I Hate This Essay

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Quite frankly, I hate this essay. I think some of the points that Tannen brings up are completely invalid and offer no real purpose in her essay. It's fair to say that one can characterize Tannen as being a feminist, and by definition
a feminist is someone who advocates women's rights on the basis of equality of the sexes
What we see however, are points made by her that support the stance that women are inherently better than men. The biggest perpetrator of this is her biological argument. In my opinion, a biological argument has no place in a social commentary. She pulls from Fasold who says
language and culture are particularly unfair in treating women as the marked case because biologically is the male that is marked

I agree with the fact that it is unfair that women are deemed to be the marked members of society, however the basis on which Fasold pulls this conclusion is completely baseless. Why should it matter that it is men who are marked biologically? This essay is about a social issue, not a biological one.

Looking at this issue from a different point of view sheds some light onto the matter. Reading this essay from my perspective left a bit of a schism between what me and Tannen thought. Some things that came to mind was the fact that so many of my male friends complain about not having any option with how they express themselves in business attire; women have a multitude of different styles, while men are forced to wear a suit.

Another thing that came to mind was the Paradox of Choice. which states that
reducing the number of options available to a consumer increases their satisfaction after a purchase
This reminded me of the essay because possibly women receive less satisfaction with their clothing options because they simply have so many options.

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