struggle for independence

I haven't done a serious post in awhile. I guess I've been hiding from the monsters in my mind. I think one of the great travesties of being female is that we are constantly told we're overreacting, and that we should pay no attention to our emotional states. It sets up a dynamic within a woman that tells her that she can't trust her own feelings, and that any reaction she has to them might be regarded as hysteria. Worse, this is coupled with a desire for connection with others, which often manifests (unhealthily) in a desire to please, above all. So the irrational side of her is enslaved, and the truly horrible part is that she's the one doing the enslaving.

It's a biological conundrum. Yes, our hormones at times make us irrational and prone to heightened emotional sensitivity. Yes, our evolutionary history makes us the nurturers, the social fabric, the peacemakers. Each one of us must reconcile these two facets within ourselves. So must those around us. Men acquiesce to our irrational demands and ignore our sensitivity because we have what they want. We acquiesce to the internal enslavement so we can have what we want - the company of a man. There are various attributes bound up in his company, some healthy, some not: safety, security, a feeling of validation.

You start to wonder if the tradeoff is worth it all. Men say they just want us to be who we are, but they really don't, and the evidence for this is made clear by their reaction when we fully express ourselves.