Women, Men, and WoMEN

Deborah Tannen’s essay “There Is No Unmarked Woman” shows that women are often treated differently than men. Women are constantly marked by their appearances, choices, and actions whereas men are all uniform. People can label women as being “sensible”, “stylish”, “sexy”, etc. However, all men are just categorized as “male” (Tannen 389). Tannen proves that women are deemed lesser than men because they are labeled based upon the male’s status. They usually take their husband’s name and are “more identified by [their] husband’s identity” (391). Then, Tannen shows that, in nature, it is the female population that dominates the males.  Professor Ralph Fasold notes that it is the male who is marked nature, as males often rely on a queen bee to carry out their duties. He mentions that there are even species that only produce females, like the whiptail lizard, and none that produce only males. I don’t think that people should look too deeply into these sciences. In the end, everybody must rely on each other, regardless of gender. At a recent United Nations conference, Emma Watson launches her HeForShe Campaign. It revolves around gender equality. Being a feminist, Watson claims that feminism isn’t supposed to bring men down so that women can rise in power, but “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities”.  There isn’t any one gender that is dominant over the other; everybody needs to work together equally so that our world can flourish.