Women and anger=
A 2008 study also found the double standard about anger in women as opposed to men.
The abstract:
Three studies examined the relationships among anger, gender, and status conferral. As in prior research, men who expressed anger in a professional context were conferred higher status than men who expressed sadness. However, both male and female evaluators conferred lower status on angry female professionals than on angry male professionals. This was the case regardless of the actual occupational rank of the target, such that both a female trainee and a female CEO were given lower status if they expressed anger than if they did not. Whereas women’s emotional reactions were attributed to internal characteristics (e.g., “she is an angry person,” “she is out of control”), men’s emotional reactions were attributed to external circumstances. Providing an external attribution for the target person’s anger eliminated the gender bias. Theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed.
Fundamental attribution error all over again innit, but here in respect to women v men rather than self v other.
I wonder if this is part of the reason feminism is so generally hated, even by women, even by feminists. Mostly it’s because women are so generally hated, even by women, even by feminists, and that is obviously intimately connected to this double standard, as both cause and effect…but I wonder if it’s also a significant part of the hidden motivation for categories like “White Feminism” and “TERF.”
Because obviously feminism is all about women + anger. Feminism is women saying No, women refusing, women rebelling (yes rebelling), women fighting back, women resisting, women getting angry. If we all have a deep unconscious aversion to anger in women…
…well the problem is obvious.
I had the darnedest time, as a young adult, with having my anger and competitiveness recognized by other people as anger in the first place- as opposed to sadness, melancholy, bitterness, or perfectionism. Female superiors/authority figures were particularly likely to interpret any expression of anger as if it were sadness and treat it with a “there, there, it’s okay honey” sort of response.
I’m terrible at doing anger in meatspace, myself. I’m good at sulking, which is a BAD talent to have, and terrible at expressing anger effectively in person. That’s one situation in which I would love to be able to swallow an instantaneously-working tab of testosterone, just so that I could be angry without being flustered and squawky and ridiculous. God it’s annoying.
Anger in women comes down to “she’s a bitch”. Assertiveness in women is read as unattractive, bossy, etc, while in men, assertiveness is read as being competent, outspoken, and smart. So women are told that the reason they don’t get promoted is that they are not assertive enough; but when they are assertive, they don’t get promoted because they are not feminine enough.
Either way, it’s possible to attribute the failure of women to individual failures in personality, or to failures of the group as a whole to have the correct personality. Because whatever personality you have, it’s going to be the wrong one to succeed. It has NOTHING to do with systemic sexism. No, don’t even go there, because then you’re a “feminazi”, a “ballbuster” or you “see sexism everywhere”.
Actually, I do see sexism everywhere, because that’s where it is, everywhere.