Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Anger Reduces Women's Ability to Influence Others

31 replies

NiNoKuni · 11/10/2015 22:18

Article here

"men were able to exert more social pressure by expressing anger," whereas women actually lost influence when they did the same thing.

This research supports the results of a 2008 study that found men gain status, but women lose it, after expressing anger. Men are presumed to be angry for a reason, that study concluded, while women's anger is seen as a reflection of internal characteristics, such as a tendency to get "out of control."

I had a few reactions reading this, including 'no shit', 'fuck that' and 'that's why feminists are always branded as angry', but also - does this mean I should police my own tone to exert more influence, or try to subvert this norm by not toning it down but then ironically losing impact? Is it better to be authentic or play the game to win? Is there a way for women to win in the first place? What do you think?

OP posts:
BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 12/10/2015 10:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
NiNoKuni · 12/10/2015 09:53

For me, one of the salient points was that men's anger is seen as rational and externally generated, whereas women's is emotional/irrational and internally generated.

It makes a lot of things that bit clearer, such as why some people tell feminists to make their demands more nicely, or lawyers to not draw attention to harassment, and can dismiss women's anger as not important, not real or just 'her problem'.

I think people are not used to dealing with women's anger. I know when I display it, it makes people nervous. They don't know what to do about it. So in that sense, I do think women showing anger more would help normalise it a bit. But any individual woman doing that runs the risk of a certain level of ostracism or loss of influence.

It really does irk me something chronic that showing anger means I'm taken less seriously than a man would in the same situation. It's such a catch 22, isn't it? Asking nicely doesn't tend to effect sweeping change, but asking more forcefully means people can dismiss you more easily. They've got us coming and going.

OP posts:
BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 12/10/2015 09:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ChunkyPickle · 12/10/2015 09:26

That was exactly my thought Buffy - that you take more notice of men's anger because it's more dangerous.

BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 12/10/2015 09:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JeffsanArsehole · 11/10/2015 22:22

I don't think we should focus on women's anger at all. Instead we should just point out there's no such thing and it's no different from men's anger at all.

It's just another attempt to diminish and paint us as hysterical.

We should encourage people to express anger as its a perfectly normal emotion.

Swipe left for the next trending thread