Complexities of Being Female: How Sexuality and Shame Silences Female Voices

RM 215

Communication experts have focused on verbal and nonverbal messages as communicative aspects; however, not many studies have associated the concept of silence as communicative. Though silence contains messages, those messages are not viewed the same in all cultures, genders, and concepts. In addition, silence is not used the same between genders and cultures. In the United States, men and women communicate silence differently. Most importantly, men are women are encouraged to use silence differently. While men are encouraged to be voice their opinions and be loud and assertive, women are socially silenced. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how women’s voices are silenced. This paper investigates how sexuality and shame play a role in female silence.