Monday, June 23, 2008
Final Business Post
I would like to touch on the topic of emotional stereotypes. I find it to be quite interesting. I know women tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves and women are usually much more emotional than men. I feel stereotypes about individual emotions such as anger and sadness are gender-specific. The emotions of fear, sadness and happiness are usually the characteristics of women, but anger is believed to be a characteristic of men. These stereotypes about a person’s emotions have also been witnessed in children and adults. I do think though that men should be able to show their emotions the way most women do and they shouldn’t be labeled as weak. I have a 4 -year old son. He has no problems expressing his emotions whether he is happy, angry or sad. For example, if my son falls and gets hurt I let him know that it is okay to cry where as his father will say “suck it up.” I believe at times this may confuse him and might make him unaware of what emotion should be expressed. It is my hope that as he gets older, he will be able to be himself and express himself the way he sees fit.
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3 comments:
I agree most women tend to be more emotional than men. I remember growing up my father use to tell me that I shouldn’t cry, that it only showed weakness. On the other hand my mother use to tell me it’s was okay to let it out, but when I let my emotions out I felt like I was always being a “cry baby”. I’m a very emotional person so not getting emotional was hard, but I learned to control my emotions, especially around my father. If I was ready to cry, I would excuse myself, gather myself and show him that I can be strong and that I didn’t need to cry every time I was upset about something small.
Good post...I agree with you. Most men hide their "real" emotions because it is a sign of weakness (at least to other men). I think you are right in teaching your son that it's o.k. to cry if he gets hurt. He should be able to express his emotions without hearing "suck it up". How is that fair to a small child? Your son probably is confused on how he should feel at different times but hopefully as he gets older he will understand that he can express his emotions the way he sees fit.
I think that you have to remember that to some extend we all feel that we must adhere to the gender stereotypes on some level as a means of fitting in with others. Maybe, your son will learn that it is alright to show more of his emotions, but, crying on the baseball field some day is a whole other story, right? Hopefully, we can find a happy medium where he can be more emotionally expressive and yet, still be able to identify with his male gendered self.
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