HOW THE WORLD SEES WOMEN: THE HYSTERICAL GIRL

From the movies to real life - women are depicted as hysterical, free from rational reason

Think back to all the movies you have watched with a female lead – or even a female side character. Legally blonde, Clueless, even Moana, which all feature supposedly strong female leads – have a female protagonist that shows emotion, needs more than a little help in her quest, and never learns from her mistakes. I’m not saying that being emotional and needing help is a bad thing; emotion is a good thing and those who show emotion should not be seen as vulnerable, and everyone needs a little help throughout their life.

However, these movies also star another critical character: the strong male lead who continuously minimize the emotions of the beloved heroine, solves all her problems – as she obviously cannot do that herself - and saves her from her helplessness. This is a crucial point, as movies like these are viewed by thousands, all around the world, impacting the minds of all that see them.

But enough about movies – let’s talk about real life.

THE HYSTERICAL WOMAN

Even in educational videos shown to high school students, women are depicted as irrational in emotional situations, and as a nice contrast, the man is shown as the rational, straight-thinking problem solver. As seen in a video that has over 21 million views, a woman is complaining to a man about her problem, but the man is more focused on the nail stuck in her head than listening to her issue. He then interrupts her, and tries to solve the problem, when all he had to do was listen (Headley, 2013).

This explicitly impresses upon the viewer that men are more rational thinkers than women, who are more focused on their emotions, which in turn lead to the belief that women are irrational thinkers when emotional. Although it is proven that women are more emotionally

expressive, this supposed irrationality is multiplied to a disturbingly common trait by society. The effect of this is the male sex dismissing and/or mocking the complaints made by women regarding various topics. This makes it hard for women, young or old, to communicate effectively and get a serious reception.

Unfortunately, this is evident in many fields, including, most distressingly, the medical field.

There have been reports of women who, amongst other things, have reported feeling down or anxious and/or having rapid weight loss to their doctor.

In the first case, the physician merely advised the woman to keep exercising and get more sleep, even though the patient reported that these things were not helping. Medication was not prescribed, as the physician said that it would be addicting (which it is, in some cases. However, in this case, it seems that it was needed). The patient soon went to a therapist, despite what the physician said, and easily got better.

In the second case, when the doctor heard about this dramatic decrease in weight, the doctor immediately assumed that the patient was on a diet even though the patient had never mentioned it.

If you’re like me, you probably find these two examples concerning. Once you find out that in both case the patients were female, your level of concern is sure to rise. Now, you might want to sit down, as I’m about to tell you that in the first scenario, the physician was also female and had the same family situation as the patient. Yes ladies and gents, not only the male medical professionals are downplaying women’s issues.

It is also found that doctors and nurses prescribe weaker pain medication to women even though they describe more severe pain levels; most pain in women is dismissed as ‘psychosomatic’, meaning that it is caused by a mental factor and influenced by emotional distress (Pagan, 2018).

Everyone has the stereotype of the hysterical woman embedded into their mind, nailed there by the uncontrollable hammer of society. This is a large setback in gender equality, because as soon as a woman expresses any emotion, she is ignored, and her concerns downplayed. Women are expected to be quiet and peaceful, ignoring their concerns and/or emotions to fit to men’s liking.

But hear me out – women do not need to suit men’s

likings. If we worked together, we could stop this stereotype by raising awareness, calling people out on their mentality towards things like this, and teaching the new generations about equality, no matter what age.