Emotions is a word you might associate with crying, irrationality, distractions, and, mostly, weakness. We have grown up being told that women are “emotional”, making them incapable of handling important responsibilities as big as handling the fate of a country or as ordinary as a job. In the public opinion, her energy is better spent elsewhere, a place where her “forte” lies, caring for and nurturing others or children. Men, on the other hand, are expected to be so rigid and strong, having this “masculine” appearance by being seemingly devoid of emotions. Just how close to reality do these ideologies and stereotypes actually come?
Emotional Experience VS. Expressivity in Men and Women
While we may be inclined to believe that men are “stronger” than women because of their “emotional stability”, as that has been the common belief for centuries, scientific research says otherwise. In a study, it was found that men experience emotions more intensely than women do. They just do not express it as much. With that in mind, the notion that women are weaker than men since they are “more emotional” has no place in reality.
The Importance of Emotions
As a species, we have been alive for about 300,000 years, evolving in different sorts of ways to help us carry out the basic functions of survival. These functions mainly included hunting, finding food, defending your tribe, and avoiding danger. To help us quickly and efficiently achieve those functions, our bodies developed a complex system responsible for alerting us to when things are either potentially lethal or life-giving. This gave birth to our emotions.
Briefly, emotions are a natural hormonal reaction that serve to guide us through life, by encouraging the positive with feel-good hormones and avoiding the bad with pain and/or fear. They are a tool so crucial for survival that a certain type of memory, called the episodic memory, is entirely dedicated to experiences tied with emotions, which serves to remind you of what things put you in a better place and what did not, helping you avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Emotions: A Strength, Not Weakness
Given that emotions serve as a survival guide, viewing emotions as a weakness simply does not make sense. Such an ideology would be synonymous with disliking skin that protects you from pathogens and injuries. Such a mentality is itself the true weakness that exists among us, as it creates a stigma against simply using a function of survival. This has a significant impact, both directly and indirectly, on the mental and physical well-being of individuals.
There are times in which emotions can hinder functionality, but this only occurs when a person is experiencing an abnormal amount of emotions that they cannot control, which could be due to grief or a mental illness. In turn, this means that their situation is caused by something bigger than them, either a traumatic event or a mental illness, to which the only acceptable form of treatment is understanding, compassion, and support, with professional help if needed. With all that being said, emotions do not make neither men nor women any weaker, and emotions should be embraced rather than buried in both populations.