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Robert Hopper, GENDERING TALK. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2002; pp. 288, $24.95 paper, ISBN: 0870136364.
Hopper's first chapter of Gendering Talk is about how language is gendered and how this ongoing process is often taken for granted. Hopper seriously questions the prevalent notion that male and female differences exist in talk. He addresses this issue throughout the text. He also considers the differences between monologic and dialogic communication.
Methodologically, this text is based on conversation analysis and examines how naturally occurring speech events inform our understanding of gendering talk. Hopper's arguments are based on naturally occurring talk. Such emphasis, Hopper contends, "provide[s] the best evidence of how we talk" (p. 8) and how we perform gender through our talking. Hopper also uses film, self-report, interview data, hypothetical examples, and some highly demonstrative jokes to exemplify his ideas. This evidence makes for a highly engaging and finely argued text. Ideas build from previous chapters to demonstrate how the functions of gendering talk inform each other and are intimately, messily, and often unconsciously linked together.
Chapter 2 illustrates how gendered interaction practices maintain themselves over time (by our often unconscious participation) through our everyday gendering talk. Hopper examines definitions of gender and sexism. He suggests the problems of gender and sexism may be lessened by paying attention to our conversation performances.
Hopper's third chapter focuses on what must happen conversationally for flirting to be successful. Flirters orient to an unusual...