Don't miss this stunning piece by Julie Holland in the NYT, which may signal a slow return of sanity to [some fringy corners?] of the social sciences. It begins:
WOMEN are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children’s needs and intuitive of our partners’ intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capacity is reserved for language, memory, hearing and observing emotions in others.
The writer is a psychiatrist, who notes that "at least one in four women in America now takes a psychiatric medication, compared with one in seven men ... This is insane."
And MercatorNet's Carolyn Moynihan has written an excellent follow-up, which brings to light the other "pills" that have been used for decades to mask a normal dimension of femininity:
What is really interesting in all this is Holland’s assumption that human biology has an ethical meaning: if you feel bad physically or mentally your body is telling you something and you had better listen and perhaps change, not just get a script for Prozac and carry on as before. This stands in contrast with the trend of treating the body as a lump of matter attached to the mind that we can tinker with and reshape to fit with our desires or the demands made on us.
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
Both articles deserve a thoughtful reading, and kudos to Carolyn for her consistently great work.
ADDENDUM: One paragraph in this tragic story of a suicide caught my eye, and seems to be vaguely related to the above. Concerning the death of the vivacious 30-year-old:
Both Aguiar and Milner agree that their friend was suffering from PTSD and think more needs to be done for women coming home from combat missions overseas.
“I think women are just more emotional creatures as it is, and I mean that’s just my opinion,” Aguiar says. “When you are enlisted in the military, You have to have some sort of built-up emotion guard, and you have to kind of amount to the male aspect of it and be just as tough. So I think that they kind of put up walls to be strong as maybe their male counterparts. There needs to be more of a focus on women in the military.”
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals. - See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals. - See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals. - See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals. - See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
What is really interesting in all this is Holland’s assumption that human biology has an ethical meaning: if you feel bad physically or mentally your body is telling you something and you had better listen and perhaps change, not just get a script for Prozac and carry on as before. This stands in contrast with the trend of treating the body as a lump of matter attached to the mind that we can tinker with and reshape to fit with our desires or the demands made on us.
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
What is really interesting in all this is Holland’s assumption that human biology has an ethical meaning: if you feel bad physically or mentally your body is telling you something and you had better listen and perhaps change, not just get a script for Prozac and carry on as before. This stands in contrast with the trend of treating the body as a lump of matter attached to the mind that we can tinker with and reshape to fit with our desires or the demands made on us.
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
What is really interesting in all this is Holland’s assumption that human biology has an ethical meaning: if you feel bad physically or mentally your body is telling you something and you had better listen and perhaps change, not just get a script for Prozac and carry on as before. This stands in contrast with the trend of treating the body as a lump of matter attached to the mind that we can tinker with and reshape to fit with our desires or the demands made on us.
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
What is really interesting in all this is Holland’s assumption that human biology has an ethical meaning: if you feel bad physically or mentally your body is telling you something and you had better listen and perhaps change, not just get a script for Prozac and carry on as before. This stands in contrast with the trend of treating the body as a lump of matter attached to the mind that we can tinker with and reshape to fit with our desires or the demands made on us.
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
What is really interesting in all this is Holland’s assumption that human biology has an ethical meaning: if you feel bad physically or mentally your body is telling you something and you had better listen and perhaps change, not just get a script for Prozac and carry on as before. This stands in contrast with the trend of treating the body as a lump of matter attached to the mind that we can tinker with and reshape to fit with our desires or the demands made on us.
If women are now being medicated for depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men it is because, over the past 50 years, they have suffered most from this cavalier attitude to the body. Let’s remember that before the drug-industrial complex got onto medicating women’s feelings they had already been medicating women’s reproductive chemistry. And for the same reason: to make sure women’s bodies did not get in the way of social and economic goals.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/our_emotions_our_bodies_ourselves#sthash.tzFh89k0.dpuf
Comments
“People have realized that the complete removal of the feminine element from the Christian message is a shortcoming from an anthropological viewpoint. It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of Christianity."
This is just another of the unintended consequences of the cultural acceptance of contraception and abortion! Men's sexuality has been robbed of its creative essence. It is now viewed as something that imposes a burden on women (when conception happens to occur), something used to control women or something that is purely recreational. Why would men bother?? In taking away their responsibility, we've also robbed them of their significance! In the big picture of humanity, men have been made into nothing more than a nuisance women have to figure out how to control in order to bring about the next generation. Men don't see it as their task to protect the vulnerable because they see themselves as the vulnerable ones. A few well preserved vials of sperm would make men entirely obsolete in the world's ethos today!!
That is astounding Robin, and good for you for standing up. At the heart of that matter, I think, is even worse than a gender mixing message. There is an increased sharper and sharper focus on the "self." Solid Catholic teaching returns our focus away from ourselves to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The original sin, Eve denied her womanhood when she desired to be like "gods." Since the only god she knew was the Father. Where was Adam? He stood impotent... in other words, they were divorced. There's a young girl at Robin's son's high school who was just told that she is the center of the universe and it's a tragic disservice to her.
Ditto what Mary said! A lot of high schools have very poor math and science depts, for boys and girls. I also am educated as a chemical engineer, but chose to teach the two years before we had children because its hours were more suited to spending time with children. (I was looking ahead). When it came time and I was pregnant with our first, I realized that I did not want to leave him with someone else, and was able to stay home full time. I am not sure it would have been that easy if we were used to another engineering income and not just a private school teacher income. Also some of my first job offers were out on oil rigs - I had no interest in that at all even though I enjoyed my engineering classes and did well in them. No one discouraged me from an engineering job, on the contrary I got a lot of flack for my decision not to pursue an engineering career.
I've been lurking, but this is one that irritates me. Beats the heck out of me what these "barriers" are. I was educated as a chemical engineer, where 1/3 of our class was women. However, in electrical engineering, only 1 or 2 out of 30 were women. Is it possible that women are Just Not Interested in some areas? Nah, it must be The Man keeping us down so we must legislate (and, I agree -- when they say "legistlate", I hear "quota"). And actually, I have a friend that was also a chemical engineer. When she lost her job, she decided not to go back into engineering and started working from home so she could spend more time with her 3 kids. Also, if nothing else, there are all kinds of incentives for women to enter science and engineering -- scholarships not available to men, guaranteed housing on campuses that do not guarantee housing to the general population, etc. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that schools in general are not preparing students for the hard sciences. It is truly a sad state of affairs, the lack of science education these days.