Gender difference or simply conditioning??
by Emma
I have recently been reading about the high statistics of depression and risk in men. This got me pondering further. Are our genders that cosmetically different and is it really the theory ‘men are from mars, women are from venus’ that lead us? OR is it simply that conditioning and learnt behaviour has impacted so deeply on our society that men ‘fear’ being seen as emotional beings?
The gender portrayal of opposite sex leads us to believe that women are emotional and are ‘allowed’ to cry… whilst men are the ‘hunters’ and should protect us women folk. The big issue I have here is that regardless of roles in the family dynamics, we are all still simply human beings and I’m pretty damn sure, we each were developed with a psyche, and experience the same turbulence of emotions.
So is this fair on our men folk? The expectations are kept so high that they are expected to be absent of poor mental health and suffering?
Yet us women can continue to cry freely.
I look at the children I work with and even at their young age, the gender divide is clear. What are we teaching the younger generation if we are clearly already failing?
Mental health affects everyone. This is regardless of gender. A strong (wo)man is the person who can admit defeat and then continue to conquer.
Let’s stop this ignorant thinking and make us all as one.
The mind of a deep thinker…or complete rubbish…it is all down to interpretation and perception…
There are probably multiple factors here. I am male and was raised by a single mother who worked full time as a colonel in the USAF. I only had one sibling, an older sister with autism. That environment allowed me to express emotions freely as well as relate much more closely to women then most men. There was no real feeling of feelings being bottled up. But I still suffer from depression. Hard to tell if it is based on experience or is something genetically more common in men. It likely depends on the individual.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed you are right. Parenting and learnt behaviour make us who we are. Classical conditioning develop our psyche. I do believe that it is important to hold onto those all important values and cherish them. Society is so interchangeable that values sometimes are overlooked by expectations and perfectionism
LikeLike