GenderSpeak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication,   ISBN:9780072483932

Customer Rating: 

My issues with this book deal mainly with its bias.

1.) It recycles the debunked "Rule of Thumb" myth, which by now should have no place in higher education as it makes women's studies a joke.

2.) It actually encourages teachers to ignore male students in women's studies courses. Bad (and sexist) idea.

3.) It portrays folktales (like the Old Woman in the Shoe) without regard to their context historically.

4.) It frames domestic violence as "wife beating" even though new research shows it is a more systemic problem that should be dealt with outside of gender confines.

Newer editions may be better than this one, but honestly this book is far too biased to have a place in a university setting. Even my Professor agreed that this book is far too behind on the current communications research and is not even enough on the subject. I spent for too much time as a student debunking this book than I should have had too, both me and several female students (for those who think I am only approaching this from a male bias). In fact it was my fiance who gave a lecture on how the book is so wrong in regard to the meaning of the fairytales, and folk legends. I am going to graduate from grad school in the next year and this book will not be part of any class I teach, and if it is the first assignment will be pointing out every mistake this book makes by having my students do real research. Sadly I doubt the authors did any themselves. The inclusion of the "rule of thumb" myth alone shows that.

Customer Rating: 

I tried e-mailing the seller several times to either cancel the order or information on returning the book when it arrived. I realized it was the wrong book (which was my fault), but it could've been resolved had the seller returned my e-mails. So I'm stuck with a book I can't use.

Customer Rating: 

I am a university professor of linguistics. If I were teaching a course in this field, this is the textbook I would use. It truly introduces the range of topics in the field in a manageable, engaging way. Excellent.

Customer Rating: 

This book is a great resource for any college student studying communication. One of the co-authors of this book is an instructor at the school I attend. The book really gets into the gender differences in communication just as the instructor does in class. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the topic.

Customer Rating: 

This textbook is now available in second edition, as of the fall of 1999. The second edition is significantly updated, with more references to the impact of technology on communication between the sexes and more attention paid to issues surrounding diversity. A new, highly provocative chapter has been included on power abuses in human relationships. Three main topics--sexual harassment, sexual assault and dating rape, and partner violence--are the focus of this chapter.