Communication Theories

COMMUNICATION THEORIES

A. Muted Group Theory

Cheris Kramarae is one of many feminists who tried to unmask the female silence. She began her research of how women are portrayed and positioned in society at the University of Illinois in 1974. Kramarae first studied women’s portrayals in cartoons. She found out that men made all of the forceful statements and women were depicted as being emotional and wishy-washy. After this research, Kramarae developed the Muted Group Theory to help explain and alter the muted status of women.

It was Edwin Ardener, a social anthropologist from Oxford University, who first came up with the idea of women as a muted group. He emphasized that because of women’s lack of power, many are mute.
Muted Group Theory is a critical theory because it is concerned with power and how it is used against people. While critical theories can separate the powerful and the powerless any number of ways, this theory chooses to bifurcate the power spect...