For my essay, I chose to write on Deborah Tannen's, There is No Unmarked Woman. I chose to write on her piece because I disagree with some of the ideas that she explains about the "marked" woman, as well as the "unmarked man". Although I agree with her ideas of woman always being judged by the way they look and dress, I also strongly believe that men can also be "marked" by the way they dress, and how they decide to make an image for themselves.
Deborah Tannen's essay seems to be directly intended to women, trying to make a universal connection about how women feel on the idea of true beauty, as well as stating that the grammatically with the natural world women should seem more “unmarked”. Tannen tries to point out that men are "unmarked" and that they don't have to worry about what others think about their appearance, unlike women, who are being judgmental of themselves the first second they wake up and look in the mirror. I believe a lot of women think that Tannen's essay makes critical connections to a woman's everyday life and the feeling of being criticized and judged based on their own personal preference and creating their own character.
Deborah Tannen's evidence seems to be pretty reputable with the idea of women being "marked". Women can be degraded by both male and female for their style other then their personality. However, in my opinion, her belief that men don't have to worry about being judged or "marked" is completely false. A lot of men care about their appearance and they way they are perceived of by others. I also believe that men are judged by the way they dress. Any gender, both male or female have different stereotypes that makes them appear to be some way or do different things, even if they aren't. I also believe that most women don't take offense to taking their husband's last name in marriage, as well as being called miss or mrs., like Tannen wrote about.
Tannen has definitely overlooked a man's perspective of the way they are criticized in everyday life. As I had explained before, every person in the world has always been judged or has been judgmental of themselves on their on appearance. A man with a high taste in clothing may be questioned for their sexuality based on their appearance. When Tannen brings Fasold into the essay talking about the natural world being female prominent, I believe she pulls away from the entire essay about the degradation of females based on style and appearance. Parts of her essay were very disconnected from the main point she was trying to display.
I do agree with Tannen when she talks about how women are "marked" in many ways. Being a female, according to my own style I have been judged on the way I look. Women are often very self conscious of themselves based on what others think about them. They want to wear certain clothes that make them feel good, but also facing the idea of being degraded by others.
Responding to your first paragraph, I don't think Tannen is trying to say that men don't have to worry about there appearance; I feel like she's saying they can go unmarked because all eight of them looked pretty much the same. The three females dressed differently in many ways, which attracted her to analyze them more closely.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your third paragraph when you talk about how using Fasold's example were disconnected from the previous part of the essay, but I think she includes it to bring up a different angle that the reader can think about. It seems to allow the reader to imagine a world that uses "she" to incorporate both sexes and then the males become frustrated because they feel excluded, even though it is meant to include both genders.