Opinion | Women have feminism; do men need an equivalent, a (female) clinical psychologist asks
- For decades, women have been fighting for the right to equal pay and to work in professions that were once considered only for men
- Has society similarly endorsed and encouraged men who adopt traditionally feminine qualities and roles, psychologist Bertie Wai asks
Katherine Johnson’s death made waves last month. Many paid tribute to her success story. She was a Nasa scientist, which was no small feat. But what made her story more inspirational was her gender and race: she was a female African-American who broke the astronomical glass ceiling.
We often applaud women who succeed in traditionally male domains. Do we hold a similar attitude towards men who hit a home run in traditionally female territories?
It’s a tale as old as time that a common complaint among wives against their husbands is their “emotional muteness”. A wife’s dissatisfaction usually takes the verbal form of “he doesn’t talk”, “he doesn’t open up about his thoughts and feelings” or “he tells me nothing”.
The myth that men are a unique species with gender-specific DNA that produce qualities such as being cold and detached, emotionally stunted, and non-communicative has not been sufficiently challenged by society. Instead, it has fossilised into a universal cultural cliché: a caricature of men that fuels punchlines and breeds plots across diverse cultural narratives.
Yet men go to therapy. They don’t spend an hour staring at the ceiling contemplating the secrets of the universe in utter silence. Behind the closed doors of a therapy room they talk for an hour about fascinating aspects of their internal experience, including deeply personal thoughts and feelings.