Muted Group Theory

Muted Group Theory was developed by researcher Cheris Kramarae. According to Kramarae, women's thoughts and words are "devalued" in society, therefore women are what she calls a "muted group." The theory holds that, particularly in the language aspect of our culture, women's thoughts go unnoticed. Sometimes women can appear invisible in terms of public opinion. Like the Standpoint Theory, Muted Group Theory talks about how women have different perceptions of our world. Muted Group Theory takes it one step further and argues that women's thoughts and speech is controlled and censored by males in society. She presents men as the gatekeepers of communication. This is hard theory to think of an example for, especially because I don't necessarily agree with Kramarae. However, the best example I can come up with is how women in television are always portrayed as beautiful and gentle, and flowery almost. Also, women are always shown supporting a man instead of contributing her own opinions and ideals. While this happens on televison and in advertising, I do believe it occurs less frequently than Kramarae might suspect. I think women do have a significant voice in society, and that their voice is being heard more now than it ever has been before.

Standpoint Theory

The Standpoint Theory looks at the world through an extremely feminist point of view. The two founders and researchers of the theory are Sandra Harding and Julia T. Wood who argue that one of the best ways to understand how our society works is to research it from the viewpoint of groups who are less priveleged- primarily women. The theory argues that by taking the perspective of women, we gain a viewpoint of the world that shows a new perspective on mainstream issues. The best example I can think of for this is the research that has been done on rape and also domestic violence. If we were to follow the Standpoint Theory, our research would stem from women who were raped or involved in abuse situations, and even taking it further, conducted by female researchers. This would give us the female perspective that Wood and Harding argue is more objective.