Muted Group Theory

              The Muted Group Theory concerns with power or specifically certain  groups of people who are vulnerable and how it is used unto other people. A British Anthropologist, Edwin Ardener introduced this theory. He has contributed studies in the anthropology regarding on gender and have found that researches made by most of the ethnographers are generalized by gender which is the male population and acquire having higher preference on one side. The cry of women and the powerless remain unheard and have been ignored and muted which is estimatedly half of the world’s population and has affected the studies on the said theory and brought a gleam into the powers of the vulnerable citizens in our society.

The Muted Group Theory begins with the basis that the culture bond is language and because that women are overpowered by men, the men have more influence with the language. It means that men create words and meaning for the culture which allows expression of male ideas. While on the contrary, women are left out of this meaning creation and left out without the means of expressing themselves and leaves them as the muted group.

This theory explains the root of muteness by a certain group of people especially the group of women in our society. This theory holds on to the gender-bias where the male is at the authoritative class over women. For example, the attitude of male who consider themselves the breadwinner of the family are dominant or authoritative than women and women tend to rely on them. This age old tradition made a huge impact in our society today giving us a whole new power division.

Cheris Kramarae, a professor who made further researches on the Muted Group Theory from her feminist standpoint on how women are treated to somewhat muted and stating the idea they communication was started by men and due to that reason they take power over women. In a psychological view, women are considered less powerful than men because the needs of women are emotionally driven unlike men who are more on their the critical-drive and thus the perspective of women differs from men.

John Berger once said, “The language is the potential holding for whole human experience” which means when a woman comes to social space they are currently going through the most abusive language because women are considered in the society as the dominated class by men. Hence, men in general are taking advantage through using their socially-built existing male dominant power in the social space and has the power to protect themselves from abusive languages

Kramarae  classified 3 assumptions in The Muted Group Theory  which are: firstly, “”Women percieve the world differently from men because of women’s and men’s different experience and activities rooted in the division of labor” where it states that the way men and women thinks towards performing different tasks in the society they’re living in. Secondly, the male population is the dominant group in our society which gives the female’s point of view less importance and men act out their power politically, allowing their power and degrading or ignoring women’s ideas and meanings from gaining public acceptance. Lastly, women must adapt male language in order to have their ideas, experiences, and meanings to be heard.

This theory does not only revolve around on cross-gender situations it can also be seen and applied to many cultural groups. As women now become powerful and has the power to contribute to her family and through awareness, the perception of male dominance can be changed.

Here are assumptions that leads to a number of hypotheses and theories about women’s communication:

1.       In terms of self-expression, women find it difficult to do than men.

2.       Women is more capable of understanding men than men understanding what women wants to deliver

3.       Women communicate with each other using mediums that is not accepted by male communicators

4.       Women are less satisfied with communicating than men.

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5.       Men are more likely to create words and meanings while women do so too but create words and meanings unique and special to the women population