The post this week is about the differences between Men and Women. The stereo-type is that men are manly and not emotional and women want to talk and talk and are emotional. But, I would like to say that men and women fall into each camp.
I say this, and I feel like I am going through a fairly bad time in my personal life. The irony of the situation is that the people that are helping me feel stable and ok about what is going on are men. There are two men in my life that are nuturing and tending to my well-being. The people I have reached out to to help me have almost exclusively been men. These men have stepped up too. I have been sort of a messy emotional wreck too... they didn't run for the hills.
When we start to put people into convenient buckets, we force them to perhaps ignore parts of them to meet our expectations. I don't believe that men are less emotional than women. I have watched my boys cry about not being invited to birthday parties. Does it hurt a boy less than a girl to be excluded?
My girl is more likely to act out in anger than cry when someone hurts her feelings. So like her mother that one. As I am fairly closed off to my hurt. I don't generally cry about things. I tend to get mad and want to fight about it.
Are my experiences unique? Is my situaiton different than the norm? I don't know. I think all people are the way they are. We try and conform to what society thinks is right, and there is some truth to gender differences but are those differences because of how we expect people to act? When a father plays rougher with his kids does that mean he is doing what he is biologically programmed to do or societally programmed?
When I look at a man or woman, I try and see the person and not the gender. I try and accept that person as who they are; I do not always conform to gender stereo-types, and I hope that they will do the same for me.
Want to see what the other Venuses have to say? Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl.
I say this, and I feel like I am going through a fairly bad time in my personal life. The irony of the situation is that the people that are helping me feel stable and ok about what is going on are men. There are two men in my life that are nuturing and tending to my well-being. The people I have reached out to to help me have almost exclusively been men. These men have stepped up too. I have been sort of a messy emotional wreck too... they didn't run for the hills.
When we start to put people into convenient buckets, we force them to perhaps ignore parts of them to meet our expectations. I don't believe that men are less emotional than women. I have watched my boys cry about not being invited to birthday parties. Does it hurt a boy less than a girl to be excluded?
My girl is more likely to act out in anger than cry when someone hurts her feelings. So like her mother that one. As I am fairly closed off to my hurt. I don't generally cry about things. I tend to get mad and want to fight about it.
Are my experiences unique? Is my situaiton different than the norm? I don't know. I think all people are the way they are. We try and conform to what society thinks is right, and there is some truth to gender differences but are those differences because of how we expect people to act? When a father plays rougher with his kids does that mean he is doing what he is biologically programmed to do or societally programmed?
When I look at a man or woman, I try and see the person and not the gender. I try and accept that person as who they are; I do not always conform to gender stereo-types, and I hope that they will do the same for me.
Want to see what the other Venuses have to say? Check them out at: Froggie, Momarock, and Merrylandgirl.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hope our group counts for women who are supportive. :)
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