Skip to main content

Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture - 13th edition by Julia T. Wood

34458. sx318  

I'm reviewing a textbook, and I don't even care. In the many, many long years I've been in college (no, I'm not Tommy Boy-ing it, I went for an associates in business [boooo] and then decided to go back and get a bachelor's in English/Writing [yaaaay]) I've had to read a lot of heinously expensive, dry and boring textbooks. This was one but not the other. 
It was a very interesting book, and I feel like I learned a lot, but do I feel like I learned $175 worth of information from it that I absolutely couldn't have learned elsewhere (cuz I just looked at my order receipt, and that's how much I paid for it. ugggggggghhhhhhhh.)? Fuckin' nope. 
When I originally reviewed this book on Goodreads, I gave it 4 stars. Now that I re-discovered the price I paid for it via my school's B&N bookstore, I want to burn everything. College is tantamount to highway robbery where the vagabonds teach you a few things before they rob you of every penny you have, have had, or ever will have. 
Now I'm mad. And I hope I can still find it in me to give an unbiased review, because seriously, that price is nonsense. This is a paperback, 376 page book that cost me a substantial percentage of a 2-week paycheck. 
But, all of that aside, here goes. Unbiased AF.I've got this.
I really do feel like there was a lot of great information here about how gendered socialization affects communication, and because of it, men and women typically have styles of verbal and non-verbal communication that seems designed to put them at odds. To me, it reads like communication practices are informed by our patriarchal society, and by resigning ourselves to the tiny communication-practices boxes that we have been placed in since birth, we are only serving to reinforce the patriarchy. Which, duh. 
Aside from that, which was my personal main takeaway, there's also good info on gender pronouns, differences between communication in hetero, gay, and lesbian relationships, and even a bit on how gendered communication is constantly queered by people of all orientations and presentations, because just like in any other circumstance, the binary is silly - in reality few things are so cut and dried as being one thing or the other.
I don't know, y'all. I feel conflicted. It was a good book, with great info, but for $175, I feel like I got cheated a little. All the times during my reading of the book that I thought to myself, "I wish there would have been more information about x," are currently feeling a lot more glaring. But, I'm not changing my rating, because a) IDK if the price is due to some sort of premium applied by a for-profit institution partnering with a for-profit business to provide textbooks, and b) I sincerely doubt the author has any say in the price-point, therefore, not her fault that the amount she wrote feels sparse in comparison to the price I paid to read it. Also, what is the going rate for knowledge? Because I really did learn some stuff.

4 out of 5 arbitrary items of rating.

 
Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture - 13th edition
Non-Fiction
Cengage Learning
Release Date: January 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1337555883
Price: Who the hell knows, really
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

We are all probably familiar with the Ripple Effect – you throw a stone into a pond, and from the point of impact, a multitude of ripples spread wider and wider. Similarly, every chance encounter, every action has innumerable implications that we may not even be aware of until far in the future. The passage of years, and each choice made during that time shape our lives, and the lives of those around us. Will I be authentic today? Will I sell out? Will I tell the truth? Embrace change? Will I let time make me into something that I’m not ready to be? These are just some of the questions addressed by Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.  “It began the usual way,” page one declares. And thus begins what turns out to be one of the most unusual books I have read in recent memory. In her work of contemporary fiction, Egan explores the lives of a veritable cornucopia of eccentric, narcissistic, and sometimes tragic supporting characters. The story is broken up into ...
2 comments
Read more

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

  Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters is the story of Nancy Astley, and the trials and tribulations she must face on the journey to self discovery and finding (not to mention holding on to) love as a young lesbian living in Victorian-era England. We follow her through a string of life experiences both good and bad, as well as a string of lovers both good and bad. Life at that time couldn't have been terribly easy to begin with, but being a "masher" (Victorian slang for a male impersonator), a "tom" (a boyish-dressing lesbian), and at one point a "renter" (prostitute), Nan didn't have much chance to have anything easy. I have no earthly idea why I hadn't read this book until now. I've been aware of its existence for many years. I knew it was hugely popular, and I knew that it had spawned a television mini-series (which I've also never seen - sad face). I just never got around to it - kind of like Anna Karenina which I only rece...
2 comments
Read more

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

The story of the Fat Charlie, the son of a god, and his first invited, then uninvited brother,  Anansi Boys is typical Neil Gaiman fare: it's beautifully and occasionally hilariously written, fantastical and poignant. All the stuff he usually does. It is all over the map in the best way possible. I hope that none of this makes it sound like he just cranks these wild fantasies out, because I don't believe for a moment that is the case. It is more that I believe that this story, like every other story of Gaiman's that I have ever read (and there are many), contains a little bit of the heart and the soul of the author, and his heart and soul are still the same wonderful, fluffy, slippery little bits of magic that they always have been. I loved this book. I absolutely devoured it (metaphorically, of course). I don't know how he does it in story after story, book after book, but every word he writes is a joy to read. There's dimension-shifting, bird ladies (go...
Post a Comment
Read more