Being a woman is hard, period. It seems every single day we are faced with a new battle, a new crisis — like every day God is testing our patience. What makes our lives even harder is simply men. Period. I’m tempted to just conclude this article here, am I right ladies? All jokes aside, men do complicate things slightly, whether intentionally or not. But it’s not all their fault; how can they be expected to handle the emotional woman, a bitch by day, bitch by night? Is it their fault we’re “just so whiny?” and “love to complain about everything?” What I’ve noticed in the last few years of my life is that some men will do or say absolutely anything to make you know it’s not his fault, he is simply a victim to the emotional woman — after all, why do we have to be “so damn emotional?”
I’ve always wondered where this stereotype of women came from. Did it just appear out of thin air? Is it the hormones or the periods? It’s hard to say, but what I do know is that men love to manipulate our capability to sympathise. Maybe it’s because it’s seen as unmasculine to show any emotion whatsoever, so naturally women are going to have a hard time, because we have this amazing, rare, superhuman power. It’s called feeling. Being in touch with not only our own but our neighbour’s feelings. Obviously I’m stereotyping myself here, because as much as we want to deny it at times, men also have emotions. Men can get hurt, men can get angry, men can feel spiteful and everything else in between. But let me ask one question: why, when men display their emotions, are not all men accountable for it? When a man cries why do we not write off the entire male race as “emotional,” or when he gets angry, why don’t we blame it on the hormones? I’ll tell you why, because we are not idiots. Any reasonable adult with a rightful mind will know that one human being does not account for the entire gender/race/religion etc. Yet, this seems like a difficult concept for some men to grasp, so I’m going to attempt to break it down.
Trying to dissect the male phycology is a difficult task, mainly because I do not identify as male. I’m a proud woman, no matter how many obstacles I face when voicing my pride! I think a suitable place to start would be the patriarchy that the world we know today was built on. It’s a known fact women did not have nearly as many rights/opportunities as men did. But when did the constant demand for expectations and condescencion begin? Well, here’s my theory. Going down the religious route, the entire Christian religion was built off the story of Adam and Eve — Eve who ate the apple from the forbidden tree and convinced Adam to do so as well, and as a result, both were banned from the Garden of Eden. Eve’s actions were interpreted as women being easily tempted and weak, but if I’m being completely honest here, the girl just wanted to eat. Another theory, for the atheists in the room, is that since women are biologically not as strong as men, naturally they were seen as inferior because they couldn’t get the back breaking jobs done as well as our male counterparts. But regardless of how this discrimination began, it’s here, and we are living through it every single day.
My own personal theory of how we advanced so far into the emotional stereotyping of women was because certain men felt threatened. It’s that simple. They saw us prosper, they saw us succeed and they saw us beat all the obstacles they threw at us and use them to our advantage – and it made them ape. How dare a woman do something for herself, and not their husband or children or literally anybody else? Who does she think she is? How dare a woman thrive in a typically male-dominated field, how dare she be better than me! I won’t stand for this. I know what I’ll do, I’m going to say she’s emotionally detached, she hasn’t got her priorities straight, where are her kids, her husband? This woman is so selfish, she’s only focusing on her own career! It’s funny isn’t it, how a man will call you emotional one second and then complain when you are devoted and professional. It seems there are only two things a woman can be: successful but selfish or family-focused but incapable of getting a nine-to-five job done — there’s no in between.
Day by day we move a little bit closer to a fair playing field for women, slowly but surely. But in order for us to do so, we have to think about how we got here in the first place; after all, how can we change history if we don’t know what it was in the first place? But I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: being a woman is great, and with my fellow females I’ll continue to raise my voice and let people know that this isn’t 1876 anymore, and however emotional she may be, the powerful woman is strong and here to stay.
