Fear of the Unknown

An interesting but surprisingly obvious fact of life came across to me very clearly today. It started with a conversation with a female co-worker who said she felt that she'd rather go to a male manager with an issue than a female manager. This was how she felt, even when she herself went to school for management. She believes that because she is small and looks younger, people are less likely to respond to her as a superior. Standing in similar shoes, I had to somewhat agree with her.

So then I got to thinking about how I've always sort of felt that men had it a bit easier than women when it came to a lot of things. Men are simply looked upon more as leaders than women are. This is how I always justified taking the free drinks at bars, reminding myself that this was the place I, as a woman, would have the upper hand. Stupid as shit, I know.

OK, so men are looked at as more authoritative figures, but why? If you ask a man that, I'd bet you a shiny penny he will say "because women let emotions get in the way of their logical thinking".

But here's what they don't get: men don't understand why women are acting the way they are...in fact, they are almost completely clueless. So they boil it down to one word: crazy. HOWEVER. Men don't realize that they too are irrationally acting out for absurd reasons: be it pride, fear, or those ridiculously strong chemicals that drive their hormones. And us women see clear as day exactly what is causing a man's actions.

So how is it that when it is just our nature that we know more about men than they know about us, they still have some sort of authority over us?

It's because it is exactly this that is our downfall. We can accept because we understand, they cannot because they don't.

And the fear of the unknown drives them to always keep it this way.

Something to think about anyway. And for the sake of argument, assume we are talking in generalizations. There are always exceptions.

On a lighter note, I giggled and also shuttered at the terrible truth of this quote from Sunday's episode of True Blood:

"Vampires have often found it advantageous to maintain a hidden presence in humanity’s most powerful institutions. In the 1600s, it was the Catholic church, and today, as you all know, it’s Google, Fox News."