Marked or Unmarked Essay Example for Free

Marked or Unmarked Essay Marked or Unmarked status for both men and women still remains to be an indirect type of cultural norm practiced by different societies. This type of connotation often is a manifestation of collective practices, actions, and norms promoted by a certain society. This is one of the facets that separate us from every other specie in the world – our ability to create meanings out of something. With this, one can clearly just say that there could be no such thing as an unmarked woman. But, for it to hold ground there must be sufficient explanations and arguments that would justify the particular claim. It is thus important for an elaboration the difficulty of creating an unmarked woman. The first important thing is to establish the real meaning of the concept. One can see that the real debate concerns again the inequality of achieving a marked or unmarked status between male and female. Tannen argues in the article that marked â€Å"refers to the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding a linguistic particle that has no meaning on its own† (p. 1). On one hand we see again the way man has created meaning over symbols to the extent of even creating one over nothingness. This argument goes to show that only men are subject to be unmarked. Tannen mentions that â€Å"the unmarked forms of most English words also convey male† (p. 1). Seeing such definition, there is a sexual distinction to people who are unmarked (male) and those who are â€Å"marked† (female). Though there seems to be no problem with such sexual distinction, problems often arises when different interpretations go into the picture. Tannen points out several important characteristics on as to why such distinctions became so eminent among women. The tendency of women to be criticized for their every action subjects them to the notion that they are indeed marked. Tannen elaborates this claim by pursuing the way people perceive women’s hairstyle. According to (Tannen) â€Å"the range of women’s hair styles are staggering, but women whose hair has no particular style is perceived as not caring about how she looks, which can disqualify her for many positions, and will subtly diminish her as a person in the eyes of some† (p. 1). Such example only proves one thing for women; it is indeed difficult for women to be unmarked since the continuous knots are in place for marked perceptions, actions, and ideas. It is like a continued cycle of being ‘marked’ and curtailed with only several moves that will also still connote the same thing – being ‘marked’. This is one argument as to why women cannot be considered or classified as unmarked. However, thinkers who see such scenario often attest and complain about the particular setup of things. Though it may be wrong to associate them to feminist, but somehow these people are often pointed toward such orientation due to its overall principle – equality for both men and women. It is through this that several people sought to argue that ‘unmarking’ of women in society is possible. The article points out several scholars who argue how men have and society continued to tolerate such status of women. Tannen stresses in her article that â€Å"language and culture are particularly unfair in treating women as the marked case because biologically it is the male that is marked† (p. 1) He cited several works of Fasold who advocated an alternative approach in explaining that indeed men are the ones who are ‘marked’ contrary to the original notion. One example cited by Tannen in Fasold’s study includes the notion concerning genetics and says that biologically males are the ones that are really ‘marked’. Tannen says that â€Å"while two X chromosomes make a female, two Y chromosomes make nothing. Like the linguistic markers s, es or ess, the Y chromosome doesnt mean anything unless it is attached to a root form an X chromosome† (p. 1) Pursuing Fasold’s ideas further, he again pointed several important reasons as to why women should not be considered ‘marked’. Tannen stipulated that â€Å"Fasold points out that girls are born with fully female bodies, while boys are born with modified female bodies. † (p. 1) Lastly, Fasold points out his argument by making establishing a possible relationship with biology and language. Tannen points out that â€Å"if language reflected biology, grammar books would direct us to use she to include males and females and he only for specifically male referents. † (p. 1) Arguing on this matter, Tannen clearly dismisses the claim of Fasold’s due to his inability to strike a relationship between his study in biological makeup of man and man’s sociological makeup. Yes, it can be argued that Fasold’s argument may hold water, however there is a huge differences in perspective on how to view the issue. Biological makeup/component for that matter is more standardized with a definitive value for everything. However, with regards to sociology and gender, there is a diverse and multiple levels of interpretations that can be made to ascertain an occurrence of something. Establishing such difference, Tannen contends with the argument of Fasold’s by focusing that the parameters of biology differ in scope compared to language particularly in the realm of using the term ‘he’ or ‘she’. Tannen points out that â€Å"use of he as the sex-indefinite pronoun is an innovation introduced into English by grammarians in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Peter Muhlhausler and Rom Harre in Pronouns and People† (p. 1) By establishing such argument, it was mentioned that the ‘she’ word again is marked. It is through this that the argument pertaining to women can be unmarked remains to be bleak and difficult to achieve. However, I am not saying that it is unattainable, but it will take a radical effort for women to achieve such status. Even the author attests the difficulty. If ever you fight for something that will challenge the status quo, labeling shall be given to you – feminist, male basher, etc. This in turn again promotes the process of being ‘marked’ for women. In the end, after careful analysis of arguments, it can be justified that there are no unmarked women. Women may strive for such status, however such endeavor may only be futile since even the author of the article attested its relative difficulty and grasp among females. Tannen said that â€Å"I felt sad to think that we women didnt have the freedom to be unmarked that the men sitting next to us had. † (p. 1) In the end, the only scenario is accepting the fact that women shall be subject to being ‘marked’. The only thing that they can do is create an environment where their ‘mark’ is more on the positive side compared to a degenerative idea. Work Cited Tannen, Deborah. Marked Women, Unmarked Men in The New York Times Magazine 1993 accessed 14 April 2008