Are men or women more fragile/weaker?

Question

Besides physically. Who is more fragile overall? On an emotional level who needs to be taken care of more?

I vote men. What do you think and why?

Answer 1

More women are on antidepressants an zanex so I vote they are.

Answer 2

Difficult questions to answer since it would lack empirical evidence in any case. Unlike strength and other measurable qualities its difficult to measure emotional stability. Though I suppose you could sort of observe it over a fixed sample

Answer 3

Either one can be both of those things at different times in their lives.  It all depends on the individual, and not the gender.

Answer 4

I vote both ways.

That's the last time you'll hear me say that.

Answer 5

My (Lakota) elders have a saying, "Men are hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Women are soft on the outside and hard on the inside."

I think that (obviously) people vary. It is impossible to say anything about *all* men or *all* women (except that women have babies and men don't). People vary greatly and are individuals. That's just reality. Your question overlooks that and so it can only hope to establish a generalization, a mere gloss on the surface of reality.

Women and men *tend* to be weak in different ways, generally. Because men are shamed for showing authentic emotion, many times "soft" emotion (fear, sorrow, grief, hurt) is translated into anger and directed either outwardly (violence) or inwardly (alcoholism, suicide, risk taking behavior). This outward stoicism and seeming "hardness" in men gives men the semblance of strength, but I imagine many men feel that they never truly measure up to the masculine ideals our culture foists upon men.

Women, on the other hand, are taught to show no strength, no intelligence, no self determination. As girls we learn that we are supposed to appear weak, needy, vulnerable, confused, naive, gullible, and so on. This is so that men can rescue us, you know, play prince charming.

I think this is all changing. It's changing faster for women than for men because men are told that they are superior for being emotionless, for being "strong" (as if anger is not an emotion and violence is not inherently one of the most emotional acts humans are capable of). When boys become "real men" they do so believing that they are being handed the keys to the kingdom. "It's a man's world." For girls becoming women no such treasure awaits. We are "help meets." Not so enticing.

Eventually people will cast all this c**p aside and simply give themselves and each other permission to simply be who we are in all our human glory, strengths and weaknesses included. I welcome that day.

Answer 6

Women are by far more fragile, in all ways. Women need far more emotional care, as their emotions are greater than their reason and logic.

Answer 7

In my opinion women are more fragile and they tend to express their emotions more and you rarely see guys express emotion in public.

Answer 8

Look at today's youth.  We have full grown men being intimidated by the brains of the young women coming up.  But we also have young women falling to the sexual nature of current peer pressure far easier than boys are.

Both men and women are weak emotionally as a whole.

Answer 9

I think BECAUSE men are conditioned not to express their emotions as much, they can be more fragile, but ONLY for the above stated reason. Otherwise, it depends on the individual, and on their dispositions, upbringing, and history.

Answer 10

MEN

they bottle it all up, it is not healthy.

Answer 11

Molly has the right answer.  Both men and women can be fragile at times.  As Nikki pointed out, some women need to emotionally vent more.  Some guys don't have a good support system and can be fragile.  Especially our egos.

Answer 12

I would say it is all on an individual basis, not a generalization.

Answer 13

I think men and women have emotional needs that need to be met and they can be equally vulnerable.  Emotional fragility also depends on an individuals experiences.

Answer 14

It could go both ways. The negative on mens sides is bottling up their emotions breaks them down from the inside. It is weird or lame if a guy expresses emotions. Women tend to have alot of mood swings and are emoitionally unstable more so than men. Men have been raised to take it on the chin and "man up" so i can't choose.