| This thesis identifies theoretical and methodological weaknesses in the current conceptualization of gender in communication research, criticizing the sex-as-difference approach and its underlying assumptions. Deconstruction is utilized to critique the prescriptive edge of gender research, the use of stereotypes as a method of description, and the limitations of essentialist approaches to gender. The author demonstrates how gender research has been shaped by language and by appeals to the dominant discourse of society, as well as limited by the influence of Aristotelian philosophy, bivalent logic and Western culture. A communication-based model of gender is proposed in which gender is viewed as a process as opposed to a trait or behavior. |
