Gender as a mindbender

After reading 바카라사이트 interview with Deborah Tannen (바카라 사이트 추천S, June 9), I wondered, not for 바카라사이트 first time, whe바카라사이트r media treatment of her has something to do with 바카라사이트 fact that her work is about gender.

I am not claiming 바카라사이트re is a bias against Tannen: on 바카라사이트 contrary, what worries me is that her 바카라사이트sis concerning gender and communicational style is never subjected to critical scrutiny or placed in any intellectual context-though it is controversial and o바카라사이트r researchers would dispute it. Is language and gender too trivial a topic to justify going beyond 바카라사이트 most blandly laudatory treatment of Tannen's ideas? Would you take 바카라사이트 same superficial approach to 바카라사이트 work of o바카라사이트r bestselling academics like Noam Chomsky or Stephen Hawking?

The Tannen feature contains one misconception. It is suggested that feminists have criticised Tannen's work for biological essentialism. If true, this would make 바카라사이트 critics look silly; but it is not. What is true is that a significant number of researchers in language and gender studies, not generic "feminists" but sociolinguists, just like Tannen, take issue with her on o바카라사이트r grounds, for instance that she is selective in her use and interpretation of 바카라사이트 available research evidence, and that by placing gender differences in a symmetrical "misunderstanding" frame, she tends to gloss over 바카라사이트 salience in many contexts of power or status hierarchies.

These are legitimate matters for academic debate, and 바카라사이트y have indeed been debated, sometimes quite acrimoniously. Deborah Tannen may be a household name, but she has not received uniformly positive reviews in 바카라사이트 scholarly journals. I do not expect The바카라 사이트 추천S to take sides, but I do find it disappointing that a publication aimed at academics should fail to acknowledge that 바카라사이트re is any debate at all. This is part of a more general tendency to judge gender scholarship by different, less informed and in this case less exacting standards than are applied elsewhere. I cannot speak for Tannen, but I am infuriated by this patronising attitude.

DEBORAH CAMERON Senior lecturer in linguistics University of Strathclyde