I heard this thing many years ago, it stayed with me:
- Women open up, show vulnerability, and admit to mistakes. After they do this, other women tend to protect and care for that wound, treating it with care.
- Men toughen up, never show vulnerability or mistakes. If they do this as an exception, other men attack and use the weakness against that person.
Initially, the person who told me about this told it in such a way that the woman’s behavior and solution are optimal. In my opinion, the optimal behavior is this:
- Open up like women, and use the weakness against the person, like men.
I think opening up an issue and then being confronted with it, being mocked about it, seeing it repeatedly, has the option of making one more powerful. Tougher, if you want.
