red hazelwood

            Cues in gender communication can be misleading. The main cause of miscommunication in male-female relationships is the lack of understanding that men and women have different communication styles, rituals, and motivations. Because small groups are rarely entirely composed of one gender and lacking the other, it is important for those working in small groups to understand one another’s communication styles. One way to begin this understanding is to study the tendencies and patterns of gender in communication.  It is important to note that this discussion is about gender differences in communication, as opposed to sex differences. Dr. Scott A. Myers defines gender as not referring to biological sex, necessarily, but rather “the social beliefs and values associated with being male or female” (Myers 79). For the sake of clarity, we will refer to communication traits as either male or female, feminine or masculine, or attribute them to men ...

          Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is widely read and studied by literary critics around the world who are interested in its origin and purpose. Feminists claim the story as their own, viewing it as a condemnation of males in general. There is much debate in the world of literature about why Gilman wrote such a shocking story. I believe that Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in order to protest the rest cure and reflect the effect that the patriarchal society had on women in the arena of mental illness in the 19 th  century. I will demonstrate this in an exploration of the societal expectations for women in the 19 th  century, the history of mental illness, the infamous rest cure, and how all of this pertains to literature, particularly in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.”   PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY’S EXPECTATIONS FOR WOMEN            ...

          Throughout its history, the importance of rhetoric has been cyclical. The public’s opinion of rhetoric rises and falls based on the popularity of humanism and the natural sciences at the time. Humanism and the natural sciences have often captured the attention of man and displaced rhetoric in its traditional sense – although admittedly, rhetoric can never be driven out entirely. All language is, by its very nature, rhetorical. But rhetoric rooted in humanism is not moral, true, or complete. Humanism isolates the logical part of man, separating him from his emotions, and calls it truth. This practice is not only misleading and dishonest, but it is dangerous. I believe that rhetorical education should reject humanism and be targeted toward the holistic man, not just his rationality and logic.              Humanism appears to be rooted in the Sophistic movement. Both humanism and Sophis...