This editorial cartoon does a great job at illustrating the gender differences in communication. Particularly how they react differently to the same situation, they both react very differently on divorce. The wife is willingly taking all the blame stating “there’s something wrong with me” indicating that she is the only one at fault.

While on the other hand the husband is without a doubt thinks he has nothing to do with this divorce and unabashedly states “there’s something wrong with her” he thinks he is fully innocent. He is also forcing this narrative on the wife. And his statement is confirming her thoughts, and she is being conditioned to believe this perspective. This cartoon is perfectly explained by symbolic interaction theory from chapter 13; this theory explains that gender is learned through words (symbols) expressed to them through interactions with others. In this cartoon the wife was raised with a low self-esteem and confidence while the husband was thought to never doubt himself. 

Growing up I have seen symbolic interaction play a role in gendering kids. From a young age little boys are asked about what cars they like, and what car they would like to buy when they are grown up. I have seen this scenario with my brother, but those people wouldn’t ask little girls those same questions. 

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.