So I posted on Twitter because I wanted to know: how many women out there do scream at such things?
I yell with pain, but not with surprise or horror, and it is definitely lower-pitched than the classic horror scream. The one time my sleeve caught on fire while cooking, I was talking to derspatchel; I believe I said, ". . . and I'm on fire," and held my arm under the tap until the flames went out. When really terrible things happen, I tend to shift into crisis mode, which does not have time for shrieking.
Which, because I’m an anthropologist at heart, means I’m now wondering whether that reaction has become less common over time (as women are no longer socialized in the same way as thirty or fifty years ago) and whether our media depictions have changed as well.
I have always assumed it was socialized behavior. In tenth grade, I was one of two girls in a roughly fifty-fifty mixed-gender classroom who did not scream or flinch back or otherwise show signs of distaste and alarm when one of the crayfish we were studying suddenly flicked its tail, scattering tepid pond water across the lab bench. Even then, it seemed improbable to me that all of the other girls were really scared of the crayfish and none of the other boys weren't startled.
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yati
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Date: 2015-08-11 06:55 pm (UTC)I yell with pain, but not with surprise or horror, and it is definitely lower-pitched than the classic horror scream. The one time my sleeve caught on fire while cooking, I was talking to
Which, because I’m an anthropologist at heart, means I’m now wondering whether that reaction has become less common over time (as women are no longer socialized in the same way as thirty or fifty years ago) and whether our media depictions have changed as well.
I have always assumed it was socialized behavior. In tenth grade, I was one of two girls in a roughly fifty-fifty mixed-gender classroom who did not scream or flinch back or otherwise show signs of distaste and alarm when one of the crayfish we were studying suddenly flicked its tail, scattering tepid pond water across the lab bench. Even then, it seemed improbable to me that all of the other girls were really scared of the crayfish and none of the other boys weren't startled.