A 2018 study (N=46K) of DNA samples & questionnaires found no genes associated with sex played a role in empathy.

@amydiehl #feminism

@amydiehl

"...more men embrace caring, more empathetic, more time with children.... men state they want more time with their family...

...men as more caring and empathetic will open the door to a new type of masculinity that could help prevent loneliness, one that emphasises interdependence and empathy rather than autonomous, power-focused individuals

...research that shows this is much better, for men, women and children"

Maybe too late for these guys 🥶

@AnnaAnthro
The 4 orig Amy boost

@amydiehl

Some “Socialized” Celebs of Trumpland ?

@amydiehl

Men who claim women are softhearted also tend to harbor dread and resentment toward the female authority figures of their own childhoods while expecting the women in their adult lives to clean up messes without nausea while enforcing social norms without mercy.

There's no room for honest empathy in what misogynist traditionalists really expect from women. Plenty of room for performative shrinking from Others and Think Of The Children rhetorical tricks. Empathy? Nah.

@amydiehl Of course (I'm sure you don't need me telling you this, but for the sake of others, it's worth also mentioning), the disparity is also because boys are socialized to shut down access to their own vulnerable emotions—fear, sadness, shame, guilt, and loneliness—and consequently, their ability to empathetically handle those emotions in others.

If a vulnerable emotion cannot be ignored, repressed, rationalized away, or papered over with humour or rage, then it must be purged through excessive physical exertion or suppressed using alcohol or another substance.

By cutting off every part of a boy's identity and experience that would have him seek and accept—hence learn to provide—emotional support, normatively socialized men are, through parental and pedagogic neglect and abuse, then through peer social aggression, and through the constant threat of humiliation and violence, emotionally stunted. Toxic masculinity is toxic to men too.

For example, in popular culture, here's an example of (one of the least violent parts of) how that looks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGxW2toAvzc