My dad is a lacrosse coach, and today he was talking about a disgruntled player who complains about not getting enough playing time and such. So he said something along the lines of "I told him he should stop whining like a girl and be a man" (ugh stupid, stupid binary gender roles D I responded, "whoa, whoa let's not get sexist here" He said, "Okay, it's true that woman are more emotional, yes? That's not sexist" I didn't get into the fact that he was defining what a man "should be" and that's not cool. I should have, but I'm used to this sort of thing with my family. And by that I mean the binary/roles of a man and women,ect. Anyway, the encounter got me thinking. Do you really think women are more emotional? Or that's just the mold that society forces onto us? I'm not expert, so I was also wondering how testosterone and estrogen play into this. I was taught that men are more aggressive than women because they have more testosterone than estrogen (but they do have both). And women are more emotional because they have more estrogen inside them. If that true, than is there some validity to "women are more emotional"? Honestly, I'm not sure I think that's true. In the age of Shakespeare, popular opinion was that women could never love as passionately and deeply as men. Ironically, it seems like people think the opposite these days. I think men are just as emotional, but they express it differently.. whether that's because of gender roles or hormones, i'm not sure. Granted, that's a pretty black and white take on things. I know the gender spectrum is very complex and varied, but I'm speaking in generalizations. Since childhood, the "women are emotional and irrational" was pounded into me by my family. So, naturally, I don't know what to believe anymore. What do you think? What are your thoughts about the conversation and my speculation? I'd love to hear it!
I think my mother and sister have a stiff fist to face prepared for anyone that wants to call them a "sissy" (well, ok, if you have a particularly sexist individual and you catch 'em on a bad day you're asking for something - not like they're entirely violent folk :lol. Anyways, joking aside - you're not going to get a definitive, singular answer to the question of gender construction. You may get a definitive one - the only problem is that the other side of the argument will have research that is, in their eyes, just as definitive and conclusive as the other side. So those theorists will go back and forth for eternity arguing their side. For example, if you were argue to your dad, "gender is solely a societal construction," he could (theoretically, if he cared enough to respond so effectively) go to a research database and find any number of works establishing an argument for the notion that "gender is the product of underlying neurological features established by hormone exposure in the womb." One side can scream and shout and claim they are solely correct, but when you take bias for your preference out of it it's rather hard to pick a side... That being said, I would be apt to tell your father, or as I would know him as "just another individual," that regardless of his personal views on the topic and from what logic he derives them, he is still in fact being offensive and sexist. Even if it were true that women are, overall, "more emotional and irrational" (I have some issues with those two words being connected, too, by the way... but that's another topic ) - since you do not know the entirety of women, and therefore cannot conclusively prove your claim, you haven't the right to go about making these broad and (to some) offensive generalizations. The very fact that there are any women at all who do not fit the stereotyped bill of being "overly emotional" negates his comment, and makes it a comment that he cannot proclaim justly (at least in my mind, anyways). Bleh, feels I'm rambling to a certain extent. Sorry if it comes off that way. Or you could also just f**k with his notions of what is "feminine" and "masculine" by showing him something like this (courtesy of Linthras). I personally think it does a great job at obliterating gender stereotypes: [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in9SiDtJLaU[/YOUTUBE] (hehe, sorry if it doesn't relate much to the topic, but it's so hilarious I can't resist )
I think differences between people due to varying amounts of testosterone and estrogen will look something like the below graph, as discussed by Ozy Frantz in this post: Basically, there will be a statistically significant difference in the averages between sexes, but there will be so much overlap that it will be silly to say things like, "women are more emotional than men." There might be more extremely emotional women than men, and extremely unemotional men than women, but if you were to select a man and a woman at random, it wouldn't be at all surprising to find that the women is less emotional than the man. Edit for technology fail.
Yes, I find that the female community is way more emotional and open about it than the male community. I've seen girls break down and cry when I tell them a joke (non-sexist). I find that most girls are often very sensitive and obsessed with their weight and I often have to watch what I say. I believe that guys are emotional as well, but we aren't as open about it and we express it differently, usually in the form of a punch.
I think that they are pretty much the same but it is more culturally acceptable for girls to be emotional than guys.
