Publication: Women and Language
Publication Date: 22-SEP-06
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Wolfe, Joanna ; Powell, Elizabeth
Article Excerpt
Abstract: This research addresses the common stereotype that women complain more than men. Defining "complaint" as the expression of personal dissatisfaction resulting from a disconfirmation of expectancies, the researchers analyzed conversations from three mixed-gendered student writing teams. The results indicate that, while the men and women in this sample made equivalent numbers of complaints, they used complaints for different reasons. Women were more likely than men to use complaints as an indirect request for action, while men were more likely to use complaints to excuse behavior or to make themselves seem superior. Marginal differences were also found between the types of complaints African-American and European-American women uttered. These results may suggest that the stereotype that women complain more than men has less to do with the number of complaints uttered and more to do with the different functions men and women attempt to accomplish by complaining.
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When I ask men what they don't like about women, complaining frequently tops the list. Men tend not to complain, at least not about little things. They've been taught, since they were little boys, to be tough, to endure, to be stoic, to be unemotional, to hold it in, to be MEN. Basically, they've been taught that it's not manly to complain. Consequently, they have little tolerance for any kind of complaining, and especially whining.
--Kara Oh, author of Men Made Easy
This excerpt from a self-help website exposes a common stereotype: women are perceived as more likely to complain than men. Several researchers have confirmed that negative terms associated with complaining--such as nagging, bitching, and whining--are stereotyped as female behavior (Conway & Vartanian, 2000; Sotirin, 2000). Even when complaining is discussed as a positive interaction (for instance, complaining to communicate solidarity or empathy with another's problems), women are still perceived as complaining more than men (Boxer, 1996).
Name:
Anonymous2007-10-24 14:31
Hams, Cunts, and Steam
Name:
Anonymous2007-10-24 15:58
"Women were more likely than men to use complaints as an indirect request for action"
Indirect my ass, when a girl complains you know she wants something before the second word is out of her mouth. Most likely, it is this "indirect request" i.e. nagging that men find so annoying.