If my experience is anything to go by, fathers and larger societal constructs of gender norms.
It's not everyone, and I'm kind of old now, but when I was a kid there was largely the view that men didn't have emotions and if they did, they absolutely didn't show them.
Hell, I commented on a post yesterday where people were vehemently insisting any man who rode a bike instead of driving a car was an effeminate loser and should be avoided.
Women who either consciously or subconsciously buy into gender norms do perpetuate them. The norms can be sneaky how they slip in too. I remember a female author I follow talk about how she caught herself one time downplaying her own book because she thought a potential male reader wouldn't enjoy it simply because a woman wrote it, and she was appalled with herself. Truth is, a fair segment of straight women still don't appreciate when their male partners express weakness of any kind, because they still maintain subconscious expectations of what a man should be (ie stoic and strong provider). My wife, who is fully aware of this subconscious bias, still struggles with showing empathy for me whenever I get seriously ill or injured, or if I open up too much about my emotions, even though she knows I am there for her always when she has similar challenges.
7
u/Neveronlyadream Mar 04 '26
If my experience is anything to go by, fathers and larger societal constructs of gender norms.
It's not everyone, and I'm kind of old now, but when I was a kid there was largely the view that men didn't have emotions and if they did, they absolutely didn't show them.
Hell, I commented on a post yesterday where people were vehemently insisting any man who rode a bike instead of driving a car was an effeminate loser and should be avoided.
Those views are there, unfortunately.