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Wednesday – Fright and Fight
Jul. 8th, 2009 02:18 pm.
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I learned a long time ago that with most men, fear and anger look identical. In order to tell if the man is really angry or just terrified, you have to look at the context of his reaction to see what emotion is behind it. Some women never figure this one out, but I am in a unique position in that I have a medical condition that from time to time scares the bejeezus out of the men in my life. Before I was out of my teens, I knew that a man screaming, "For crying out loud, be careful!" is not angry at me for not being careful so much as he is afraid that I'm going to keel over on him and he's going to be helpless to stop it.
It's handy to know this. Instead of getting angry at them for getting angry, I know to reasure them until they calm down.
( Women scream, men just shout. )
.
.
I learned a long time ago that with most men, fear and anger look identical. In order to tell if the man is really angry or just terrified, you have to look at the context of his reaction to see what emotion is behind it. Some women never figure this one out, but I am in a unique position in that I have a medical condition that from time to time scares the bejeezus out of the men in my life. Before I was out of my teens, I knew that a man screaming, "For crying out loud, be careful!" is not angry at me for not being careful so much as he is afraid that I'm going to keel over on him and he's going to be helpless to stop it.
It's handy to know this. Instead of getting angry at them for getting angry, I know to reasure them until they calm down.
( Women scream, men just shout. )
