Who Cares?

"A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000" (Mehl 557).

As I read this so-called "fact," I feel as if I'm reading complete gibberish. 

We all talk-- it's a part of life. Who cares if I talk more than the person next to me? Who cares if I never stop complaining or ranting; it's just who I am and I can't help it-- but it's certainly not because I am female.

Whoever came up with the erroneous idea that women talk more than men is obviously a person who equates one's gender with their personality, two ideas in which correlation does NOT mean causation. A human's personality grows and becomes their own, which includes how he or she behaves, learns, and of course, talks. It is unfair to find coincidences throughout our daily lives and place a label onto groups as a whole based on what we think we see and understand. 

This is exactly what always happens to women-- we are constantly being stereotyped with several, and annoying, reputations such as being needy, weak, and in charge of household duties (raising children, cleaning after men, etc). I am so sick of being treated as inferior to men, as if I can't handle myself all alone in this judgmental world. The constant stereotyping of women needs to come to an end, so we can live in a place where a comments such as "Oh, she's a girl be nice" or "Of course she did, what a girl," cease to exist.

And going back to the whole "who talks more thing," I can assure you, I know PLENTY of guys who talk way more than me, and that's saying a lot because we all know I am a chatty one. 

But then again, who cares?

She's Been Marked

Ok I'm just going to let whoever's reading this know: I'm not just saying what I'm about to describe solely because I'm a fellow female; this is the real world, not something I've made up.

First off, yes I agree: men can be marked just as women can. The thing that catches my attention, though, is how men don't receive the criticisms nearly as much as women do. 

For example-- the dress code. Many females are punished for simply showing their shoulders or wearing leggings. I mean come on..... LEGGINGS! I don't know what they expect from us... they're just pants! And our shoulders.... how are they any different from a guy's? We females are shamed for wearing outfits considered too tight or revealing; yet, I have never witnessed a single guy become disciplined for wearing saggy pants or muscle tanks, which by the way, also reveal their shoulders!

As one can tell, women are constantly being "marked" with the impression of trying to show off their body. Each of us are judged based on every small detail of how we look, being "marked" because of our own unique style that unfortunately, is regarded the wrong way simply because we are female.

"Tight sleeveless dress," "sexy jumpsuit," "baggy slacks," "stylish black t-shirts," "frosted blond," "dark lashes;" rather than noticing what a girl wears by solely her clothing, which is already bad enough, each item contains a detailed description of how others see her wearing that specific outfit (Tannen 552). It can never just be a dress or a shirt, but has to be accompanied by an adjective that marks them, forcing women to stand out from the rest of society, and not necessarily in a positive way.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't want women to be considered "marked," but I just wish that society would stop looking at a woman differently when she wears a business suit to a meeting just as a man, or when she shows her shoulders, or wears shorts.... we should be able to mark ourselves without judgement, and hopefully one day I can go to school with an off-the-shoulder shirt and not get dress coded for it.