To what extent do males and females display cooperation and competition in same sex interactions to prove dominance?

Over many years, language has been categorised on the basis of gender suggesting that 'Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus'; a view adopted by John Gray. Difference theorists like Jane Pilkington advocates the idea that men and females have fundamentally different speech styles in regard to cooperative language. She found that both genders have the same goals in an interaction which demonstrate membsership and solidarity with others to convey cooperation. However, both genders have different strategies of establishing solidarity. Jennifer Coates (Difference theorist) linguistically applies similar approaches in same sex interactions of females by exploring the notion of cooperation. She felt that forms used 'need to be understood in the framework of the goals they serve' by examining pragmatics used in communicative contexts (mixed sex interactions) which 'acknowledge dominance and oppression'. It revovles around the idea that they are conforming to what they expect of each other. On the other hand, diversity theorists such as Deborah Cameron and Judith Butler both accept the argument that ‘feminine and masculine are not what we are, nor traits we have but the effects by what we do’. They go on to emphasise the importance of ‘social construction‘ and performativity in its sense being plural. These two theorists urge us to identify gender as a continuum rather than a dichotomy. In a similar way, Penelope Eckert suggested the idea of individuals being a part of ‘communities of practice’. This allows us to adapt our language in different communities and welcome a range of forms of participation in multiple contexts. Similarly, O’Barr and Atkins emphasised ‘powerless language’. They examined contextual behaviour and concluded that cooperation and un-cooperation have features that are ‘more closely related to social position in the larger society. NEXT STAGES: Look at transcripts of conversation and find features of cooperation (e.g. Topic development, simulatenous speech etc.) and competitive features (e.g. Interruptions, criticisms etc.) with use of academic commentary (theorists).