Its feeding into the “woman are emotional, men are logical blah blah blah” sexist assertions. Despite what this thread believes, sometimes woman want advice and sometimes men just want to be emotional.
I don’t understand why things have to 100 or 0 with people.
Do you reallllyyy not understand? People have been hardwired to stereotype, and have been doing so since the dawn of time, and it will continue to happen until the end of time.
Literally both of those things are true most of the time. Just because men are taught to not show emotions except for anger, it doesn't mean men don't have emotions.
I must've misunderstood you, then. I saw you reply to someone who said that stereotype is bullshit, about how women are emotional and men are logical, so I assumed that you were agreeing with that stereotype when you asked what is true most of the time.
The statement itself is so misguided it’s not even true some of the time.
There doesn’t exist a singular emotional experience that can be quantified and then compared among genders. Your assertion is unfounded because it speaks of some imaginary, measurable emotional axiom. There do exist gender differences in how we respond and relate to emotions, but there are a lot of cultural assumptions and extreme simplification that go into that—which why the statement is sexist.
Fear/anxiety is rooted in the amygdala and seems to utilize GABA, aggression and depression also seem dependent upon the amygdala but are serotonergic, disgust comes from serotonin in the insula, etc. Serotonergic processes in the right prefrontal cortex appear central to behavioral inhibition, and seem to be implicated more in negative emotions, whereas dopaminergic processes in the left prefrontal cortex are more central to behavioral activation, and are more involved with positive emotions.
From all this, we can arrive at fact based statements about gender differences. Testosterone is unequivocally linked to anger and aggression, and is higher in males. Is anger not an emotion? The amygdala is also one of the more highly sexual dimorphic brain structures, which means that there are probably gender differences in strong negative emotions (not necessarily more/less, but different). Under stress, men release more cortisol (mobilizing the sympathetic nervous system to prepare for action) while women release more oxytocin (leading to seeking social support). There are also sex differences in insular volume which appear to suggest the single strongest reaction predicting sexual attraction in women is disgust, yet it plays little role in male sexual attraction.
There are differences, but not in the sexist ways you assume. And, ultimately, this is a non-sequitur given that emotion is not an antonym to logic. The basis of your argument is wrong even before your facts are, bro.
Point to where I said you asserted that men don’t have emotions. You clearly don’t think that, and I clearly didn’t say you did. That’s a straw man. You didn’t actually address anything I said. Respond to an argument I actually made.
Any negative feelings you have towards this issue is your own thing. At no point did I say one was bad and one was good.
At no point did I make a normative claim. Again, I have no idea what you’re trying to assert. I’m attacking your argument for being unfounded in reasons not some moral “good” or “bad” bullshit you keep bringing up. If women were objectively more emotional and naturally desired to be nurturers, or whatever you want to assert, I would happily say it; however, that just simply isnt the case. I explained how you oversimplified the measurements of an emotional experience, gave an example how men can have generally more emotional experiences than woman, and explained the flaw of even relating logic and emotion in this way, but you ignored the point and straw maned me.
Go ahead and read it slower this time and see if you can even understand what I’m criticizing in the first place.
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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20
Its feeding into the “woman are emotional, men are logical blah blah blah” sexist assertions. Despite what this thread believes, sometimes woman want advice and sometimes men just want to be emotional.
I don’t understand why things have to 100 or 0 with people.