Is anyone else fucked off with the prevalence of the term hysterical at the moment?

[WeBuiltCisCityOnSexistRoles]

Is it just me?! I am getting increasingly peevish with the terms hysteria/hysterical being bandied about. Please could anyone who feels the same help me articulate why this is?

I think (just as women are bossy, men are assertive) it's just such a misogynistic, derogatory word aimed principally at women with very unpleasant origins.

I don't think we see men being told they are hysterical to the same extent. I think generally people use the less judgemental term of "over reacting" towards men, which also implies they have assessed the facts and just have a disproportionate reaction. Hysterical, to me, is so dismissive as though it's an emotional ill thought out reaction aka silly little women bothering their pretty heads about things they don't understand. Maybe they also have PMT, of course.

(Shall we all ignore the giant elephant in the room that this is mostly about coronavirus and prepping For full disclosure I am a total prepper but haven't got a pretty little head. Or PMT)

Hysterical is not confined to females any more though, as pp

@DidoLamenting
It is still a pejorative term aimed almost exclusively at women

The response to Coronvirus has been called "hysterical" - how do you work out that that is aimed exclusively at women?

is it only women being hysterical? or are the men not included in there?

What about freedom of speech and the danger of censorship?
It would be a shame to censor out words for such inane reasons as their origin in another language, culture or distant time.

Hmm. Who here has called for the word to be banned?

Why can't women say we're fucked off with things without being accused of censorship?

(FTR I don't disagree with censoring certain words in certain contexts - For example you won't hear the N word on BBC radio - good.)

Cunt is aimed at both men and women too.
But we know which sex the term references.
And we know why it's an insult.

A term that EXPLICITLY references a sex/race/ etc with derogatory connotations isn't washed clean of its ugly connotations by occasionally insulting a different group with it. If anything, it doubles down on WHY it's an effective insult.

I'm as fond of a well crafted insult as the next woman, but I like my insults to be witty and confidently composed.

Lazy misogyny trying to pass as legitimate remarks is just disappointing.

Feel free to disagree but I don’t think hysterical in its modern context is especially gendered. I appreciate it’s roots, but since it has become associated with comedy both men and women can find things hysterically funny. I also think hysterical can get thrown at either men or women in its pejorative sense.

Where the word gets on my nerves is it is one of a suite of non-argument words designed to stop discussion. So ok in the context of the Coronavirus where it can kill in some cases, seems to be spreading past all attempts to contain it and could in a worst case scenario could get worse. What is the rational response to that?

Point is we’re in a scenario where we probably need more and not less discussion on how to best prepare and minimise this virus’s spread.

Squirrels biscuits,

The censorship comment is more directed at those calling the term hysterical misogynistic and an sexist attack on any woman called that term.

If a word were deemed to be a misogynistic attack on a woman, then it would become banned in public discourse the same as any other slur- racist, religious, country of origin, sexual orientation etc. People would be fined for using it just like men are currently fined if the wolf whistle a woman here in France.

To be fair Barracker, hysterical does not refer to a woman’s sex, or a woman, but an organ. Hysteri refers to the uterus...in Ancient Greek.

But everyone is quite comfortable throwing around “bollocks” in these threads. That is a pejorative term referring to a man’s organ...in modern English.

You have an issue with hysterical, you should also be talking about bollocks.

Barracker you are also quite calmly calling the Ancient Greek illness of hysteria a misogynistic belief but it was not. It was just the name 4,000 yrs ago for PreMenstrual Syndrome and Post Partum Depression and post partum Psychosis. Those illnesses still exist.

Hysteria was used as a medical term for many female maladies until two hundred years ago.

It has only been used pejoratively in a nonmedical fashion against both sexes.

The term hysteria is linked to the systematic abuse of women perpetrated by the medical system including but not limited to gaslighting, imprisonment, sexual abuse, genital mutilation and forced hysterectomies. It’s equivalent to the n word but of course it’s perfectly ok to use because women were to oppressed group.

@PlanDeRaccordement do you actually know anything about the medical history of ‘hysteria’? It’s wasn’t just used to benignly describe female maladies, it was used to silence women who deviated from patriarchal norms and sone times to simply get rid of inconvenient women by throwing them into insane asylums.

Yes I know hysteria was also misused in the recent past as is today’s Borderline Personality Disorder/Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder to medicalise women who did not conform to societal standards. Elaine Showalters the Female Malady is the classic text on that regarding how women would both be forced to insane asylums by their male relatives or faking illness to escape domestic violence.

I also, while in University wrote my dissertation on the 103 individuals found in an asylum graveyard. I did a forensic examination of the females and found that broken bones from defensive injuries (domestic violence) were present at a rate twenty times higher than as recorded in the general population of the times (1850-1890).

But misuse of medicine by various amoral doctors was not the primary usage of having hysteria as a medical term. It was there to describe several real conditions that many women with the label did have.
Too, there is both the medical condition itself, the misuse of the label/diagnosis and the associated stigma. Which I know about first hand being a schizophrenic (mad as a hatter).

Misuse of a medical diagnosis or term doesn’t mean it’s a misogynistic belief or a misogynistic attack. I simply disagree with those contentions.

I also 100% disagree that hysteria is equivalent to the n word. That is really overreaching and exaggerating. It’s like how the US Democrats were calling their immigration centers “concentration camps”.

To compare the use of calling a person “hysterical” to calling a black person a “n—-“ is disgusting because you are minimising the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade which affected over 12 million innocents and then over 130 million of their descendents who were kept in slavery for the next four hundred years.

"Misuse of a medical diagnosis or term doesn’t mean it’s a misogynistic belief or a misogynistic attack"

I believe it certainly is. Just like misuse of a medical diagnosis or term means it is a disablist attack. "You're a spastic". Not acceptable really is it (unless you're using it in the original medical sense of muscle tone etc). For very obvious reasons, hysterical is no longer used in the original medical sense.

How can it have become anything other a derogatory term with misogynistic connotations?

I think the word is misogynistic. It’s not just the etymology of the word. It’s how it has evolved since then, as Reginabambina says. Of course, it is not like the n word but I think the comparison with uppity is fair. People may not distinguish between men and women in an intentionally derogatory way when they use it but the connotations are there.

And it really really isn't directed equally against men. There are a lot of derogatory terms used against women without a male equivalent (or the male equivalent is neutral or an admirable quality) eg we are
Slut
Slag
Trollop
Town bike

While your man is a player.

And usually these men are silver foxes whilst women are mutton dressed as lamb. And let's not forget terms like nag and fishwife.

Hysterical, hormonal, emotional - they're not used against men. Used against women, (especially when you're a women disagreeing with a man)

Interestingly, women are far more likely to react to a situation that is becoming dangerous ie leave the building, ask for help, get the kids out etc.

Don't remember whether this was specifically parents or women in general but is there something about not being ashamed to say scared and doing something about it/dangers of toxic masculinity? Not so hysterical when you're right...