Silence offers men social credit for depth that speech cannot match

Evidence

Some feminist scholars say that this puzzling is the peculiar province of women, who are often in a role similar to that of a fieldworker: appreciative, quiet and understanding, adept at deciphering minimal signals, good followers, listeners (Reinharz 1983). An ideal study of this setting would have been conducted by a woman and a man team that could hear both genders’ single-sex conversations. 10 This gathering forcefully demonstrated to me the attraction of the ”strong silent type.” Men like Doug remained silent, possibly aloof, during this teasing session, and thus the others could suspect that the silent men were deeper than the loud ones. And there would have been no way for the silent men to engage in the conversation without appearing argumentative or foolish. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1925

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the author’s larger argument about how silence (vs. talk) is contextually produced — men’s silence here reads as depth precisely because the setting devalues articulate speech. — connects to: Silence carries deeper meaning and value than speech does. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 16; Silence functions as an underrated conversational presence — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1023
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1925

Broader Connections

• Silence functions as an underrated conversational presence #expands (0.85) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1023
• Silence carries deeper meaning and value than speech does. #corroborates (0.80) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 16