This comment is from Carmen Speer on “Why Women Aren’t Crazy.”
I think the point of this article is that “gaslighting” goes back a long way. Just google “hysteria” if you’re interested. At one point, scientists actually believed that women who were dissatisfied or didn’t stay in their place were “hysterical,” and they were even committed to mental institutions. In a broader sense, “gaslighting” includes deluding girls into thinking they are not as smart as boys and that their self-worth lies mostly in their looks. It also includes shaming them into thinking they are responsible for bad male behavior toward them (including domestic abuse and rape).
I find men’s points about being told to “man up” or called “less of a man” for some behavior or another to only further prove the author’s main point about sexism in society. Strictly enforced gender binaries negatively affect men, too. These shaming views used against men are perpetuated by the same ultra-male value system that writes off women’s feelings.
—Photo technicolor76/Flickr
It is actually critically important to conceptually separate gendered from human power mechanisms. In real life these distinctions are blurred, and a conceptual separation will never tailor-fit a messy reality. Still, if we fail to acknowledge and apply such a distinction, we face an inflation of seemingly gendered-related abuse. As in all inflationary processes the actual worth and impact of each individual case decreases, thus undermining the examples of genuine gendered abuse that we need to combat. Also, flawed diagnoses – a failure to take into account the impact of other potential power structures in society, linked to e.g. class… Read more »
These shaming views used against men are perpetuated by the same ultra-male value system that writes off women’s feelings. This reminds me of why men feel sidelined at times. This sounds like the damage that’s done to men is just a side effect of the “real” goal of oppressing women. Which I call BS on. The few men at the top don’t do the shaming, biasing, sexism, etc… that they do in order to exlude women and just write off all the men (the vast numerical majority I might add) that get damaged as acceptable collateral damage. No they do… Read more »
Danny – “This sounds like the damage that’s done to men is just a side effect of the “real” goal of oppressing women. Which I call BS on. ”
Don’t call it BS – because the OP has moved it all into the “broader sense” – so it’s all “Gaslighting”.
Call it “Gaslighting” form now on!
In a broader sense, “gaslighting” includes deluding girls into thinking they are not as smart as boys and that their self-worth lies mostly in their looks. It also includes shaming them into thinking they are responsible for bad male behavior toward them (including domestic abuse and rape). In a broader sense is completely wrong and should not be used to justify conflation and shifting goal posts. Gaslighting relates to specific and “Deliberate” action with “INTENT” to convince a person their perceptions are wrong and to cause mental distress, altered states of thinking and to control the individual. IT IS NOT… Read more »
I’m baffled by the outrage. I can appreciate wanting to use precise terminology, but Yashar Ali did a nice job of describing the “traditional” usage of the term and explaining why and how he was deviating from it… and that’s a pretty standard rhetorical technique: taking a term from one context and tweaking it a bit to help illuminate something in another context. This is hardly an “infection.”
@ Brad – I’m not baffled! So lets see where that blurred boundary takes us shall we? In a broader sense, “gaslighting” includes deluding people with ideas such as; 1) “Only Men Rape” 2) “Only Men Can Stop Rape” 3) Any person who does not agree with the immediate guilt of a person accused of rape without due process of law is a rape apologist and even “rape loving scum”. 4) Any person who does not accept the “Overwhelming Trope” in relation to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence is a misogynist. 5) Any person who argues that Privilege is not… Read more »
Excellent comment once again MH.