Annotated Bibliography 1

Victoria Collins

COM440

Annotated Bibliography: Interpersonal Communication and Gender

Bond, B. J. (2009). He Posted, She Posted: Gender Differences in Self-Disclosure on Social

Network Sites. Rocky Mountain Communication Review, 6(2), 29–37.

This study found that women were more likely to self-disclose about a larger range of

subjects, such as their personal relationships, than men. It also showed that men tend to post

more about sports and were less willing to put out more personal information on their social

media. They also found that women were slightly more likely to post in a sexually expressive

manner, which was surprising, especially given the source below that men tended to be more

sexually explicit on dating apps.

This source used surveys to determine these findings. The sample pool was 137 young adults,

almost completely evenly split between male and female (44.5% and 55.5%, respectively) with

the majority being white. The survey didn’t necessarily ask what there was on their profiles, but

rather how likely certain information was to be featured on their social media.

This relates to gender communication by showing the differences in what young women and

men are willing to disclose on a personal social media account. It shows the differences between

what these two groups are generally more apt to share with the world at large, not just in their

words or information, but also in their photos.

Bratu, S. (2013). Advertising as a Form of Social Communication. Annals of Spiru Haret

University, Journalism Studies, 14(2), 53–59.

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This source looks into how overly sexualized women are in advertising, and how women are

mainly portrayed as sexual objects in advertising. Their research also highlights the differences

in how men and women react to such portrayals of women. Typically, men more so than women

respond positively to heavy sexual appeals, although the more sex positive a woman tends to be,

the more she will respond like a man. However, both men and women will react negatively to

overtly sexual images in advertising.

The research method employed here is mostly survey based, as it takes the deepest look at

particular answers given by men vs women. As opposed to most of the research I’ve looked into,

this isn’t really viewing a natural habitat, but rather how people view the world and why they do

so.

This relates to gender communication in that is looks at how both genders view advertising

and how they are viewed within advertisements. There is a stark difference in how women and

men are viewed in ads, and especially interesting to note how this is received. It is also very

telling that the ads that are most prevalent are mostly marketed towards one gender, even if the

product is designed for both or the opposite.

Bureau, J., Yurkowski, K., Schmiedel, S., Martin, J., Moss, E., & Pallanca, D. (2014). Making

Children Laugh: Parent-Child Dyadic Synchrony and Preschool Attachment. Infant

Mental Health Journal, 35(5), 482-494.

This study showed the differences in parental attachment through laughter and playing. This

particular study showed that even with similar methods, timing, and amount of time spent with

the child, the mothers overall formed a stronger bond with the children. This went against an
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overall theory that dyadic synchrony differed in importance with mother-child or father-child

relationships.

This study was laboratory observation. There were 107 preschool aged children and their

parents who participated in the study. The parents traded off in reuniting with their children,

evenly splitting the reunions, and spent the same amount of time apart from their children before

the reunions took place. They were also given the same amount of interaction time, and there

were no toys available with the reunions, to properly test the attachment to the parents.

This study relates to gender communication by highlighting the differences in bonds formed

with mothers and fathers in young children. It was interesting in the research done to conclude

that young children were more likely to form a stronger bond with their mothers, giving more

fuel to the idea that a mother is more of a caregiver than a father, even if that wasn’t the point,

exactly, of the study.

Hess, A., & Flores, C. (2018). Simply more than swiping left: A critical analysis of toxic

masculine performances on Tinder Nightmares. New Media & Society, 20(3), 1085–

1102.

This source argues that the toxic masculinity on Tinder is one of the defining characteristics

that the app is known for nowadays. It has spawned other such sites or account devoted to

showcasing and mostly shaming the hypersexual or toxic advances made by users of the app,

mostly male. This article focuses on one such site, Tinder Nightmares. They found that there is a

huge imbalance in the inappropriate and generally unwanted advances found on Tinder, mainly

from men to women.

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This source again employs naturalistic observation. The screenshots provided on the site are

real conversations and therefore are in the natural environment of each subject, as opposed to

being curated with control groups or being provided with surveys to gather the information. This

provides a (mostly) unbiased look at the heavy prevalence of toxic masculinity on Tinder.

This relates to gender theory by showcasing the way that men and women interact on dating

sites. Although this is just one case and there are of course many instances where this is not the

case, it seems that there is a heavy imbalance of how women vs men are spoken to on the app,

that can mirror the way women and men are each spoken to in the real world as well.

Miller, C. W., & Roloff, M. E. (2005). Gender and Willingness to Confront Hurtful Messages

from Romantic Partners. Communication Quarterly, 53(3), 323–337.

This study found that women were more likely to confront their romantic partners when they

were emotionally hurt by their partners. It was also found that men were more likely to believe

that they would not have support from anyone who may be watching if they confronted their

partners about being emotionally hurt but were less likely to confront their partners with or

without an audience.

This study, as with many in this bibliography, was survey based. The questions in the survey

were hypothetical scenarios. 307 surveys were taken from undergraduate students at a private

university in the Midwest. All of the participants were either currently in a romantic relationship

or had been previously. There was an almost even split in male and female answers.

This relates to gender communication in that women, again, were more likely to be hurt by

teasing or insults than men, and more willing to call their romantic partners out on it. Men were
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less likely to do so, lending more credibility to the theory that men are less likely to talk about

their emotions and are seemingly more closed-off than women in an attempt to be “more manly”.

Proctor, W. (2017) "Bitches Ain't Gonna Hunt No Ghosts": Totemic Nostalgia, Toxic Fandom

and the Ghostbusters Platonic. Palabra Clave, 20(4), 1105-1141.

The main point of this article is to argue that the hatred stemmed towards the new

Ghostbusters movie is not simply based in toxicity but rather in attachment to the original.

People are very attached to the original source material and can relate to it somehow, usually

based in nostalgia. Proctor argues that the new film is so hated because it messes with the

connections formed in the minds of its fans between themselves and the movie, or their “self-

narratives”.

I would say that the research method employed here is generally naturalistic observation. It

focuses in on what is seen across the board as opposed to taking a survey or having a lab. There

aren’t any control groups, either, it’s mostly what Proctor has seen, and links back to research

done on self-narratives and self-concept.

This relates back to gender communication as the issues with the new Ghostbusters are

generalized as being “too PC” and unnecessary because the new core cast is an inverse, gender-

wise, of the original films. It also relates to gender communications in that it takes a look at toxic

masculinity prevailing in many comments about the new movie.

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Robles, J. S., & Kurylo, A. (2017). ‘Let’s have the men clean up’: Interpersonally communicated

stereotypes as a resource for resisting gender-role prescribed activities. Discourse

Studies, 19(6), 673–693.

This source discusses gender stereotypes in US based homes, specifically in household labor

such as cleaning. They found that even when stereotypes are challenged, they can actually be

reinforced at the same time. Some these stereotypes are presented as cultural norms, and

sometimes resisting them can lead to recreating them anyways. However, they also found that

stereotypes are sometimes combated with words but actions, which further reinforces the

stereotypes themselves.

The research method used is naturalistic observation by placing cameras in homes on US

families and taking notes on what is recorded. This could, however be seen as laboratory

observation, since the families were no doubt aware they were being recorded and they may have

adjusted their actions to portray a different version of themselves than in they were unaware of

being observed at all.

This related to gender communication in that it looks at how we view men and women in the

home, and how they are each expected to contribute to the household. This particular source is

limited to gender communication in the US though, as all of the research was done in US homes.

Therefore, it may not be replicated in other countries exactly or even remotely close to how it is

in the US due to societal norms differentiating throughout the world.

Sidelinger, R. J., Frisby, B. N., & McMullen, A. L. (2009). The Decision to Forgive: Sex,

Gender, and the Likelihood to Forgive Partner Transgressions. Communication Studies,

60(2), 164–179.
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This study showed the differences in men and women forgiving their partners for mistakes in

their romantic relationships. It was shown that feminine and androgynous women were more

likely to forgive their romantic partners as opposed to masculine women, but that men in general

were more likely to forgive their partners than women were. However, it was also found that

men were not as hurt by the mistakes their partners made as women were, possibly suggesting

that it was easier for the men forgive their partners as it was not as painful for them when the

mistakes were made.

This method was once again through a survey. 145 heterosexual couples were polled from a

midsize university in the Atlantic region. Some people polled were not in a relationship and

filled out the survey based on social media or by surveying a couple outside of the group and

turning in responses from that. The couples filled out the surveys separately and turned them in.

These couples ranged from casually dating to married.

This study relates to gender communication by analyzing how men and women communicate

with their romantic partners. Something to note is the difference in how hurt the men and women

were respectively by the transgressions made by their partners. This is an interesting thing to

think about, because it lends credibility to the widespread stereotype that women take certain

things more seriously than men, like errors from their significant others.

Stephen, T. D., & Harrison, T. M. (1985). Gender, Sex-Role Identity, and Communication

Style: A Q-Sort Analysis of Behavioral Differences. Communication Research Reports,

2(1), 53–61.

This source found that the communication styles in this particular group of teachers in West

Virginia did not necessarily fall in line with the gender stereotypes many carry, in terms of male
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communication leaning toward aggressiveness or assertiveness, and females leaning towards

sensitivity and empathy. However, it did fall in line with this sort of stereotype when the

researchers looked at it through a lens of masculine vs feminine, as opposed to just male vs

female.

This article employed survey style research. They questioned 225 elementary and secondary

school teachers from rural and urban areas of West Virginia. There were more women than men

who took this survey, and the study was predominately white, with only 8 black teachers

responding. I do think that this may have skewed some of the results, as it wasn’t an especially

diverse group of people, but it is an interesting look at this particular group of teachers.

This relates to gender identity not just in how the different genders communicate with each

other, but also in that they are teachers and are therefore a leadership example, which may

influence how their students communicate as well. I think this would be especially influential in

the teachers from elementary schools.

Tench, R., Topić, M., & Moreno, A. (2017). Male and female communication, leadership styles

and the position of women in public relations. Interactions: Studies in Communication &

Culture, 8(2/3), 231–248.

This source concludes that men working in PR prefer to use a more personal and familiar

style in communication while women prefer to be less personal in their communication.

However, this is specifically in terms of European men and women in PR, so it does not

necessarily speak for the entire worldview. It does, however, contradict data that shows that

women tend to like intimacy and more personal communication styles.

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This is done in a survey style of research. The final results were taken from 2777 responses

across 42 European countries. All of the surveys were done online, and it was 18 questions long.

The survey was open to responses for four weeks after its pretest was finished.

This relates to gender communication by the differences in how men and women like to

communicate in this particular field. Typically, people would assume that women would be the

ones who would want their communication styles to be more informal, especially when most of

the data in previous research backs this up. It definitely goes against the typical gender

stereotype. However, this is potentially unsurprising as it is possible women are trying to be

taken more seriously and therefore would not want to welcome informality in the workplace.

Across many of these topics, the theme of reinforced gender roles is very prevalent. In

romantic relationships, it appears that men are less likely to take transgressions as hard as

women, possibly in an attempt to seem manlier, and are more likely to forgive their romantic

partners. It is also reinforced across a few different sources that toxic masculinity is a large issue,

especially via dating sites, as seen through Tinder Nightmares. Overall, it seems that it holds true

that women and men communicate differently across most platforms. Women also seemed to

take more to heart and were more open about discussing or at the very least disclosing their

issues or information about themselves as a whole. It was also interesting to note that it was not

always split along strict gender lines in terms of male/female, but sometimes also along feminine

or masculine presenting men and women. These subsets sometimes showed a different pattern

than those of the whole. Another note was that the gender roles were mostly as expected within

young adults, but in professional settings, the results were more varied or switched entirely.