The Barry White Effect

October 1, 2007 9:36 AM

Language Log is a great linguistics blog I have been reading, and I thought that Metafilter might be interested in these posts about sex differences in language use. The (less-technical) articles to which the bloggers are responding are all within the responses, so I didn't link to them. The Barry White Effect (voice pitch seems to correlate with reproduction) - Gabby Guys (men talk more than women) - Young Men Talk Like Old Women (usage of certain words) - Gender and Tags ("Certainly we don't seem to find real women and men as sums of the characteristics attributed to them") Are any of these differences actually caused by the speakers sex? The really fascinating thing, to me, is how unbelievably hard it is to study such a distinction.
posted by MNDZ (18 comments total)

We're familiar with it.

(Good post)
posted by chimaera at 9:47 AM on October 1, 2007

Don't forget the crockus!
posted by homunculus at 10:01 AM on October 1, 2007

Mmmmm.
posted by SassHat at 10:23 AM on October 1, 2007

Uh... Young women talk like old men, too, apparently.
posted by Reggie Digest at 10:27 AM on October 1, 2007

(Wow, no they don't. Oops.)
posted by Reggie Digest at 10:28 AM on October 1, 2007

Obligatory hat-tip: Language Log (don't call it "the"!) is run by Mark Liberman, aka MeFi's own myl.
posted by languagehat at 10:54 AM on October 1, 2007

There was an interesting article on male and female communication in the Guardian today:

Writers in this vein are fond of presenting themselves as latter-day Galileos, braving the wrath of the political correctness lobby by daring to challenge the feminist orthodoxy that denies that men and women are by nature profoundly different...

Yet before we applaud, we should perhaps pause to ask ourselves: since when has silence reigned about the differences between men and women? Certainly not since the early 1990s, when the previous steady trickle of books began to develop into a raging torrent. By now, a writer who announces that sex-differences are natural is not "saying the unsayable": he or she is stating the obvious. The proposition that men and women communicate differently is particularly uncontroversial, with cliches such as "men never listen" and "women find it easier to talk about their feelings" referenced constantly in everything from women's magazines to humorous greeting cards.

In almost every case, the overall difference made by gender is either small or close to zero. Two items, spelling accuracy and frequency of smiling, show a larger effect - but it is still only moderate.
...
If it does not reflect reality, why is the folk-belief that women talk more than men so persistent? The feminist Dale Spender once suggested an explanation: she said that people overestimate how much women talk because they think that, ideally, women would not talk at all. While that may be rather sweeping, it is true that belief in female loquacity is generally combined with disapproval of it. The statement "women talk more than men" tends to imply the judgment "women talk too much". (As one old proverb charmingly puts it: "Many women, many words; many geese, many turds.")

The folk-belief that women talk more than men persists because it provides a justification for an ingrained social prejudice.

posted by TheophileEscargot at 11:38 AM on October 1, 2007 [5 favorites]

I found this really awesome site the other day: Zombo!
posted by Plutor at 11:43 AM on October 1, 2007

By which I mean to say it's the Kottke of language blogs. It's been linked more than once before.
posted by Plutor at 11:48 AM on October 1, 2007

plug for languagehat.com which is also lots of fun
posted by caddis at 12:59 PM on October 1, 2007

I've always been a big fan of the Talking Heads.
posted by Kwine at 2:05 PM on October 1, 2007

They're much better than the a Flock of Seagulls.

I'm happy that the Barry White has an effect named after him.
posted by painquale at 2:18 PM on October 1, 2007

This is a good collection of links. Thanks, MNDZ.
posted by homunculus at 5:08 PM on October 1, 2007

Is this Language Log website something I would have to read MetaFilter to know about?
posted by straight at 6:22 PM on October 1, 2007

Maybe women speak more shit?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:35 PM on October 1, 2007

Possibly but you'd actually have to posit that thesis, look for evidence, see if it's falsifiable, etc., etc., before you could say that. And going by the shit in your posting history I'm yawning already....
posted by Wilder at 3:48 AM on October 2, 2007

Language Log is the only blog I read daily. I read it more often than Metafilter. It keeps my brain in shape. The posts on it are always great; I think it's really the best of the web. The contributors are really great people who are also really down to earth.

It's not the kind of thing that should be read as a nightly winding-down cordial, however. You should read it when your brain is sharp, and you should be prepared to have your thoughts provoked.

I can't recommend it highly enough! It should be required reading for most Mefites.
posted by strangeguitars at 4:15 AM on October 2, 2007

The caring membrane in the brain
posted by homunculus at 1:30 PM on October 5, 2007