Posted on 03/03/2015 12:00:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
WOMEN are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children’s needs and intuitive of our partners’ intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capacity is reserved for language, memory, hearing and observing emotions in others.
These are observations rooted in biology, not intended to mesh with any kind of pro- or anti-feminist ideology. But they do have social implications. Women’s emotionality is a sign of health, not disease; it is a source of power. But we are under constant pressure to restrain our emotional lives. We have been taught to apologize for our tears, to suppress our anger and to fear being called hysterical.
The pharmaceutical industry plays on that fear, targeting women in a barrage of advertising on daytime talk shows and in magazines. More Americans are on psychiatric medications than ever before, and in my experience they are staying on them far longer than was ever intended. Sales of antidepressants and antianxiety meds have been booming in the past two decades, and they’ve recently been outpaced by an antipsychotic, Abilify, that is the No. 1 seller among all drugs in the United States, not just psychiatric ones.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There is nothing wrong with studying your Bible or a little bit of stoic philosophy, there is plenty wrong with downing a cocktail of drugs with who knows WHAT side effects.
I guess only women can say that about other women, just like only blacks are free to use tne N-word.
I think we need to have a Dictionary of WhiteMalespeak so we can keep track of what we're allowed to say.
I dunno. Sometimes it seems like a good idea.
As a general rule, I think women do pay more attention to nonverbal cuing and make better inferences early in life. But then the worst thing happens to many women, they lose the skill and don't know it.
They become dead certain and dead wrong concerning other people's intentions/motivation and it leads to bat crap crazy syndrome.
Women like to imagine how you feel.
Men don’t care.
I disagree. We need to start speaking the truth, and let the chips fall where they may. If moody women, or bossy women, don't like being called moody or bossy then they can seek to alter their behavior.
For example.
Women were created to be nurturers and need sensitivity for the self sacrifice that this sometimes requires. It is only sensitive compassion that gets a mom through some intense times of nurturing (sleepless nights when stomach flu hits the toddler while still nursing a young infant, for example).
The same sensitivity can be a huge problem in the workplace. Over the past several decades more women are in the workforce, doing what used to be considered men’s work. Maybe that is contributing to the need women have for something to help control their emotions so they can be more like men.
I just take a shot of Bushmill’s and move on. :-)
Men have to learn how to act in public, why shouldn’t we expect to do the same? I think the main problem is that everyone is just so far up each other’s butts these days, it’s not good, not natural.
I never thought I would need to take any kind of drugs for depression or anxiety, but I needed more than my Bible and stoic philosophy when I lost my only child, father, brother and husband in 3 years, 3 months. I hope you never suffer the losses I have.
I don’t think that has anything to do with biology. That’s a terrible load for anyone to deal with. Sorry you had to go through that.
...I know women don't understand men. I know there are women looking at me right now, wondering "what goes on in that little brain of his? I betcha I could manipulate that brain." I betcha you could. I betcha women would like to know what men really think...the truth, the honest truth. You wanna know what men are really thinking? 'Cause I could tell you. Would you like to know? All right, I'll tell you.Nothing.
We're not thinking anything. We're just walking around, looking around. This is the only natural inclination of men. To just kinda check stuff out. We work because they force us to, but other than that, this is really the only thing we wanna do. We like women, we want women. But that's pretty much as far as we've thought. That's why we're honking car horns, yelling from construction sites...these are the best ideas we've had so far.
-- Jerry Seinfeld, I'm Telling You For The Last Time.
In other news...
“Doctors report prescribing, to their male patients, mood altering drugs normally reserved for women. Physicians note that approximately 18% of their male patients describe a variety of emotional symptoms normally associated with females.”
/s
I agree. Nobody cares about how men feel when men are demanded to change their behavior. To wit our current world.
In the past a woman losing it would be slapped back into sanity and reminded she’s not the center of the universe. By a more mature woman or man. Dr Spock theory made this unpalatable and so now we have drugs. And they don’t like those either. Only thing left is personal growth, and they don’t like that either.
"Yes, dear."
Acceptance of such is the root of numerous social pathologies.
Ya think?
I think women act just fine at work, it perhaps takes more effort to bury emotions and the stress comes from that. Maybe. I worked in a male dominated field until I was able to stay home with my kids and had no emotional stress from work. I resigned to be at home when my oldest was one year old, so I do not know what it is like to have to balance both roles for years.
My point is more that women have added an additional role to what they have traditionally had, without eliminating the role of homemaker, wife and mother. Men are able to be less emotional in stressful situations because they have the ability to compartmentalize their tasks and responsibilities-the testosterone wash in the womb allows that. Our brains are wired quite differently and we can’t compartmentalize like that.
According to the article, there weren’t so many women seeking antidepressants in the past, full time employment is one big change for women in our society. I think there may be a link.
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