Blog #5

What did you learn?
When I first saw the class description (title) I immediately thought of Men arefrom Mars and Women are from Venus. I only thought about gender communication as being the confusing and often misunderstood communication between men & women. And of course all of the “greatly hyped gender wars”.
Some of the more surprising things I have learned are:
• Gender is not the same thing as sex – it is far more complex.
• Gender is a verb – it is something that we “do”
• Gender is influenced heavily by our environment and this influence begins at a very young age

What is important for future studies in gender communication?
• More classes on the subject – this is the first class I have seen on Gender Communication.
• This subject needs to be taught beginning in elementary school - the earlier people are made aware of what is going on inthe world around them the better chance they will have of understanding all of the influences that are affecting their gender.
• I think it is important to get more young people interested in the subject

Where do we go from here?
• More credible information needs to reach the general public on this subject - which to me means more education on the subject and the earlier the better.
• More attention needs to be paid to research on the subject
• More attention needs to be drawn to the media and its misuse and abuse of gender.

What does a critical gender lens mean to you?
To me a critical gender lens means:
• “AWARENESS” - you need to be aware of gender differences
• that you need to take the time to learn about what these difference are and how they come about
• that you need to take the time to consider gender differences and how they may cause communication issues or misunderstandings