For instance, I have a very good marriage. We trust one another.
This is about a generalized mistrust about the word of women compared to generalized trust of the word of men. In other words, men are considered more trustworthy, or more 'stable' if you will, while women are considered emotional and reactive. No generalization is 100%, of course.
No article on the inherent distrust of women by men could be complete with a mention of Yashar Ali's 2011 essay for HuffPo about gaslighting, which explained the commonly used manipulation tactic toward women, drawn from a 1944 film of the same name, that undercuts a woman's every assertion that her feelings and experiences are valid and true. It can be very subtle — a "you're so sensitive" here, a "Calm down, you're overreacting," there — to more serious emotional abuse, such as, as Ali notes, "No one will ever want you."
What woman alive has not experienced this in some form or another, is not intimately aware of having her authority questioned, her opinions ignored, doubted, or silenced, her feelings mocked, belittled, or dismissed? Young notes, that, when it comes to interpersonal conflict with his wife, "if she's on eight, I assume the situation is really a six."
At its essence, this is a form of emotional policing that tells us how we should or shouldn't feel, and reminds us that we are not to be taken as seriously as men, who have the final say in all matters.
Hell, I am grateful at this point when I remark on something I've researched and reported extensively and know to be correct and a man in my presence concedes, "Yeah, that could be true." In my real every day life, men take other men's opinions as facts, and seem more likely to regard women's opinions as suggestions
= new reply since forum marked as read