the same as the dominant group, cater to the needs of the dominant group, or segregate themselves entirely from those of the dominant group.

Below are three sources which touch on the idea of Co-Cultural Communication Theory.  

Taylor, F. (2009). Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes in Children's Book. Sociological Viewpoints, 5-22.

Paek, H., Nelson, M., & Vilela, A. (2011). Examination of Gender-role Portrayals in Television

Advertising across Seven Countries. Sex Roles, 64(3/4), 192-207.

Szymanowicz, A., & Furnham, A. (2011). Do intelligent women stay single? Cultural stereotypes

concerning the intellectual abilities of men and women. Journal Of Gender Studies,

20(1), 43-54.

 The first source discusses the impacts of gender stereotypes in children’s books, the second sources discusses how men versus women are portrayed in commercials across seven different countries, and the third source talks about men versus women IQ and how this relates to their communication patterns. These may seem like entirely random sources but they are all studying gender stereotypes at different levels. They all revolve around the main idea of male dominance.

Below are two magazine covers. On the left is an image of how men are often portrayed in media and on the right is a picture of how women are often portrayed. Which gender seems more dominant to you?

  In my research what I am looking for is whether or not males often see themselves as the dominant culture group over females, what types of things indicate that they believe this, why do they believe this and what things in the social media are indicators that males are a dominant group over females. What I am finding is that males see themselves as the dominant group over the female gender. I believe that this idea was started years before when males were seen as the single breadwinner for families and it has just been passed down from generation to generation. Possibly not even intentionally, this is just the thought process of people in everyday life. The idea that males are a dominant group is not surprising even in society today because there are so many things that suggest this. Social media is just one area where male dominance is portrayed daily. I still have more research to do but I have spent some time observing males. I spent time observing my four of my male friends. They are very candid about how they see females and the male’s role in society. Just watching football on a Saturday with them, you can get a pretty good idea of how they see themselves in comparison to females. I plan on continuing to observe males and how they act on their “dominance” and I plan to interview a few people to see how dominance plays a role in everyday communication.

Source:

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston, MA:

McGraw Hill.