"Neither can live while the other survives"

This week we read a piece titled, "There is No Unmarked Woman" by Deborah Tannen. In her piece, Tannen uses personal anecdotes, such as the one in the business meeting, where she explains how she immediately begins to judge the other women around her based on how they dressed, how they did their make up, and how they styled their hair. She then contrasted her view on the women with how she viewed the men in the room; Tannen did not have much to judge when she looked at the men, because, besides the color variation, they basically all wore the same suit and tie and dress shoes. To further her claim that no woman is unmarked, Tannen continues to provide sturdy examples of markings such as titles (Miss, Ms., Mrs. Dr., etc...) or word endings (actor, actress, etc...). While reading this piece, I could clearly see how clothing marked woman, as there are so many different styles and ways to pair clothing together, but I never thought of how our titles could mark us. Tannen's piece really opened up my eyes to the many ways women are marked, and it made me sad that women are still treated and thought of in this manner. As much as I try to, I have yet to think of a solution for this problem. Our society has become so focused on self-expression, which is good, but that is a major cause of our markings. The way we choose to express ourselves will determine the way others judge us. It would be very difficult to solve the problem of being marked, without taking away self-expression.