Schrodinger's Emotion

        There's a lot of gender stereotypes in general, but I think the one I've personally experienced the most is the idea that "men aren't in touch with their emotions." There also seems to be this additional connotation that men are less "in touch with their emotions" then women. As if men are automatically not emotionally mature just because of their chromosomes. However, I would argue men are not only more in touch with their emotions than society portrays them as, but also equally in touch with their emotions as women. In fact, there are even a few instances where men arguably have more emotional maturity than women. 

        The biggest instance of this is in artistic careers as men are statistically more involved with artistic mediums. Art is a difficult thing to define, due to how abstract it is, but people generally agree it can be defined as "the expression of emotion". In careers based around art, such as painting, sculpting, filmmaking, creative writing, animation, and more, men statistically make up most of the people in these careers. 

Almost 90% of painters are male. (Data USA)

Almost 80% of sculptors are men. (Zippia)

Around 85% of film directors are men. (Statista)

Around 60% of actors are male. (Statista)

And around 75% of animators are men. (Zippia)

This can be best illustrated at the top, for example, think of the most famous and popular painters, sculptors, film directors, actors, and animators. 

Like, actually think about it for a second.

        Ok, got an answer? Was the first painter you thought of Da Vinci or Picasso? Did you think of Michelangelo for sculptors? Did you think of Steven Spielberg, Quentin Taratino, Wes Anderson, and George Lucas for directors?

And while you probably thought of some female actors, in the top 10 highest grossing actors of all time, there are only 2 actresses. 

        And looking at the form of art this class is based around, the dominance men have in creative fields becomes even more clear. When looking at authors, while J.K Rowling is the highest-grossing author of all time, when it comes to the most legendary authors, most of them are male. Shakespeare, King, Seuss, Hemingway, Orwell, Lewis, Tolkien, etc. In fact, just typing famous authors into Google with give you results primarily consisting of men. 

        And while I know someone will bring up singers as many of the most popular singers are female, Taylor Swift, Shakira, Katy Perry, etc. It's very telling that in only 1 artistic medium do women stand out as the biggest stars.

        And while some might chock this up to sexism and men being more likely to be hired or given business opportunity, at the end of the day, art is the expression of emotion. Even if it sexism that gives many of these male artists their roles, they wouldn't even be artists in the first place if they could express emotion. This clear control men have in the creative field, both as the most popular artists in each artistic medium and making up the majority of the artistic workforce, clearly shows men are in touch with their emotions and have emotional maturity since they have to express it to make a living.

        The people who make up and succeed in expressing emotion to pay rent are male - and a man wouldn't be an artist if he wasn't in touch with his emotion in the first place since he needs to express emotion to be an artist. Even if one discredits men being more common in artistic industries than women, they can't discredit the fact men are artists, clearly showing males can properly be in touch with their emotions. However, this is the only emotionally-related industry in which men have a clear advantage over women and are clearly more in touch with their emotions in. 

        In other emotional careers, like being a therapist or counselors, women actually dominate most of the workforce. However, while these are indeed female-led fields, the disparity between genders is nowhere near as big as society's stereotype of men would have one believe. 25% of mental therapists are male, and over 33% of physical therapists are male.

        In fact, weirdly enough, the people credited as the first mental and physical therapists are male. The first mental therapist is either credited as Sigmund Frued or Franz Mesmer, and the first physical therapist is credited as Per Henrik Ling. Obviously, both fields are therapy are female-led today, but it's interesting how men are credited as the first people to invent these occupations.

        If men were indeed out of touch with their emotions or not emotionally mature, they would never have come up with these fields or invented them to begin with, but the fact males are credited as the inventors of these fields clearly show men are more in touch with their emotions than society would stereotype them as.

        And even then, while these jobs are nowadays female-led, that doesn't mean males don't have a role in them. Female-led, yes. But low enough to say men aren't in touch with their emotions? If men were truly emotionally immature, wouldn't these fields be 100% female? And if that's too extreme, if the large majority of men were truly out of touch with their emotions, there would still only be 10% of men in these fields. The fact that over a third of physical therapists are male, or around 500,000 people, clearly shows lots of men are emotionally mature. 

        In fact, these statistics are matched by our local THS counselors - because as seen in our school's own therapy group, 3/7 of the THS counselors are male. Yes, there are less men than women, but the fact that 42% of our school's counselors are male clearly shows men are in touch with their emotions more than society would stereotype them to be. 

        Speaking of our community in greater detail, while I know High School Musical 2 is not the most reliable source of evidence, although in my heart I wish it was, it's very interesting how while men are stereotyped as emotionally out-of-touch, women are stereotyped as catty and petty to one another, which is obviously not emotionally mature. If women were automatically in touch with their emotions as society would stereotype them as, why does society also stereotype women as emotionally mature? 

        Society itself is clearly hypocritical in its stereotypes, specifically in how it stereotypes both genders' emotional maturity. So if the stereotype is hypocritical, why would one trust it? Gee, it's almost like all of these stereotypes are wrong or something, who knew?

        However, I'm not done. Since this is an English class, let's me quickly bring up a linguistic example. There are lots of slang words men use to describe other men they have an emotional connection with; men, bro, dude, homie, dawg, homeboy, etc. And if you thought that was dumb, allow me to introduce you to the regional variations for these terms, like "mate" in England, and "matey" in Australia. 

        The fact that men have words to refer to other men, specifically ones they have an emotional connection to, illustrates men are in touch with their emotions. If men weren't emotionally mature, they wouldn't have these slang words to refer to people they are emotionally connected to, let alone other men who are also supposedly emotionally immature. 

        Now, I've explained how this stereotype of men not being in touch with their emotions is false, but that leaves a burning question remaining. Why does this stereotype even exist in the first place? 

        There are many reasons why it could exist and my explanation probably isn't the correct one, especially because it borders on conspiracy theory territory, but it's my blog so too bad.

        I think this belief comes from ancient civilization, as in the times of cavemen, men were the hunters who hunted the animals, while the women were gatherers who picked berries. And once civilization evolved to have people settle down in one location, this tradition carried on; men became the warriors who fought in wars, while women were the housewives who took care of the kids.

        In both cases, men were the ones doing violent acts, and it's a lot easier to commit violence when you're emotionally disconnected. It's a lot easier to stab some innocent animal when you stop having emotions, and it's especially a lot easier to stab your fellow human when you dehumanize them as the enemy and remove your pesky emotions. It's a lot easier for the soldiers to be emotionally out of touch so they don't feel empathy for killing their fellow men, and it's a lot of easier for the generals when their armies are emotionless empty husks who won't question murder or genocide.

        Despite civilization progressing so much from those ancient days, the same way the tradition of men being the warriors carried on from the cavemen to the early societies, it carries on from the early societies to our modern one. Notice how men are required to sign up for the Selective Service while women aren't. Society still views men as the hunters, the warriors, and so men have had to carry on the tradition of being emotionless to not care about who they kill. And considering how society today was seeing the biggest war in human history 80 years ago, it's no wonder why the tradition of men being emotionally closed off and out of touch has carried onto today.

        And this idea of men being emotionally out of touch and closed off has only been reinforced in modern day society with ideas like "boys don't cry" or "men don't hit women". Society doesn't want men who care or have emotions because then they start to question the wars they fight in, and the only thing worst for a military leader than the enemy side is managing their own side.

        At least to me, that's why men have not only always been emotionally out of touch, but have carried on being emotionally immature even nowadays, and how it's been reinforced by society and keeps being continued through things like Selective Service. 

        Of course, this stereotype isn't true, as not every man has fought in a war or has killed something, so not every man would be emotionally closed off because of it. In fact, being emotionally closed off due to violence isn't even a thing exclusive to men as many women who have fought in wars or committed violent acts are also closed off and out of touch with their emotions. Removing your empathy to not feel sad about violent acts is a trait specific to humanity, not only people with a Y chromosome. But because men are the ones who were and still are usually used in wars or hunting, it makes sense why more of them are more closed off than women.

        Obviously, even though there are men who are out of touch with their emotions, it doesn't mean all men are. As shown by all the men in emotion-related careers, all the men who make a living off of expressing emotion, and all the words men use to describe other men they have an emotional connection with, many men are clearly capable of being in touch with their emotions and have emotional maturity. Yet despite this, society still stereotypes them as out of touch with their emotions or emotionally immature.