ANGRY WOMEN

Photo by S. Prohorcev

WHY ARE MANY WOMEN ANGRY?

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

© December 2011, The Center for Development

Algumas mulheres não podem adotar este artigo. Mas alguém tem de dizer a verdade. Decidi assumir esta missão.

This article may be difficult for some women to accept.  So I will take it step by step.

1. What is anger?  Physically and biochemically speaking, anger is an adrenal glandular hormonal response that prepares the body to fight or run away.  In other words, it is a body response that is a type of minor fight-or-flight response that prepares the body to actually fight or run from a perceived threat or attack.
Thus, becoming angry has similar effects on the body as does fighting or running away.  The blood pressure rises, and the blood glucose or sugar level rises, along with insulin, to move more “fuel” into the muscles in preparation for a fight.  Also, blood is shunted away from the digestive and eliminative organs.  Instead, it is shunted to the head or brain, and to the muscles, again for the purpose of preparing the body for a fight.
This is fine in an emergency, and that is what it is for.  However, when it becomes a common occurrence or worse, a lifestyle, it takes a toll on one’s health, which is why the subject of anger is so important to discuss openly and honestly.

2. What is anger on a psychological and spiritual level?  Psychologically, anger is non-action, and instead it is always based upon projection of fear, or perhaps another negative emotion such as loneliness.  This statement needs explaining.
Action versus projecting. When faced with a difficult situation, one can take action.  This is a normal adrenal response.  It is a non-reversed response to a situation that is bothering you.
However, another common response is to become angry, instead.  This idea is called a reversal effect.   Instead of dealing with an issue, one reverses it and tries to send the problem back outside of oneself, blaming others.  In this sense, getting angry is a non-action response that seems like action, but really it is not.

Photo by Leczek Buynowski

Projection as reversal.  The nature of all human beings is to project that which they do not want in their lives.  To project something means to sort of spit it out of oneself, and assign it or give it to someone or something outside of oneself.  This is the essential idea of projection.
For example, I lived in a remote agricultural village in Mexico some years ago for 6 months.  The people’s life and livelihood depended upon the rain to water the corn crop.  When it did not rain on time, the villagers did several interesting things.  They believed that God or Jesus was angry with them, and they prayed to a saint to bring rain.  They also became angry at another saint who was in charge of the weather in the neighboring village, and they believed it was his fault that the rains had not come.
This is an example of how projection works.  The villagers were very uncomfortable with the lack of rain.  Rather than stay with the discomfort, or perhaps take action such as installing a watering system, they projected the problem outside of themselves.  They did this by asserting that it was God’s wrath upon them, or that it was the doing of a saint from another village.
In a similar fashion, all human beings tend to project their fears and worries outside of themselves in order to lessen the burden of fear that we all feel at times.  We never really know if we will be safe, if we will have enough to eat, a place to live, and so on.  Fear is a constant companion for human beings, even those who are wealthy and live in luxury.
To repeat the principle, if one is afraid of something, and does not like the feeling that result from fear, a common response is to project the cause of the fear outside of oneself.  Then one can respond to the outside person or force at arm’s length, so to speak.  That is much easier than keeping the feeling within.  The body’s response to any threat or attack from outside is a mild adrenal hormonal fight-or-flight response that we call anger.
Projecting positive traits.  Interestingly, most people also tend to project their greatness or extreme goodness that they do not feel worthy to own or keep for themselves.  Instead, they assign it to special ones such as Jesus, Buddha, the president, perhaps, or someone else whom they admire.  This is a variant on the same principle.  They are basically uncomfortable with the truth about themselves, which might suggest or demand certain actions.  So they “spit it out”, or reverse it, and give it to someone who they think better embodies goodness, greatness, unconditional love, or some other positive quality that the person does not want to admit about himself or herself.  Too often, this is how the human mind works.

Photo by Andry A. Tych

3. How does this relate to women versus men?  One aspect is that women are more reversed and more fearful than men.  More reversed is an esoteric concept having to do with yin and yang, copper and zinc, and other factors.
Women are more fearful than men for many reasons that I will list because they are important for women and men to understand:

A. Physical and anatomical reasons for fear in women.  Women are physical smaller, lighter weight, and weaker in terms of muscles than men.  They are thus more delicate creatures than men.  This is just a fact.  It is not good or bad.  It is just the truth.
Also, due to their sexual apparatus, they are far more subject to being raped than men if they are attacked. This is a horror for all women and it is in their minds at all times.
They are also more physically attractive, which makes them subject to what may be called negative attention or ‘being hit upon’ by men.
In many cases, they are also less physically agile than men, so they are more awkward in running away or fighting.  To make this worse, in addition, many women foolishly wear fashionable, but uncomfortable clothing that makes it harder for them to run away from attackers.  This includes shoes with no arches or high heels, tight pants that make it hard to bend the body, tight blouses that restrict the body, and more.  Some are even more foolish and wear revealing clothing that actually attracts the men’s eyes and bodies to them.  This which puts the women in even more danger and fear, although they may not realize it.  All of this contributes to fear physically.

B. Hormonal reasons for more fear.  Female hormones cycle monthly, changing each day.  This can be upsetting for young, menstruating women because some of them literally think and feel different on different days.  Men do not have to deal with this hormonally-caused perception problem.
Men have more testosterone, a hormone that gives one a feeling of superiority, safety, and confidence.  Women have more estrogens, hormones that increase copper and decrease zinc.  This combination often gives rise to more spacey and less confident attitudes.  This is explained more below.

Photo by A. Yakovlev

C. Biochemical reasons for women’s greater level of fear.  Women have much higher copper levels than men, and lower zinc levels, in most all cases.  Copper stimulates the biogenic amines, which accentuate the emotions.  Copper has other enzymatic effects that stimulate the diencephalon or old, animal brain.  Meanwhile, men have less of this, and have more zinc in their bodies.  Zinc tends to calm and balance the emotions.
Women also have a slower oxidation rate than men, in general.  This is related to their hormone levels, particularly estrogen, which slows the oxidation rate, and other genetic factors.  The effect is that their glandular system is more sluggish, and generates less energy than men’s glandular system, in general.  As a result, women tend to be lower energy creatures than men.  This also makes them more scared, as energy is a key to being able to fight back and/or run away from all threats and attacks upon them.  This is a critical difference between men and women that is not appreciated nearly enough.
This is enough, I hope, to convince the reader that women are more fearful than men.

4. What does this have to do with anger?  As explained above, the main method that everyone uses to deal with fear is to project it away from oneself, and then respond to it with anger.  This is just a fact of life.  Women have more fear, and therefore they are more prone to anger.  This is the entire reason.  It is not better or worse, it is just a fact about men and women.