i think ultimately men don't fear being seduced or manipulated by women anywhere near as much as they fear being abandoned and ignored by them (i don't at least)
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Medusa and the sirens come to mind, though idk if the fear is more existential than immediate/physical?
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does anyone read macbeth and feel viscerally afraid of lady macbeth? maybe they did hundreds of years ago but she just doesn't ping anything in me. might be different if i had a really manipulative mother or something :/
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In most examples I can think of, there's a hollowness to thinking about a guy watching and trying to feel the vulnerability of the male character in question. A character's plight isn't so scary if we can distance ourselves from them, even blame them for it.
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The horror movies I found scary were ones where the characters acted ways I might act, were vulnerable in ways I was vulnerable - where the strengths that I felt I had in common with them couldn't save them.
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So just jumping to the OP, perhaps we're all just a bit more practiced in feeling into the vulnerability of women more than men?
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idk about "feeling into it" (which I don't think most men do or most media invites) but "being reminded constantly of it" for various reasons yeah
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Yeah, that's fair. Just greater awareness in general.
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Curious though - are there other male characters/tropes that elicit empathic emotional experience in media? Or are you saying that's generally just not part of the experience?
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maybe a lot of american media specifically invites you to feel into the strength of male characters but not their vulnerability 🤔
The James Bond reboot spent two movies exploring "vulnerability"
This discourse is a trap tho: "vulnerability" means a ritually confined performance of feminine emotion, then a return to stoicism and stability. Never a frightening or unstable expression, which is common irl
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I firmly believe it is a sexist formulation that we don't fear or stigmatize female aggression as powerfully as we do male, even though the evidence is quite clear that women can and do cause significant emotional and psychological damage
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