![]()
Aug. 21, 2016
We live in an overwhelmingly patriarchal society. The male experience is considered standard and objective, while women are viewed as incomplete or deviant forms of men. For example, men often accuse women of being “hormonal,” which supposedly prevents them from thinking clearly. However, as Simone de Beauvoir writes in the Second Sex: “Man superbly ignores the fact that his anatomy also includes glands, such as the testicles, and that they secrete hormones” (xxii). However, when men are upset, nobody suggests that they might be “over-reacting” due to surplus testosterone. Blaming female emotions on “PMS” or related syndromes only serves to cast women as irrational and melodramatic and therefore delegitimize their reasonable concerns. Every single one of my emotions is valid and deserves to be expressed without dismissal or justification.
