“It has been proven that women are more emotional when making decisions then men.” This is the general idea of a quote from a recent television show that I have been watching, Utopia. If you haven’t seen this show it is an incredibly intriguing social experiment and you can check out the website HERE. The show itself isn’t the point, the point is what this person, who happened to be a man, said about women’s leadership. At the time, this was said they were experimenting with having women be in power for a while and then switch every few days to men. Many men of the group did not believe women can rule in a calm and collected manner, they are simply “too emotional.”
This concept of emotions connects to the idea that women are weaker. We have to remember that women have periods, which is going to make us moody at least 3 days a week. Or perhaps not! Many women have proven that they are capable of being calm and collected in the face of intense stress. So then why do people still believe that women are only capable to make decisions based upon emotions and irrational feelings? People even believe it is “statistically” proven that this is the case. (I would love to actually see the evidence of this and who did it). It is important for society to reevaluate how we talk about emotions as it pertains to gender.
The way we talk about emotions is not something that is genderless, in fact, it is constantly tied to gender, in every way possible. We tell women they have too many emotions and we tell men they are not allowed to have them. We decide that the ideal for humanity is to be emotionless. Does this seem ridiculous to anyone else? If we are expected to relate to each other and have empathy, then we need that emotion, so why do we continue to have these double standards? There should be more encouragement to allow men to show emotions. We should stop stifling men because if they show emotions they are innately effeminate and, of course, also weak. We should also stop looking down on women who decide to show and reveal some emotion. Emotion should NOT be a weakness. If anything, it should be a strength. Emotions allow us to relate to each other and differentiate us from other creatures.
This is an incredibly important conversation that we need to have. There are many things that could be considered a weakness, such as not being strong or not being knowledgeable, but being able to relate to the human population most definitely should not be one of them. There are many ideas that need to be reevaluated within our society to modify our world for the better. I hope that as we move forward and as we work to reevaluate masculinity and femininity we can make these positive changes.
Photo credit: Crying Woman, Many Emotions