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[–]MarkTwainiac 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I’m working from personal experience so it may be atypical but once I was about 3 we lived in pretty remote rural setting. 99 percent of the time my mom was the only woman I saw outside of school and my dad was the only man I saw period until like middle school at least. Doesn’t it make sense that would be generalized?

Yes, it makes sense that you & some other individuals might that take what you personally perceived to be true of your own mother & your own father & attributed their qualities to all women & men generally. But not doing this also makes just as much sense. In fact, to many of us, not doing as you have done makes much more sense.

Many people who have grown up with a narrow frame of reference would arrive, & have arrived, at very different conclusions to yours, especially as they matured out of phases of childhood & adolescence in which everyone is naturally self-referential, self-centered & mistakenly believes everyone else is looking at us & judging us. Other people who've grown up in your sort of situation might just as easily reason that because it's a very big world out there & they have seen only a teeny-tiny slice of it, then chances are good that other people will turn out to be as different to their mum & dad as they are to be exactly like them.

The position you are taking is similar to saying that because a lot of kids have pet goldfish in childhood, and they don't have close contact with any other kind of pet fish, & the only fish they customarily eat or see being eaten is tuna or the mystery fish in "fish fingers," then it's reasonable for children to grow up generalizing that all the fish in the world's seas & freshwater bodies must be just like goldfish, tuna or mushed-up nondescript white flaky fish in fish fingers. Which is ridiculous because most kids read books, see movies, TV shows & media. Even kids who are raised in strict religious settings will have heard of Jonah & the whale.

Your claim that "99 of the time my mom only woman I saw outside of school" means in school you saw other women & you have chosen to filter them out. Why is that? Were the other women you saw in school different to your mother in any respect?

Moreover, your references to watching soap operas with your mom means you had a television & you watched it as a kid. Were all the women you saw on TV really exactly like your mom? Did they have all the sex stereotypical "feminine" traits you now associate with women? As a child, did you never see movies with scary, evil women in them like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Snow White" or "Hansel & Gretel"? Didn't you hear or read any fairytales & books?

When you say "my dad was the only man I saw period until like middle school at least" can it really be true you went your whole early childhood without ever seeing or hearing of a male doctor, dentist, letter carrier, mechanic, police officer, home repairman, taxi or truck driver, neighbor, shop keeper, priest or other clergy, politician, soldier, train conductor, road crew member, construction worker, farmer, tractor driver, cowboy, Indian "brave," world explorer, pirate, gunslinger, sheriff, captain of industry, businessman, president, prime minister, pope, astronaut, inventor, firefighter? Didn't you read any story books? You never heard of the knights of the roundtable, Robin Hood, Columbus, Captain Hook, Old MacDonald, Bob the builder, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed or God the father, etc? No shows like Mr Rogers, Gunsmoke, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Simpsons, Family Guy or Malcolm in The Middle on your TV? You never saw cartoons or movies with characters like Elmer Fudd, the cast from Toy Story or Sponge Bob Square Pants?

When you watched soap operas what happened to all the male characters you saw - did you just tune them out?

Trauma is formative sure, but why seek to undo a perfectly valid personality simply because it was shaped in part by trauma?

No one is seeking "to undo" your personality or anyone else's "perfectly valid personality." We are pointing out that your particular POV is not universal as you seem to think it is. The way you see the two sexes, that you see your own self, that you see your own self in relation to others, & the way you are preoccupied with how others perceive you, or you imagine they are perceiving you, are not the way everyone else sees these things.

[–]circlingmyownvoid2 3 insightful - 5 fun3 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

I’m not asserting that generalizing is universal or the cause of all gender variance. Just a cause for some tastes in some people.

Your claim that "99 of the time my mom only woman I saw outside of school" means in school you saw other women & you have chosen to filter them out. Why is that? Were the other women you saw in school different to your mother in any respect?

By an large not really. It’s selective because they were teachers of children and administrators in schools. That attracts a certain personality not that different from my mom. There was variance but in the broad strokes really not that difference. Other that our very butch PE teacher but even she was quite warm and caring.

Moreover, your references to watching soap operas with your mom means you had a television & you watched it as a kid. Were all the women you saw on TV really exactly like your mom? Did they have all the sex stereotypical "feminine" traits you now associate with women? As a child, did you never see movies with scary, evil women in them like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Snow White"? Didn't you hear or read any fairytales & books?

Sure there were some female villains but also they tended to be quite feminine. It was the 80’s. Even he-man and she-ra’s villains were extremely feminine coded.

When you say "my dad was the only man I saw period until like middle school at least" can it really be true you went your whole early childhood without ever seeing or hearing of a male doctor, dentist, letter carrier, mechanic, police officer, home repairman, taxi or truck driver, neighbor, shop keeper, priest or other clergy, politician, soldier, train conductor, road crew member, construction worker, farmer, tractor driver, cowboy, Indian "brave," world explorer, pirate, gunslinger, sheriff, captain of industry, businessman, president, prime minister, pope, astronaut, inventor, firefighter? Didn't you read any story books? You never heard of the knights of the roundtable, Robin Hood, Columbus, Captain Hook, Old MacDonald, Bob the builder, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed or God the father, etc?

And exaggeration. Man I saw regularly then. And the ones I did see were often my fathers friends who were just like him. Thanks did have a woman as my pediatrician I remember. Beyond that I don’t have a robust childhood memory set but I’m told that’s common with trauma in childhood. And god is pretty counter to your ideal. I was raised southern baptist. That god really embodied the violent, wrathful and temperamental image that my father built in me for men.

As to other media, there’s a difference between fictional exposure and actual exposure. Particularly when you are talking about development.