Genderlect Communication – a new way to speak the gender language, based on Deborah Tannen’s Genderlect Theory, is an installation that builds a bridge between different genderlects and seeks balanced communication.

Males and females speak different genderlects due to their physiological and psychological differences. Sometimes they have trouble communicating with each other. This can cause misunderstandings that lead to quarrels, ‘cold wars’, breakups, etc. On the physiological side, male and female bodies release different amounts of male and female hormones. Males and females use different behaviours to balance the hormones inside their bodies. For instance, a man usually prefers to be alone when he is upset, hiding quietly in his own cave, which helps increase his male hormone level. A woman usually prefers to talk to someone and seek comfort, which helps increase her female hormone level. From a psychological point of view, both boys and girls build their first intimate relationship with their mothers. To avoid the Oedipus complex, boys develop ego by building a relationship that is independent of the mother-child relationship and repressing affective ties. On the other hand, girls can imitate their mothers, which helps build cognition of the world based on interpersonal relations. Therefore, males and females each speak their own genderlect. Genderlect Communication tries to find a balance between communication styles that different genders prefer to build a bridge between two genderlects.

When the hormone in the female body falls below the average level, the hand device that works on the female will touch and hug the woman to increase the hormone to a standard value. When the hormone in the male body falls below the average level, the ear-plugging device that works on the male will raise the noise-cancelling level to increase the hormone to the average value.