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?
Conversation
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
1
5
Yeah, that's fair. Just greater awareness in general.
1
3
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?
2
5
maybe a lot of american media specifically invites you to feel into the strength of male characters but not their vulnerability 🤔
1
6
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
4
15
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
1
16
I think we avoid this because it complicates the idea of women as victims, womanhood as victimhood etc which is pretty central to culture war stuff. Women currently stand to lose leverage by being portrayed as powerful over men, afaict
(not sure if that's what you meant)
2
10
That's it precisely
It's clear men are more physically aggressive, outlier cases are horrific, I don't want to minimize that
But in erasing female power we erase female agency, and in many ways perpetuate old social patterns that constrain both sexes despite legal equality
1
10
The problem is that people who have been emotionally or psychologically abused are much more likely to go on and perpetuate that abuse, so this is part of a system that's damaging everyone
1
10
GIF
read image description
ALT