Discussion: Study 2
These findings are so important because this
blending of gender and sex clearly impacted the interview
responses. The participants "saw" feminine statements as
female and masculine statements as male. This suggests that gender/sex
is not invisible when people read MOO statements,
in fact people assign "sex" to statements based on what they
saw as feminine or masculine. This is also important because feminine
and masculine were not perceived by the participants
as something that is fluid. In their minds a female does not seem able
to speak masculinely, nor a male femininely. So whatever fluidity
and invisibility the MOOs may provide, the interview participants
judged gender and sex together and made gender neither fluid nor invisible.
This study suggests that people still relate gender
to sex. Many of the participants did not differentiate
between the two. The participants "saw" feminine statements
as female and masculine statements as male. This suggests that gender/sex
is not invisible when people read MOO statements,
in fact people assign "sex" to statements based on what they
saw as feminine or masculine. Five participants suggested they thought
of people who would say the statements and used the sex of the people
to determine the gender of the statement. This suggests their perceptions
of gender are based off of the actions and words of people they know;
their perceptions of gender/sex are, thus, socially constructed.
All participants, until questioned at
the end, seemed unaware of the differences between feminine and female
and masculine and male. This suggests that perhaps these differences are
not made in the communities that they are part of. Most of the participants
seemed to treat males and females equally. Renée
did suggest males would say "stupid" or "crazy" things
and Sam did call one statement feminine
because it was "intelligent," however it does not seem they
were sexist. This view seems to follow the cultural stereotypes of the
two sexes. Thus, it appears these stereotypes are even applied to the
statements to a medium that has fluid and more invisible gender.
The results also suggest some clear differences between feminine and masculine
statements. The interviewees saw feminine as more sensitive, nice, sugar-coated,
and controlling for good behaviors. On the other hand, masculine was seem
as more aggressive, less caring of what people thought, and loud.
These seem to fit the stereotypes of gendered language in the United States.
However, since five of the eight also based their answers on what people
they knew would say, this also suggests that many females and males fit
the stereotypes with their behaviors and ways of speaking and writing.
Or it may suggest that the participants' perceptions of the people they
know are strongly influenced by the stereotypes. Either way the stereotypes
appear to influence people's perception of gender and sex and lead them
to categorized feminine ways of speaking as female and masculine ways
as male.
Participants | Procedure | Analysis and Results: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, Question 4 | Discussion