Questioning the 'Women Are More Emotional' Myth

another form of period poverty

I was having brunch with a pregnant friend the other day when, while sipping an overpriced mimosa, she said something poignant:

“We really never talk about how men’s bodies are just chugging along for 80 years, while women are going through massive hormonal swings every four weeks for most of their entire lives.”

It took my breath away. She was, of course, correct: women experience much more hormonal changes than men do over the course of their lives, even if they never have children (which is obviously a wild hormonal ride). But I found the itch of defensiveness creeping up my spine, too.

Because whenever we talk about women’s hormonal swings, what inevitably follows are accusations of being overly emotional.¹