Language in gender

Walking into Frost for this two hour class, I had mixed emotions. My perception of the language we use and what it has to do with gender was completely different than what I learned during this block. It's interesting because language is something that we all use and is a vital part of our daily lives, yet most people (including myself) didn't even see the effect that words have on gender and gender issues.
One of the most interesting parts of the presentation was when we looked at children's writing, especially the study done which showed what little boys and girls tend to write about. The study made me think back to when I was that age and what I thought was worth writing about in class. It also made me think about how from a young age I was told not to brag about my accomplishments. I think this had an effect on the stories I wrote in class because I would've never written about winning or a recent accomplishment because I always thought of it as annoying and unnecessary. To this day, I still don't like to talk about my accomplishments or things I did well as much as teammates and other people's. Although I think this is fairly common with boys too, it's interesting for girls given what younger girls tend to write about and feel comfortable sharing. It's no secret that girls have often been told to not speak up and voice their opinion, accomplishments, or desires (I do think that this doesn't nearly happen as frequently as it used to) and it's interesting that something so small and seen as unimportant could have a large impact. I think looking at the language and stories written by second graders can really show the stem of an issue between how girls and boys perceive each other and how they think they're expected to act.
This issue starts at such a young age and is still seen in throughout adulthood. In language and gender in congressional speeches, Yu mentions that when male and females use bigrams, they are often saying different things. Women are overwhelmingly using "my" and then talking about their husbands, community, or constituents. Although these are pre written and edited speeches there's still similarities to the writings of the second graders, both talk about community, teamwork, and others heavily. the study also showed that when males used bigrams they often were using I and talking about their accomplishments, for example "I brought", "I challenge", "I suspect", and phrases similar to those. This is similar to the boys' side of the study which showed that they primarily wrote about their own victories, accomplishments, and winning. It's interesting to see that even in professions like politics where the language is more masculine, females are still using words and phrases that relate to what is said and taught to girls at such a young age.