An Interesting Commentary on Gaslighting Women

[thesummerqueen]

I've been thinking about this since I read it this morning.

I'm not going to argue that it definitely happens to women - it's happened to me - intentionally and unintentionally. And I won't argue that it happens to men as well.

But I was skimming through some literature and websites a couple weeks ago that a woman had sent me pertaining to feminism (supposedly...I didn't read it very closely because I was busy and not really interested) and I notice that there's definitely an encouragement in some female corners (particularly those linked with New Agey things) to identify heavily as emotional beings. We're supposed to be better at sorting out e-motions. There's that stereotype, you know? Men are the thinkers, women are the feelers, or however you want to state it.

I put up a facebook status some weeks ago bitching because I wanted people to know that men are just as capable of getting into emotional snits, playing passive aggressive and giving the silent treatment, and acting irrationally as we say women are.

So I wonder...how much of this happens because people are genuinely manipulative, and how much because people do it accidentally...and how much because we encourage the idea that men can't be emotional and women can't be rational?