Are Women More Emotionally Expressive Than Men?

Movies and television shows are replete with this gender dichotomy in emotional expressiveness, with strong men who say little and reveal even less with their facial expressions (think Dirty Harry, the Duke, Agent Gibbs, Walt Longmire), and equally strong but very expressive women who wear their hearts on their sleeves (think Scarlet O’Hara, Ellen Ripley, Erin Brockovich, Bridget Jones). But is this simply a Hollywood stereotype, or are women in fact more emotionally expressive than men?

more…

Tau.Neutrino said:

But is this simply a Hollywood stereotype?

Hollywood did a lot of making it more so.

Are women more likely to be able to control their emotions than men ?

Tau.Neutrino said:

Are Women More Emotionally Expressive Than Men?

Movies and television shows are replete with this gender dichotomy in emotional expressiveness, with strong men who say little and reveal even less with their facial expressions (think Dirty Harry, the Duke, Agent Gibbs, Walt Longmire), and equally strong but very expressive women who wear their hearts on their sleeves (think Scarlet O’Hara, Ellen Ripley, Erin Brockovich, Bridget Jones). But is this simply a Hollywood stereotype, or are women in fact more emotionally expressive than men?

more…

I have no doubt that the most emotionally expressive man is way more emotionally expressive than the least emotionally expressive woman.

And vice-versa.

Most love songs are written by men or maybe it’s just to get some and shallow

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Are Women More Emotionally Expressive Than Men?

Movies and television shows are replete with this gender dichotomy in emotional expressiveness, with strong men who say little and reveal even less with their facial expressions (think Dirty Harry, the Duke, Agent Gibbs, Walt Longmire), and equally strong but very expressive women who wear their hearts on their sleeves (think Scarlet O’Hara, Ellen Ripley, Erin Brockovich, Bridget Jones). But is this simply a Hollywood stereotype, or are women in fact more emotionally expressive than men?

more…

I have no doubt that the most emotionally expressive man is way more emotionally expressive than the least emotionally expressive woman.

And vice-versa.

so ?

how does that relate to a population ?

men have a spectrum of emotion response

women have a spectrum of emotional response

there are trends in both genders

and trends in a population are different to singular comparisons.

> evaluating facial behaviors in response to emotional stimuli.

Do you think this is a reliable guide to how men and women actually feel?
Have you not seen the Dr Who episode “The Runaway Bride”?

> They recruited more than 2000 participants from five different countries to watch advertisements for different, commonly-used products.

Oh, so they’re looking for violent anger, clenched jaw, swearing, that sort of thing.

> Women were not universally more expressive than men, as men were more likely to demonstrate anger-based facial behaviors than women.

Well, they’re bloody ads, what do you expect? Gratitude?

But I see now that what they’re looking for is facial expressiveness, nothing to do with how much emotion the person actually feels.

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Are Women More Emotionally Expressive Than Men?

Movies and television shows are replete with this gender dichotomy in emotional expressiveness, with strong men who say little and reveal even less with their facial expressions (think Dirty Harry, the Duke, Agent Gibbs, Walt Longmire), and equally strong but very expressive women who wear their hearts on their sleeves (think Scarlet O’Hara, Ellen Ripley, Erin Brockovich, Bridget Jones). But is this simply a Hollywood stereotype, or are women in fact more emotionally expressive than men?

more…

I have no doubt that the most emotionally expressive man is way more emotionally expressive than the least emotionally expressive woman.

And vice-versa.

so ?

how does that relate to a population ?

men have a spectrum of emotion response

women have a spectrum of emotional response

there are trends in both genders

and trends in a population are different to singular comparisons.

Why are you interested in the population mean?

We don’t interact with populations, we interact with individuals.

Treating all men as though they have a common set of attributes, and all women as though they have a different set of attributes, makes no sense at all.

But we see this everywhere every day.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

I have no doubt that the most emotionally expressive man is way more emotionally expressive than the least emotionally expressive woman.

And vice-versa.

so ?

how does that relate to a population ?

men have a spectrum of emotion response

women have a spectrum of emotional response

there are trends in both genders

and trends in a population are different to singular comparisons.

Why are you interested in the population mean?

We don’t interact with populations, we interact with individuals.

Treating all men as though they have a common set of attributes, and all women as though they have a different set of attributes, makes no sense at all.

But we see this everywhere every day.

Men are often interested in one set of women attributes

…..you could view expression as

expression being reduced by restraining emotions = less expression, or….

expression + constraint = composite

If you’re actually interested, read Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

But yes, women are more emotionally expressive. Why is this even a question? Boys are taught not to express emotion.

Cymek said:

Most love songs are written by men or maybe it’s just to get some and shallow

NO. All songs written by women are love songes. ;)

We are fucking not.

Arts said:

We are fucking not.

^

sarahs mum said:

Arts said:

We are fucking not.

^

I hate to sound as if I’m just following along but all the above.

Divine Angel said:

If you’re actually interested, read Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

But yes, women are more emotionally expressive. Why is this even a question? Boys are taught not to express emotion.

‘xactly. Men don’t cry, you sissy.

Divine Angel said:

If you’re actually interested, read Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

But yes, women are more emotionally expressive. Why is this even a question? Boys are taught not to express emotion.

Yes I mentioned that.
Possibly the female of a species is more expressive and its genetics, but who knows

Cymek said:

Divine Angel said:

If you’re actually interested, read Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

But yes, women are more emotionally expressive. Why is this even a question? Boys are taught not to express emotion.

Yes I mentioned that.
Possibly the female of a species is more expressive and its genetics, but who knows

I disagree that it’s genetics and agree with DA that it’s more nurture than nature. All we need are some new born babies to lock away from society and experiment with. Someone else has to write the ethics section of the proposal – I have the experiment worked out.

Patriarchy and all that Jazz.

Arts said:

Cymek said:

Divine Angel said:

If you’re actually interested, read Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

But yes, women are more emotionally expressive. Why is this even a question? Boys are taught not to express emotion.

Yes I mentioned that.
Possibly the female of a species is more expressive and its genetics, but who knows

I disagree that it’s genetics and agree with DA that it’s more nurture than nature. All we need are some new born babies to lock away from society and experiment with. Someone else has to write the ethics section of the proposal – I have the experiment worked out.

;) leaving ethics to others eh?

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

Cymek said:

Yes I mentioned that.
Possibly the female of a species is more expressive and its genetics, but who knows

I disagree that it’s genetics and agree with DA that it’s more nurture than nature. All we need are some new born babies to lock away from society and experiment with. Someone else has to write the ethics section of the proposal – I have the experiment worked out.

;) leaving ethics to others eh?

I would have soared in the sixties. The human experiments they conducted and got away with were amazing… there was Stanford and Milgram and Holmsburg… and the one where they separated triplets and put them into lower, middle and upper class families… what a glorious time to be alive.

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

I disagree that it’s genetics and agree with DA that it’s more nurture than nature. All we need are some new born babies to lock away from society and experiment with. Someone else has to write the ethics section of the proposal – I have the experiment worked out.

;) leaving ethics to others eh?

I would have soared in the sixties. The human experiments they conducted and got away with were amazing… there was Stanford and Milgram and Holmsburg… and the one where they separated triplets and put them into lower, middle and upper class families… what a glorious time to be alive.

I was alive but sadly only a child until the end of the sixties.

i’d suggest, in response to the thread title, that the answer is, in part, that mothers have to be emotionally responsive right off the bat with breast feeding.

a mammal nurturing thing.

transition said:

i’d suggest, in response to the thread title, that the answer is, in part, that mothers have to be emotionally responsive right off the bat with breast feeding.

a mammal nurturing thing.

I think they need to be more adaptable than men to, the result of different priorities.

PermeateFree said:

transition said:

i’d suggest, in response to the thread title, that the answer is, in part, that mothers have to be emotionally responsive right off the bat with breast feeding.

a mammal nurturing thing.

I think they need to be more adaptable than men to, the result of different priorities.

not convinced there’s much in the idea, that one sex is generally more expressive than the other.

thinking about that regression humans make, back to something a baby might understand, and certainly a toddler understands (and very young children), this came naturally to me, instinctively. A mother though need revert to breast feeding age, with reassuring communications(verbal and non verbal), activities to do with the general comforts of the baby.

I don’t necessarily think men have that less, they don’t have the mammary glands though to really go back like that, for that.

men don’t carry a baby and give birth either.

I read way back that the lady’s have some additional natural opiate-like chemical maybe, or receptor perhaps, that men don’t have. I can’t recall exactly. Accompanying it was some speculation why they may have it. Wandering a bit here, but it does seem healthy emotional expression pumps the good chemistry.

carrying a baby, giving birth, and breast feeding are an extra range of behavior. Even gestation is nurturing, really.

transition said:

PermeateFree said:

transition said:

i’d suggest, in response to the thread title, that the answer is, in part, that mothers have to be emotionally responsive right off the bat with breast feeding.

a mammal nurturing thing.

I think they need to be more adaptable than men to, the result of different priorities.

not convinced there’s much in the idea, that one sex is generally more expressive than the other.

thinking about that regression humans make, back to something a baby might understand, and certainly a toddler understands (and very young children), this came naturally to me, instinctively. A mother though need revert to breast feeding age, with reassuring communications(verbal and non verbal), activities to do with the general comforts of the baby.

I don’t necessarily think men have that less, they don’t have the mammary glands though to really go back like that, for that.

men don’t carry a baby and give birth either.

I read way back that the lady’s have some additional natural opiate-like chemical maybe, or receptor perhaps, that men don’t have. I can’t recall exactly. Accompanying it was some speculation why they may have it. Wandering a bit here, but it does seem healthy emotional expression pumps the good chemistry.

carrying a baby, giving birth, and breast feeding are an extra range of behavior. Even gestation is nurturing, really.

way back in the earliest ancestral environments of modern humans (and preceding that probably) lady humans must have attended to baby hygiene also, like cleaning bottoms. Or hanging the fur outside that the creatures pooped on.

there was also tending to the injured, sick, elderly, and those that died.

men did their thing and helped too.

I often transport myself back the the ancestral environments, and try to imagine what would be different, and what would be the same.

and just now,i’m imagining a newborn baby crying, and that sounds exactly the same.

I have not read any of this thread. I’ve only just noticed that it exists. I’m only commenting on the question in the topic.

As a wild generalisation the answer is yes.

transition said:

transition said:

PermeateFree said:

I think they need to be more adaptable than men to, the result of different priorities.

not convinced there’s much in the idea, that one sex is generally more expressive than the other.

thinking about that regression humans make, back to something a baby might understand, and certainly a toddler understands (and very young children), this came naturally to me, instinctively. A mother though need revert to breast feeding age, with reassuring communications(verbal and non verbal), activities to do with the general comforts of the baby.

I don’t necessarily think men have that less, they don’t have the mammary glands though to really go back like that, for that.

men don’t carry a baby and give birth either.

I read way back that the lady’s have some additional natural opiate-like chemical maybe, or receptor perhaps, that men don’t have. I can’t recall exactly. Accompanying it was some speculation why they may have it. Wandering a bit here, but it does seem healthy emotional expression pumps the good chemistry.

carrying a baby, giving birth, and breast feeding are an extra range of behavior. Even gestation is nurturing, really.

way back in the earliest ancestral environments of modern humans (and preceding that probably) lady humans must have attended to baby hygiene also, like cleaning bottoms. Or hanging the fur outside that the creatures pooped on.

there was also tending to the injured, sick, elderly, and those that died.

men did their thing and helped too.

I often transport myself back the the ancestral environments, and try to imagine what would be different, and what would be the same.

and just now,i’m imagining a newborn baby crying, and that sounds exactly the same.

I think they just pointed the bum in the right direction.

>I think they just pointed the bum in the right direction.

I doubt it.

they had to attend to such things.

transition said:

>I think they just pointed the bum in the right direction.

I doubt it.

they had to attend to such things.

They didn’t have toilet rolls in those days so they probably just used newspaper.

Bubblecar said:

transition said:

>I think they just pointed the bum in the right direction.

I doubt it.

they had to attend to such things.

They didn’t have toilet rolls in those days so they probably just used newspaper.

There was old telephone books to use in our outside dunny when I was a kid.

Bubblecar said:

transition said:

>I think they just pointed the bum in the right direction.

I doubt it.

they had to attend to such things.

They didn’t have toilet rolls in those days so they probably just used newspaper.

thing is though, the little creatures can make a real stink, yet they have to be near to sleep safely and to be kept an eye on, not let to get too hot or cold, eaten, stolen, and nearby for convenient breast feeding, so mothers tending to baby hygiene must go way back.

they didn’t just put baby downwind 5 metres between feeds, and mum stuff something up her nose for feeds, then temporarily abandon the creature until the next feed.

transition said:

Bubblecar said:

transition said:

>I think they just pointed the bum in the right direction.

I doubt it.

they had to attend to such things.

They didn’t have toilet rolls in those days so they probably just used newspaper.

thing is though, the little creatures can make a real stink, yet they have to be near to sleep safely and to be kept an eye on, not let to get too hot or cold, eaten, stolen, and nearby for convenient breast feeding, so mothers tending to baby hygiene must go way back.

they didn’t just put baby downwind 5 metres between feeds, and mum stuff something up her nose for feeds, then temporarily abandon the creature until the next feed.

spend a bit of time around urine(vapors/gasses from), there’s a strong aversion to that, and smelly poo.

such things would have compelled mothers to take some sort of action to reduce them.

anyway, I think it a neglected subject, of what human ancestors had to do.

the ladies did a lot of it, cared a lot they must have, and saw life one end to the other, so can be very practical about it in some ways too.

transition said:

transition said:

Bubblecar said:

They didn’t have toilet rolls in those days so they probably just used newspaper.

thing is though, the little creatures can make a real stink, yet they have to be near to sleep safely and to be kept an eye on, not let to get too hot or cold, eaten, stolen, and nearby for convenient breast feeding, so mothers tending to baby hygiene must go way back.

they didn’t just put baby downwind 5 metres between feeds, and mum stuff something up her nose for feeds, then temporarily abandon the creature until the next feed.

spend a bit of time around urine(vapors/gasses from), there’s a strong aversion to that, and smelly poo.

such things would have compelled mothers to take some sort of action to reduce them.

anyway, I think it a neglected subject, of what human ancestors had to do.

the ladies did a lot of it, cared a lot they must have, and saw life one end to the other, so can be very practical about it in some ways too.

I don’t think hygiene took on much prominence in those days. Crap was probably a good way of acquiring the family gut flora. In such restricted family gathering, disease would play a much lesser roll in their survival. It is when you get large gathering of people with different backgrounds and microbes that you get the disease problems.

>I don’t think hygiene took on much prominence in those days. Crap was probably a good way of acquiring the family gut flora. In such restricted family gathering, disease would play a much lesser roll in their survival. It is when you get large gathering of people with different backgrounds and microbes that you get the disease problems.

not hygiene as in the modern idea, no, but I did give the idea a more ancestral perspective, of instincts at work.

just take hygiene to mean not too smelly.

anyway the thread is about possible sex differences of emotional expression, or expressiveness.

good chance i’d think. Nothing to generalize about wildly though.

transition said:

>I don’t think hygiene took on much prominence in those days. Crap was probably a good way of acquiring the family gut flora. In such restricted family gathering, disease would play a much lesser roll in their survival. It is when you get large gathering of people with different backgrounds and microbes that you get the disease problems.

not hygiene as in the modern idea, no, but I did give the idea a more ancestral perspective, of instincts at work.

just take hygiene to mean not too smelly.

anyway the thread is about possible sex differences of emotional expression, or expressiveness.

good chance i’d think. Nothing to generalize about wildly though.

ignore the slightly dodgy wording in that second last sentence, whatever, tired.

transition said:

>I don’t think hygiene took on much prominence in those days. Crap was probably a good way of acquiring the family gut flora. In such restricted family gathering, disease would play a much lesser roll in their survival. It is when you get large gathering of people with different backgrounds and microbes that you get the disease problems.

not hygiene as in the modern idea, no, but I did give the idea a more ancestral perspective, of instincts at work.

just take hygiene to mean not too smelly.

anyway the thread is about possible sex differences of emotional expression, or expressiveness.

good chance i’d think. Nothing to generalize about wildly though.

As for the topic of this thread, for women to get their way they need to be more persuasive with the stronger and dominant male (at least in the hunter/gatherer days) and would need to use their charms that would include emotion. Women generally are better communicators and to do so effectively, emotion and enthusiasm are required. Women are generally more empathetic than men, again this needs a more emotional understanding. There are lots of reasons why women are more emotionally expressive than men.

PermeateFree said:

transition said:

>I don’t think hygiene took on much prominence in those days. Crap was probably a good way of acquiring the family gut flora. In such restricted family gathering, disease would play a much lesser roll in their survival. It is when you get large gathering of people with different backgrounds and microbes that you get the disease problems.

not hygiene as in the modern idea, no, but I did give the idea a more ancestral perspective, of instincts at work.

just take hygiene to mean not too smelly.

anyway the thread is about possible sex differences of emotional expression, or expressiveness.

good chance i’d think. Nothing to generalize about wildly though.

As for the topic of this thread, for women to get their way they need to be more persuasive with the stronger and dominant male (at least in the hunter/gatherer days) and would need to use their charms that would include emotion. Women generally are better communicators and to do so effectively, emotion and enthusiasm are required. Women are generally more empathetic than men, again this needs a more emotional understanding. There are lots of reasons why women are more emotionally expressive than men.

I suppose the strongest emotional expression is the bond that develops between mother and child that is very strongly emotionally based.

>Women are generally more empathetic than men, again this needs a more emotional understanding. There are lots of reasons why women are more emotionally expressive than men.

honestly I don’t know, of ancestral environments, or of modern times what tweaks culture has made.

it’d be dishonest of me to make any generalizations about differences, no matter how slight.

I could venture there probably are some. Beyond that, looking for them, i’d have to ask what my interest was.

we’re all descended of equal females and males, and human, so I can’t see the differences could be that much.

transition said:

>Women are generally more empathetic than men, again this needs a more emotional understanding. There are lots of reasons why women are more emotionally expressive than men.

honestly I don’t know, of ancestral environments, or of modern times what tweaks culture has made.

it’d be dishonest of me to make any generalizations about differences, no matter how slight.

I could venture there probably are some. Beyond that, looking for them, i’d have to ask what my interest was.

we’re all descended of equal females and males, and human, so I can’t see the differences could be that much.

I’ve known a lot of women and very few cannot twist a man around their little finger if they want to.

PermeateFree said:

transition said:

>Women are generally more empathetic than men, again this needs a more emotional understanding. There are lots of reasons why women are more emotionally expressive than men.

honestly I don’t know, of ancestral environments, or of modern times what tweaks culture has made.

it’d be dishonest of me to make any generalizations about differences, no matter how slight.

I could venture there probably are some. Beyond that, looking for them, i’d have to ask what my interest was.

we’re all descended of equal females and males, and human, so I can’t see the differences could be that much.

I’ve known a lot of women and very few cannot twist a man around their little finger if they want to.

can’t say women as a category ever interested me, totally useless categorization I reckon, other than perhaps public toilet doors.

transition said:

PermeateFree said:

transition said:

>Women are generally more empathetic than men, again this needs a more emotional understanding. There are lots of reasons why women are more emotionally expressive than men.

honestly I don’t know, of ancestral environments, or of modern times what tweaks culture has made.

it’d be dishonest of me to make any generalizations about differences, no matter how slight.

I could venture there probably are some. Beyond that, looking for them, i’d have to ask what my interest was.

we’re all descended of equal females and males, and human, so I can’t see the differences could be that much.

I’ve known a lot of women and very few cannot twist a man around their little finger if they want to.

can’t say women as a category ever interested me, totally useless categorization I reckon, other than perhaps public toilet doors.

I’ll leave you to your dunny doors then.

Nite

PermeateFree said:

I’ve known a lot of women and very few cannot twist a man around their little finger if they want to.

But that is wiles. Not emonional expression.

roughbarked said:

PermeateFree said:

I’ve known a lot of women and very few cannot twist a man around their little finger if they want to.

But that is wiles. Not emonional expression.

Think you might have missed out on a few things rb. Couples flirt, tease and play games with each other. It is not wiles of a conniving female, but a fun way of getting someone to do what you want that they are not keen on doing. Very often the male knows what is going on, but goes along with it because it is fun and builds relationships

And trans, a woman’s charms are not physical, but manipulative in a pleasant way. This is what male/female relationships are all about, what makes them work otherwise it is just an existence with some sex thrown in for good measure.

>And trans, a woman’s charms are not physical, but manipulative in a pleasant way. This is what male/female relationships are all about, what makes them work otherwise it is just an existence with some sex thrown in for good measure.

dunno, hardly inclined to put a construction on them at all.

don’t mind my reluctance.

kindredness seems important.

transition said:

>And trans, a woman’s charms are not physical, but manipulative in a pleasant way. This is what male/female relationships are all about, what makes them work otherwise it is just an existence with some sex thrown in for good measure.

dunno, hardly inclined to put a construction on them at all.

don’t mind my reluctance.

kindredness seems important.

at the end of the day everything’s mostly about a good sleep, a simple reality perhaps neglected.

emotional expressiveness is substantially equal when asleep.

transition said:

transition said:

>And trans, a woman’s charms are not physical, but manipulative in a pleasant way. This is what male/female relationships are all about, what makes them work otherwise it is just an existence with some sex thrown in for good measure.

dunno, hardly inclined to put a construction on them at all.

don’t mind my reluctance.

kindredness seems important.

at the end of the day everything’s mostly about a good sleep, a simple reality perhaps neglected.

emotional expressiveness is substantially equal when asleep.

Even when dreaming?

>Even when dreaming?

I couldn’t answer that.

Maybe you can.

transition said:

>Even when dreaming?

I couldn’t answer that.

Maybe you can.

Can people get emotional while dreaming?

Maybe different kinds of dreams produce different emotions?

What about nightmares ? Anxiety fear etc

I wonder if the whole range of emotions applies in dreams

Tau.Neutrino said:

transition said:

>Even when dreaming?

I couldn’t answer that.

Maybe you can.

Can people get emotional while dreaming?

Maybe different kinds of dreams produce different emotions?

What about nightmares ? Anxiety fear etc

I wonder if the whole range of emotions applies in dreams

a much needed break from wondering, perhaps.

i’m having one at this moment, it’s tranquil.