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Deborah Tannen Sex Lies And Conversation Summary

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Deborah Tannen Sex Lies And Conversation Summary
Deborah Tannen’s essay on “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” highlights the different communication styles of men and women. Tannen attempts to get beyond simplistic stereotypes that, for example, women chatter constantly while men are ‘strong and silent,’ or, conversely, that women are shy and quiet and men are more articulate than their female partners. Rather, the truth behind these contradictory stereotypes is much more complex. Tannen opens her essay with an anecdote drawn from her own personal experience, from one of her lecturing engagements. A man stood up, pointed at his mute wife, and said, quite loudly, “she’s the talker in our family” (Tannen 1) The crowd laughed, and Tannen uses this as an example of how women are often more talkative
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