A Real Pain in the Neck

So remember my little post about life in a dorm from a few days ago? I do. Because although I only spent one evening in that dorm, I’ve taken with me a little memento that just keeps on chugging: my older body is apparently not quite up to the same feats of strength my 18 year old body was capable of back in the day.

I’ve had a sharp pain in the middle of my neck since that dorm stay.

Whenever I tell Denisa about these aches and pains, she always wants to do something about it. Heating pad? Ice pack? “No,” I say and shake my head. “All I really want to do is complain.”

I mean, it’s not like I’ve done nothing to fix the problem. I took two ibuprofen. It’s not my fault those ibuprofen did practically nothing to fix the problem. Right? Right!

It’s an interesting situation (for me, at least), especially when seen in light of this video:

The stereotype I’ve always heard promoted is that men love to solve problems, but women just love to talk about problems. Men want to jump to a solution as soon as possible. I think that’s just seeing half of the situation. Men are (often) trained to “man up”–soldier through pain or trials. They might make observations about them (Have I mentioned that my neck is killing me?), but when it comes to actually doing something about that pain, they don’t want to admit they need to do anything about it. (Okay, not “they”. “I” I don’t want to admit I need to do anything. It’s the same with my back problems. I really just want to complain my back aches.)

Let’s talk about asking for directions, too. Women stereotypically jump straight to a solution, where men (stereotypically) would rather drive around lost for an extra half hour.

In many ways, I feel like stereotypes are nothing more than one big confirmation bias. We hear a snippet or factoid or stereotype, and then every time something comes up that’s in line with that snippet, it reinforces the stereotype. Meanwhile, we completely ignore the evidence that doesn’t support it. As with most things in life, the solution can be found in Muppets Take Manhattan.

Deep, isn’t it. Peoples is peoples, people. Peoples is peoples.

But really, all of this commentary is nothing more than padding. This post’s purpose is simple. Elegant.

I just wanted to complain. Because my neck hurts.

Have a nice weekend, all!

Leave a comment

×