“Saying that men talk about baseball in order to avoid talking about their feelings is the same as saying that women talk about their feelings in order to avoid talking about baseball.”

According to The Writer’s Almanac, it’s the birthday of linguist Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.

In my experience, the more educated or thoughtful a person is, the less likely he or she is to fit the sort of gender generalizations described by a book like Deborah Tannen’s, but I did find this book helpful, just for the description of the different goals and models of communication, which can serve as a guide for intelligent metacommunication, whether with men or women.

(And intelligent metacommunication seems to be the key to intelligent communication in any longterm relationship.)

(via Pomeyemu)