Men and woman are different. Is it just that simple. I once believed that the genders were equal. It was really just how children were socialized. I had a toy machine gun. I had “boy chores” like painting the fence, helping with the car repair, crawling around in the attic. I was a serious Tomboy. I also had a kick ass box full of custom made Barbie clothes, and not the tacky store bought clothes, either. My Granny was a expert seamstress. She earned her living sewing Mardi Gras costumes and ball gowns. She sewed entire couture collection for my Barbie and her friends. I had the benefit of forward, hip parents. When I got to college, I interpreted this “equality” in my toys as the key to my success. I could “pass” in the male world.
But boys and girls are very different. Men and woman are different. We’re wired different. And it is all about the hormones. I think it maps our brains differently. I KNOW our brains are different. I can’t begin to imagine what it is like to be a man. I listened to an audio book by Norah Vincent about the year she lived as a man. I was fascinated. I think being a man is hard. It made me think about my sons and the world they face. The competition and the aggression and the fear. But, I was the youngest of 3 girls. Our house must have seemed like estrogen central. My dad was way out numbered.
When Adam and Eve got booted out of paradise, God gave Adam the curse of having to labor and work. He punished Eve with childbirth. Now, pregnancy and childbirth (while painful) were amazing things and I would never consider it punishment. The monthly cycle that all women suffer is another story. How can that be translated? Jesus understood this suffering. He heals Leah of her condition; she had twelve years of continuous suffering. But I know my brain is definitely OFF center when my hormones are raging. I have finally gotten to a point when I can observe this event and detach from it, but it is like base jump. And I do not think I am alone. Women feel out of control. Weepy and sad. Moody and bitchy. Morbid and depressed. And then it evaporates. Freaky.
There was a Mel Gibson movie where he could hear women’s thoughts. His character was shocked at the racing thoughts, the complex layers of things woman think about. The mundane to the profound all in one streaming thought. Well, add a whopping dose of estrogen, bloating, sleep deprivation, migraines, chocolate cravings and you will need to get the Kleenex. Every month is like a mini hurricane.
If I had daughters, I could help explain this thing that will happen to them. But……do boys have anything remotely like this? This is a knowledge set I won’t use as a parent.