Strong in a female way

[Simon Paynton]

Flight of the Conchords – Ladies of the World

 

“Nobody ever says thank you.”

– Nicole Bennett Fite

 

It seems that society is geared towards valuing the masculine qualities of strength, but not the female ones.  In fact, it seems that society is unaware of what these female strengths and qualities might be.

How is strength expressed in a feminine way?

[Simon Paynton]

There is the question that women are said to be more cooperative than men, and looking at this shows up a lot about the structure of morality.

Humans are a hyper-cooperative species.  There is a general perception that women and girls are more cooperative than men and boys.  If this perception is true, then maybe it is ultimately because, in mammals and birds, we nurse our babies after they are born, and it is usually females who bear ultimate responsibility for the young.

This requirement to take care of young is responsible for the evolution of empathy (divergently in both mammals and birds).

Empathy is defined as:

1)  the ability, and desire, to recognize the needs and point of view of another;
2)  appropriate caring behaviour (helping in response to need).

Cooperation can be thought of as:

1)  one-way helping – spontaneous altruism;
2)  two-way helping – interdependent partners helping each other to achieve a common goal.

Therefore, it would make sense if human females really are naturally more cooperative than males.

[Matt]

Hi Simon, Are you trying to say that feminine strength is expressed through empathy and cooperation?

[Simon Paynton]

Matt, I don’t really know, it’s just that that seems to be the stereotype.

[PopeBeanie]

Empathy and cooperation are strengths. New research shows how females can read emotion in faces better than males can, especially useful for mothering. I’d generalize this to it being especially useful to “nurturing”, in general.

Males are obviously biologically different, with different “strengths”. One of those strengths can channel into aggression and destruction, which worked for tribal living hundreds of thousands of years ago, but gives more mixed results in civilization. Including subjugation of women, when not discouraged by a society that’s largely anonymous to each other as compared to a cooperative, everyone knows everyone environment.

Back then, cultural balance and egalitarianism was more natural and complimentary to “opposites”. In modern times, the balance is more individual, private, and variable… for better and for worse.

I always think of civilization as a dynamic experiment, better in some ways, but not always as fair as it could be.

[Simon Paynton]

I think that women tend to be “strong about being vulnerable”.  This shows it takes strength to be vulnerable, and vulnerability is a strength.

[Simon Paynton]

I think that women, a lot more than men, tend to relate to others by making a warm emotional connection – but this isn’t a given, and also, not every situation demands it.

[Simon Paynton]

I feel that this provides a good example of female strength/power in action: perhaps a good example of male and female strength working together against a fool and a knave.

It’s a Facebook post comments thread.  It starts at the angry face.  It’s in French, and I used Google Translate.

On the other hand, are the “male” and “female” qualities distinct, characteristic, and different from each other?  If so, what are the differing perspectives, or causal circumstances?

[Simon Paynton]

“a fool and a knave”

– he called someone a whore: the DJ, Lady Dammage.  The comical story is that I made out that she’s so awesome she gives him a hard on, and then her uptempo hardcore music jerks him off.  That was enough for him.  That’s got to be a lesson learned.

[Tom Sarbeck]

Simon wrote: “I feel that this provides….”

After the term “I feel”, I expect a word identifying an emotion such as fear, love, anger, etc.
But after the term “I feel that”, I always (ALWAYS) get a thought.

It’s one of my reasons for the haiku, “English, my language, / Has two excellent uses, /Poetry and fraud.”

 

[Simon Paynton]

Apparently there’s a response video.  I feel that somebody can’t stop laughing.

[Author]

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