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No Sadness for Men, No Anger for Women
Examining the dehumanizing role of traditional gender roles
The traditional gender roles have man and woman in a strict division of labor. The man is to be a protector and provider. The woman is to be the overseer of domestic affairs — cooking, cleaning, decorating, raising the children, etc. Her plot is smaller, as is her power. The outside world is not her direct concern, and autonomy is a right granted only to the husband.
Naturally, in this arrangement, the woman is seen as submissive to the husband. She is to be demure, faithful, and obedient. In many ways, she foregoes womanhood for motherhood. Her life is circumscribed, and its boundaries dictated by the men in her life. Historically, women could not work, could not vote, could not divorce.
To fit a full human being into a space of partial existence, society must excise portions of their personhood. Where is there room for an emotion like anger in the role described above? Any expression of rage would not be demure, obedient, submissive, etc.
Fundamentally, anger is an emotion based in power. Our emotional system is built with a three-pronged threat response system. In the simplest terms, if a threat is perceived as insuperable but possibly escapable, it is met with fear. If a threat is insuperable and…
