While we avoid taking credit for success, women leap at the opportunity to take responsibility for failure. Men tend to externalize the reasons for their failure, putting it off on something or someone else. Not so women, who absorb blame as if they were born to be societys doormats. (Some women like to speak of their willingness to take blame as if it were a form of altruism. It isn't. Women take the blame because they find it scary to confront those who are actually culpable of wrongdoing.)

~ Colette Dowling

Colette Dowling Cinderella Complex Double Standards Gender Roles Male Privilege Patriarchy Psychological Trauma Societal Constructs Women

The psychological need to avoid independence - the wish to be saved - seemed to me an important issue, quite probably the most important issue facing women today. We were brought up to depend on a man and to feel naked and frightened without one. We were taught to believe that as women we cannot stand alone, that we are too fragile, too delicate, needful of protection. So that now, in these enlightened days, when our intellects tell us to stand on our own two feet, unresolved emotional issues drag us down.

~ Colette Dowling

Colette Dowling Cinderella Complex Emotional Dependency Feminism Gender Roles Patriarchy Societal Constructs Women

Once established, the young girl's dependency is systematically supported as she proceeds through childhood. For being nice - nonchallenging, nonconfronting, noncomplaining - she's rewarded with good grades, the approval of her parents and teachers, and the affection of her peers. What reason is there for her to turn deviant or nonconformist? The going is good, so she conforms. Increasingly, she patterns herself after what's expected of her.

~ Colette Dowling

Colette Dowling Cinderella Complex Feminism Gender Roles Male Privilege Patriarchy Societal Constructs

Revirgination surgery for women is the fastest growing segment within the Indian cosmetic surgery industry. But any culture that decides a woman’s worth by the presence or absence of a membrane needs to examine its collective head.

~ Mallika Nawal

Mallika Nawal Cosmetic Surgery Hymen Madness Societal Constructs Society S Increasing Stupidity Woman S Secrets Womanhood Women S Rights

While we've painted the guardians of the pale in a somewhat reactionary light, let's give the gatekeepers their due. What lies beyond the pale isn't always safe and secure. Outside the fence of state-sanctioned consciousness, there are, to be sure, peaks of profound insight and inspiration. But there are also the swamps of addiction, superstition, and groupthink, where the unprepared can get stuck.

~ Steven Kotler

Steven Kotler Contraband Conventions Drug Addiction Drug Prohibition Drugs Societal Constructs War On Consciousness

All right, let's consider some history here. I see a number of girls are wearing pants. This used to be frowned upon. In 1938, Helen Hulick was jailed for wearing slacks -- put behind bars.Do you think society should have the right to jail or punish you for what you choose to wear?

~ Svetlana Chmakova

Svetlana Chmakova 1938 Awkward Brave Dress Code Helen Hulick Miss Lee Rebellion Social Justice Warrior Societal Constructs Svetlana Chmakova