Muted group theory
[2] In 1971, Shirley Ardener cited instances from feminism movements to articulate how women as a muted group used body symbolism to justify their actions and arguments in her article "Sexual Insult and Female Militancy".
[2][3] In 1975, Shirley Ardener reprinted Edwin's paper "The Interpretation of Ritual,1972" and included her sexual insult text in the book "Perceiving Women", for which she wrote an intro.
Ardener added that women were reportedly more difficult to access and interview, especially due to factors including "they giggle when young, snort when old, reject the question and the like.
"[5] As part of the critical approach to the world, Ardener uses MGT to explore the power and societal structure in relation to the dynamism between dominant and subordinated groups.
[5] Feminist scholars Cheris Kramarae, Barrie Thorne and Nancy Henley explored sociolinguistics that "defines, deprecates, and ignores women.
"[6] Kramarae attributed the series of phenomena to the "man-made language" conception and stated that women would be identified as a muted group.
[7] Inspired from Kramarae's pieces, scholars Anita Taylor and M.J. Hardman observed that the dominant language appears to dismiss concepts and values that are significant to women but not to men.
[6] As Cowan points out, "'mutedness' does not refer to the absence of voice but to a kind of distortion where subordinate voices…are allowed to speak but only in the confines of the dominant communication system.
"[12] Kramarae also addresses that gender, race, and class hierarchies, are factors where muted groups are supported by "political, educational, religious, legal, and media systems.
[16] According to their research, women can be ridiculed in the health care system, family hierarchies, educational policies and their bodies have been used as props in political debates.
[20] Other than verbal communications mentioned above, nonverbal cues are also situated in the “muting” process such as demeanor, distribution of space, touch, eye contact, and visibility.
Women find it difficult to articulate their ideas in comparison to men's dominant experiences Kramarae argues that English is a "[hu]man-made language" and that it "embodies the perspectives of the masculine more than the feminine," while supporting "the perceptions of white middle-class males.
"[1] Another example of the male-dominated language Kramarae discusses is in the public speaking arena where women frequently infuse sports and war analogies to converse with their male audiences.
"[1] Feminist scholar Dale Spender supports the idea that language, and society in general, is traditionally male-centric: "Masculinity is the unmarked form: the assumption is that the world is male unless proven otherwise.
[25] Marginalized groups in a given culture or society experience the muting process in social contexts including but not limited to: According to Kramarae, women have been prevented from having stage presence on mass media, misrepresented in history and locked out of the editorial publishing business until 1970.
[26] The predominance of male gatekeepers, who are defined as editors and other arbiters of a culture, determine which books, essays, poetry, plays, film scripts, etc.
[37] Furthermore, women rarely go through formal channels of reporting sexual harassment for a number of reasons including: "expecting their complaint to be ignored or trivialized by the male dominant group, fear of not being protected from retaliation, worry that the male dominated hierarchy will 'team up' against them, or that their time will be wasted due to the organization's ineffective sexual harassment policy.
[42] In an electoral system where career continuity is valued, women candidates are placed at a disadvantaged position competing with their male opponents.
Kramarae has raised several suggestions for more inclusive educational environments, such as embedding "women's humor", "speechlessness", and ways to tackle "abusive language".
[47] Every two minutes in the United States, someone is raped, and the chances of being that victim are four times greater for a college female student than for any other age group.
[32] Moreover, according to socialist historian Sheila Rowbotham, language is considered to be a tool manipulated by superior people of social rank to conserve their status quo.
[58] Gloria Ladson-Billings believes that "stories provide the necessary context for understanding, feeling, and interpreting" the voices of people of color who are muted within the dominant culture.
"[60] In traditional pedagogical practices in the United States' educational institutions, critical race theorists argue that the official school curriculum is designed to maintain a "White supremacist master script.
"[60] As Swartz contends, master scripting sets the standard knowledge for students, which legitimizes "dominant, white, upper-class, male voices" and mutes people of color's perspectives.
Calasanti stated that seniors receive an influx of unsolicited brochures and spam in their email inboxes that market methods to stop aging.
[69] Woodcock and Hitches state that increased stigmatization toward disadvantaged students' academic performances can be stereotyped as a result of their health condition rather than "an outcome of multiple marginalized identities".
[71] Thus, groups that distinguish themselves from the dominant one in terms of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, and economic status can potentially be silenced or muted.
Kramarae's research on women and Orbe's work on African American men utilize this framework to dissect the communicative experiences of non dominant, or co-cultural, group members.
[79] Ardener constantly stated that muted group theory consisted of both women and men's lived experiences in his social anthropological studies.
[80] Deborah Tannen, the theorist that created Genderlect Theory, criticizes feminist scholars like Kramarae for assuming that men are trying to control women.
