So I just read this article about how people end up fucking up whatever task they’re doing when they feel like they’re being watched. Scientists have discovered that the sense of being observed actually SHUTS OFF a part of the brain, the inferior parietal cortex.
Given the fact that women are constantly watched in our society, and we are constantly REMINDED that we are being watched by people making fun of fat, “ugly”, or gender-nonconforming women, it makes me wonder how many women have messed up important tasks or projects or just day-to-day activities because A PART OF OUR BRAIN is permanently being deactivated?
Like talk about a fucking handicap.
Women are constantly held under the microscope- whether we are attractive or unattractive, the gaze of patriarchy never ends.
Just last week I was walking my dog and bent over to literally pick up poop. Suddenly I heard whistling and looked up cause I knew I was the only person around. Sure enough, about 300 feet away, some construction worker was perched on top of a building, grinning at me and calling out stuff I luckily couldn’t hear because he was so goddamn far away.
I wonder what it does to women to have this constant source of stress hanging over us, each and every day, knowing we are being scrutinized and examined no matter what we’re doing. I wonder how many more accomplishments, life-changing discoveries, inventions, etc would have been achieved by women if we didn’t have this constant brain-handicap imposed on us by men.
Hey this is actually a really well-documented sociological phenomenon known as ‘stereotype threat’, you’re 100% right! A really interesting book that discusses it is ‘Delusions of Gender’ by Cordelia Fine (i s2g i feel like i should be being paid to advertise that book, it feels like i’m constantly promoting it, but it’s just SO GOOD). I have the ebook if you’d like the file? She has a chapter on it in one of her other books too, ‘A Mind of its Own.’
Like here’s an example of stereotype threat – being reminded of gender stereotypes before a math test (like watching a movie with strong depictions of gender roles, or reading a made-up article asserting women’s so-called inferiority) can make women’s scores lower, especially if they have to check a box that reads ‘female’, since it reinforces their fears of that negative stereotype with themselves. (Obviously the book goes into more detail, and has concrete examples/sources). And the same pattern holds true for racial stereotypes. It’s really really scary, obviously, considering how much depictions in pop culture tend to trump up those harmful stereotypes. :-/
ETA: I just realized it might not be -immediately- obvious how that’s related to your post, and I’m paranoid now, LOL – my point was that being made aware that we’re women and have certain expectations put on us not only makes us more likely to follow those expectations (a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy), it makes us hypernervous, thus impeding our ability to perform. Cordelia Fine brought up a more specific point/explanation – energy we‘re devoting to worrying, even subconsciously, is brain power we’re forced to sacrifice from using on the task at hand. :-/ More great news, LOL.
This is so true. The first time I pursued an engineering degree I ended up performing terribly and switching out because I was in the minority as a woman and had no confidence and was always treated like I was inferior and every move I made was heavily watched and critiqued. Flash forward 5 years and I’m back getting a second degree – pursuing science again – and I give so much less of a shit how I’m perceived, my appearance, etc and have resolutely decided to believe in myself. All these years I thought I was “bad” at math? I’m not. Chemistry used to be French to me? It’s now my favorite subject. It’s amazing how much this shit affects us. And even despite that we are outperforming men in college. Imagine how amazing we could be if we truly realized our potential – every single one of us.
Reasons why I quit after two courses in automotive mechanics was because I was the only female student, the other males either were too awkward to talk to me or patronized me, and I had a constant feeling of having to prove myself by being better than them but most of them had knowledge of cars they recieved from their dads that I was never given the privilege of getting. I felt like I wasn’t getting any of it, and gave up thinking I was wasting my time.
I bet if I went back I could ace the fucking course because I absolutely give no shits now. But I don’t care for that stuff anymore and will probably pursue something in the sciences.
Also related: self-objectification and habitual body monitoring. Women are watched and judged so much that even when we’re not being watched, we’re watching ourselves, consciously and subconsciously. Monitoring ourselves for conformity to beauty standards, making sure we’re not acting too ‘manly’, making sure we’re not acting too ‘girly’, etc.
You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur. -Margaret Atwood
Even when we’re alone, we self-objectify and self-judge and engage in habitual body monitoring, because it’s how we’ve been taught to survive in a world full of men scrutinizing us. It literally makes us throw poorly, and get bad scores on tests, and very probably holds us back significantly in most other areas of life as well.
I don’t know if this and the social phenomenon in the OP (which I didn’t know about, thanks for the info and excellent analysis!) do similar things in the brain, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
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