Tannen and August, Blog #4

Tannen's article is about women being unmarked. One example of this that stood out to me was when Tannen said, "Instead of concentrating on the discussion I found myself looking at the three other women at the table , thinking how each had a different style and how each style was coherent." (Tannen 140). I can relate to what she is saying because there have been times myself where I will even unconsciously judge other women and what they are wearing or what kind of makeup they have on. Where this begins to bother me is when women are judged by their appearance and men really aren't. We have to do our hair and our makeup because if we don't then we are judged as not caring and if we went to interview for a job they would pass us up because it makes you look bad. While men on the other hand can just wash their hair and put on nice clothes and won't be judged any differently. Almost everything Tannen said I agree with but that doesn't mean it's right of people to pass judgement on women more than men.

When I began reading August's article I realized very quickly that it was anti-male biased. One line that really stuck out to me was when August said, "...who insist that rape is a crime committed only by males in which only females are victims" (August 131). None of my own personal experiences can relate to this but one thing that stuck out to me in society was the woman from Dublin who raped her ten month old son. In this case there was no woman victim there was a male victim which just proves that men can also be victims of rape or assault and that people shouldn't assume that women can be the only ones. One line that I read that I do not agree with is when it says,"When a young man marries, he will be required by law and social custom to support his wife and children" (August 136). This isn't always true because in some cases women are the one in the relationship supporting the family while the men stay home and take care of the children, though this isn't very common it still occurs in some households. In August's reading I agree with some of the things he said but some of them I don't agree with at all and they don't make sense to me.