My thoughts on ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, Chapter 5: Speaking Different Languages’ By John Gray

Before getting into the details of my reflections, I would like to mention that John Gray’s book, or at least the one chapter that I have read from it has been entertaining. Even though many of John Gray’s examples were oversimplified or generalized, I could instantly relate to the scenarios mentioned by him. In this reflection, I would not be dealing with the reliability of John Gray’s claims but rather the intended effect of his book and the result it had on me. John Gray establishes that men and women are intrinsically different right from the start of his book. He does this by using the “Mars” and “Venus” metaphors to symbolize a polarity of the two genders’ communicative languages. This polarity that John Gray sets up is fitting for the book’s underlying purpose. The purpose of advocating the idea of embracing one’s natural construct. John Gray claims that men and women should not defy their natural form of communication and should only take passive measures to avoid conflict. John Gray makes an excellent attempt to convince his readers that the polarity is true and that the best solution for gender miscommunication lies in his book. He connects with his readers by portraying strong emotions, juxtaposing literal meaning of women’s speech with his supposed correct interpretations and finally by adding depth and drama in his writing. In conclusion, I would say that John Gray was very successful in delivering what he had set out to do. However, the book had little influence on my position on the gender miscommunication issue because I felt that the justification in his book were much weaker compared to other scholarly writings on this topic. Other works on this topic by Deborah Tannen and Deborah Cameron have influenced me greater as they contained evidence that were much stronger and reliable in my opinion.