Hand-Me-Down Trauma
In the pages of Scary Mommy, where progressive ladies roar, Elaine Roth wishes us to know about her mental health problems:
There’s a running monologue whispering in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s whispering in the back of your mind, too.
My running monologue isn’t unique to me. Countless women across the country — maybe across the globe — experience a similar monologue. It results from a shared trauma, and it’s got a name: Patriarchy Stress Disorder, or PSD.
I fear woo may be incoming.
PSD is the idea that the mental, physical, and emotional impact of gender inequality is a trauma that impacts woman and builds over time, and over generations.
It is, we’re assured, a “collective intergenerational trauma,” and “genetically transmitted,” “passed down in our genes” – albeit in ways left entirely mysterious.
PSD can impact anyone, including nonbinary people and men. Still, few people have heard of patriarchy stress disorder,
You see, you haven’t heard of it, this new and modish ailment, for which no convincing definition is offered, beyond unspecified “systems of inequality” and repeating the word patriarchy many, many times. And yet apparently, simultaneously, we’re assured that said ailment – and its purported transmission – is the obvious go-to explanation for why “high-achieving women” – ladies much like Ms Roth – have so often failed “to have it all and thrive,” despite the promises of feminism. Why supposedly empowered ladies fail to “own their own shine.”
We’re told that the term patriarchy stress disorder was coined by “Dr Valerie Rein, Ph.D.,” and that Dr Rein – allegedly a “women’s mental health expert” – “learned that trauma could be genetically transmitted.” A link is provided, introducing us to “Dr Valerie” – though, again, no explanation or evidence of this alleged genetic transmission is included. We’re merely told that “trauma lives in our nervous system.” Which, as you can imagine, is immensely helpful. A second link, written by the expert in question, supposedly explaining Patriarchy Stress Disorder and its transmission, does no such thing. A third link, to the pages of Good Housekeeping, is similarly mysterious and short on particulars.
The symptoms of this phantom, catch-all disorder are numerous, often vague, and seemingly unrelated. The list includes insomnia; feeling a “need to try harder;” feeling insufficiently happy about pretty much anything; feeling “uneasy,” or greedy, or ungrateful. Feeling that one isn’t a sexual athlete. Or just being displeased by one’s own fatness. Almost any kind of uncertainty or dissatisfaction, whether substantive or self-indulgent, can now, it seems, be blamed on “the trauma of our ancestors” and the drowning of witches, and thus on “gender inequality,” however non-existent in the here and now. Whatever the woe, or fit of neuroticism, the cause, we’re assured, is “as pervasive as it is invisible,” and, says Dr Valerie, “It’s not our fault… it has nothing to do with us.”
Exactly how Ms Roth, a writer and Pilates instructor, is oppressed by “patriarchy,” and how she has been traumatised by it, crushed by the aforementioned “systems of inequality,” is not made clear either, and no examples are forthcoming. None whatsoever. Perhaps expectations of evidence – even a single, relevant anecdote – are now considered superfluous and impolite. Readers of Scary Mommy are nonetheless expected to nod in agreement, before checking their breasts for signs of “inherited trauma.” Readers may wish to ponder the appeal of a worldview, an intersectional science-fiction narrative, in which one’s feelings and resentments – and any number of failures and shortcomings – aren’t actually one’s own, but are instead somehow inherited, like sickle cell anaemia or grandma’s knick-knacks.
Via Princess Cutekitten.
Ah, a button. I wonder what it does.
Can anyone remember the time when absolutely nobody wanted to be a victim of something? I can’t help but feel those were better days…
before checking their breasts for signs of “inherited trauma.”
Actual LOL
Can anyone remember the time when absolutely nobody wanted to be a victim of something?
Well, victimhood, however pretentious, is now a kind of status. A ready-made identity, and often a substitute for a personality or individual charm.
Other gems from ‘Scary Mommy’:
Could Your Astrological Sign Indicate Whether You’re More Likely to Be Vaxxed?
8 Signs You’re The Victim Of Gaslighting
‘Friendship Audits’ Aren’t Always About The Toxic People In Our Lives
My Youngest Kid Is ‘Spoiled’ Because I’m F*cking Tired*
I Have Eco-Anxiety—Here’s What That Means
* They are always tired. Why are they always tired?
I suffer from Ferraric Stress Disorder, because Ernesto hasn’t given me a free 812 Superfast yet. This has been passed on to me through my genes going back to the primordial slime. I have receipts.
They are always tired. Why are they always tired?
They can’t all be Lili Von Shtupp, can they?
before checking their breasts for signs of “inherited trauma.”
Ok, am checking, but could you be a little more specific about what I’m checking for?
“Science Serves The Party”
Funny, isn’t it, how the most traumatized victims of the patriarchy are middle class and wealthy women living lives of comfort and luxury in pleasant safe communities.
Ok, am checking, but could you be a little more specific about what I’m checking for?
Bondo and paint that doesn’t quite match, usually.
Teh Patriarchy is pretty shoddy when it comes to covering up old trauma.
2. Do you have imposter [sic] syndrome?
Irony can be pretty ironic.
Ok, am checking, but could you be a little more specific about what I’m checking for?
Madam, must you do that at the bar?
[ Flicks discarded bra out of way to make room for bar snacks. ]
before checking their breasts for signs of “inherited trauma.”
Possible clue.
Has it never occurred to these women* that it is impossible for anyone, man or woman, to “have it all”? Do they not realize everything in life involves trade-offs and everyone must give up one thing in order to have another?
* Legally women but the emotional maturity of girls.
Well, at least it’s not “internalised capitalism.”
“Dr. Valerie Rein is a psychologist and women’s mental health expert who has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and created the only science-backed system for helping women achieve their ultimate success”.
A woman with no less than four degrees is pretty much obliged to “discover” something which is to her own advantage, or self-defined disadvantage as is generally the case nowadays.
On a separate note it would appear that Good Housekeeping has moved on from jam recipes and matching drapes.
“Dr. Valerie Rein is a psychologist and women’s mental health expert who has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and created the only science-backed system for helping women achieve their ultimate success”.
This is the modern, leftist version of L. Ron Hubbard inventing Dianetics and Scientology.
who has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD)
This is a clear example of the slipping standards of today; the editor didn’t even catch the misspelling of the word, ‘invented’.
I am suffering from WSSS. Woke Stupidity Stress Syndrome. Symptoms – wanting either to laugh or cry (often at the same time) and with an uncontrollable urge to shout “HOW FUCKING STUPID”.
“I Have Eco-Anxiety—Here’s What That Means”
Oh, we know what it means…
Meanwhile, and related, at the World Economic Forum, we learn of the problem of Toxic Positivity.
Dr. Valerie Rein is a psychologist and women’s mental health expert who has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder
So she’s rediscovered Larmarckism?
So she’s rediscovered Larmarckism?
I’d guess that some ladies of the left have heard similar noises coming from black racial narcissists and their woke enablers, and decided, “Ooh, we’ll have some of that.”
So she’s rediscovered Larmarckism?
More likely Lysenkoism, and it’s only a matter of time before she tries to silence her critics.
“science-backed” is telling.
The three great causes for our time namely climate change/global warming, gender self-identification and lockdown overkill are all “backed” by authoritarian government-funded scientists. I prefer my research to be science-based with freely accessible data/evidence and replicable results but that makes me a pariah nowadays.
despite the promises of feminism
I think I see the problem…
A handy reference:
Irony can be pretty ironic.
Canadian Folk/Rock singer hardest hit?
The invocation of “the patriarchy” is just a bunch of woo. No one can have it all. Married men drive farther to work, work more hours, accept more dangerous or stressful jobs, and die more (98% of workplace fatalities are men) in order for their families to “thrive”. They miss kids events and milestones because of work. 60% of college students are women, with even a majority in med school. When women have kids, many suddenly find that work is not so great and they want to stay home with the kids and raise them. It is good fortune to be able to do this, not oppression.
That trauma is “inherited” is also invoked by Coates for black “trauma” as a get out of jail card for the inability to find oppression existing today.
Crazy? Or maliciously dishonest? (via Inspector Gadget)
Crazy?
That was a full 180 degree reverse ferret in just 24 days.
Impressive.
“learned that trauma could be genetically transmitted.”
One small study (32 subjects) of the epigenetic effects on the children of Holocaust survivors and all the political advocates of victomology went “AHA!!”. If one dares point out there are loads of successful blacks, browns, women, victim du jour, just point out and say INHERITED TRAUMA as a Forever Victim Cudgel with which to beat people over the head.
Turns out that one does NOT “inherit trauma” but may (and researchers say it’s rare) inherit sensitivity so one may get anxious or depressed more easily.
I’ve grown weary of the use of SCIENCE!! as the ultimate “gotcha” when the historical and contemporary malicious misuse of the term is all too apparent.
The invocation of “the patriarchy” is just a bunch of woo.
Like “whiteness” and “white supremacy,” it functions as a conspiracy theory.
Wankers: “I’m unhappy/crazy/lazy/stupid, and need someone to blame.”
The left: “Have we got a deal for you!”
Well, victimhood, however pretentious, is now a kind of status.
It’s a lot more than that. Victimhood is POWER. If you present yourself as a victim, everyone must bend the knee and do whatever you say. Anyone who doesn’t capitulate becomes one of your oppressors and can then be canceled and destroyed. To the kind of people who crave power over others, this is an irresistible lure. As a result, the demand for victimhood outstrips the supply, and new classes of victims must be invented every day to close the gap. Fortunately, our woke overlords are very good at that kind of thing.
In the absence of religion (or even not being a believer but accepting the moral structure that is provided by it), the only “evil” they can find in the world is oppression (conveniently provided as a construct by Marx) and therefore the only good person is a victim. Doing charity, refraining from crime etc are no longer considered. Only oppression/victimhood. The logical extension that “oppressed” criminals are victims leads to our current mess: DA that won’t prosecute even murder, thieves walking out of stores with all the goods until they shut down, a rape on a train that no-one intervened, etc. as well as calls to exterminate whites (by whites I might add). It is all logical, but wrong.
Victimhood is POWER.
Only if others buy in to the delusion. The proper reply to most of this sort is, well… “F off”. Or “bless your heart”
Related Victim Science™…
Not to worry, Teh Patriarchy™ is there too…
Wait for it…
Dropping out is self-love and disrupts systems of power. OK, you go with that if you think anyone in the Harvard administration really gives a damn as long as the check clears.
There is clear evidence that neuroses like this (victimhood, whining) are controllable attitudes rather than real mental illnesses. During past times there was plenty of real hardship but not this obsession with how unfair things are and how oppressed one is. In a study of the Dutch under German occupation during WWII, where the country was still functioning though sometimes starving, admissions for mental illness went down during the war. People had a real focus on real problems and didn’t get lost in their heads. On US college campus’ these days there is a huge upswing in self-reported mental illness. Almost no one I ever met in college 50 yrs ago mentioned being mentally unwell, nor did they appear so. “goth” was a tiny fraction.
But no more. I have chosen a path to justice and healing that is rooted in self-love and preservation.
In other words, she had a C average and expected to get a D in organic chemistry.
Was she admitted under “affirmative action” quotas?
Much of the trouble with militant blacks on college campuses in the sixties was from underqualified blacks who struggled to catch up with better prepared students.
she had a C average and expected to get a D in organic chemistry.
I’m guessing an “affirmative” admission, and “inorganic” chemistry is just, well… chemistry. But you white people with your fancy terms and all…
[ Rummages under bar for tongs. Picks up discarded bra. ]
Is Felicity coming back for this?
In other words, she had a C average and expected to get a D in organic chemistry.
The histrionics over someone she never knew would explain the probable C and D.
If that doesn’t merit an Order of the Red Banner, nothing does, brave soldier.
Well, victimhood, however pretentious, is now a kind of status
I’m old enough to remember when people fought over not having to sit at the back of the bus.
I’m guessing an “affirmative” admission, and “inorganic” chemistry is just, well… chemistry.
To nit pick, I seem to recall that inorganic chemistry was traditionally taken before organic chem, so I expect that really was inorganic.
Is Felicity coming back for this?
I’m operating a Free Clinic in that dimly lit booth way in the back.
“This Halloween, see… Scary Mommy Mutant! She had it all, but now she’s a freak. Watch her devolve! Opening Friday.”
That’s what has to be meant by “inherited trauma”, right?
First World Problems.
Trofim Denisovich would have had difficulty finding any science in this narrative.
If the patriarchy hadn’t died in western civilization about 50 years ago, she might have a point.
Maybe she’s a time traveler.
Oh no: Instalanch again!
Homeopathic Trauma, caused by Homeopathic Violence…
Mass Hysteria continues to metastasize.
“Has it never occurred to these women* that it is impossible for anyone, man or woman, to ‘have it all’?”
Well, that’s not entirely true. Many men have “had it all” in the sense of having (a) a satisfying and fulfilling career and (b) as much time with their family as they want for their family time to feel equally satisfying and fulfilling, in the confidence of the support and commitment of their partners in that family. It’s not unreasonable for women to gripe that they don’t seem able to pull off this same feat.
The problem women have had with attempting to realize this same accomplishment is twofold:
1) To achieve the same career success as men, women generally have to devote at least as much time as men, which means by definition that their children get less time, and women experience this loss of time with their children far more painfully than men do;
2) For the family to be happy and healthy, in practice one partner has to focus on home and children over work, and men willing to defer their own career ambitions to be a househusband become by that very deference less respectable, interesting and fulfilling as partners to the women who need them. (If a woman wants a career because she despises the idea of being a homemaker, how can she be expected to respect a male partner willing to reduce himself to a vocation she sees as beneath her own dignity?)
Put simply, men only get to “have it all” because they know exactly what they are willing to pass up in one area to secure accomplishment in another, and are (mostly) far more willing to live with these choices (the number of men rendered miserable workaholics by poor home lives is not inconsiderable, either). Until feminism is willing to admit these intractable issues it is going to continue pounding its head against a brick wall, I think.
I suspect that Dr. Rein learned that trauma could be genetically transmitted by reading Jack London’s Before Adam.
On second thought, I doubt she’s ever read London, he was a toxic male donchaknow. Maybe she learned it watching the Assassin’s Creed movie.
It is not even remotely coincidental that college-level biology courses are much easier than inorganic chemistry courses, which are much easier than organic chemistry courses. Back when I was studying chemical engineering, second-year org chem was the undergrad killer.
She was flunking org chem, which means she’s never going to have a medical career. This is the Angry Black Woman equivalent of pulling the fire alarm during an exam.
Turns out that one does NOT “inherit trauma” but may (and researchers say it’s rare) inherit sensitivity
It’s not rare. The amygadala is the part of the brain that regulates the fight-or-flight response; it’s what lights up in response to perceived danger and triggers the body’s various endocrine responses. Its baseline sensitivity is heritable, but in normal people it gets desensitized as they grow up by constant exposure to mild stresses like playground fights and having to eat vegetables you don’t like.
Whether someone develops PTSD after a severe trauma is determined by how sensitive their amygdala is, which is a combination of those two factors. If they have a genetic tendency towards an extremely sensitive amygdala, their children will inherit it.
The reason the inheritance seems rare is that for it to show up under these circumstances, you need:
1) A parent with a naturally sensitive amygdala;
2) Whose amygdala remained sensitive into adulthood due to a lack of exposure to moderate stress;
3) Who suffered a severe trauma before reproducing;
4) Had a child who inherited their sensitive amygdala;
5) Also retained a sensitive amygdala into adulthood;
6) And suffered a trauma severe enough to trigger PTSD-like reactions
Absent any one of the conditions and you don’t get the observable effect that parents with PTSD are more likely to have children with PTSD.
This, btw, is why BPD/NPD/CPTSD was thought to be heritable for many years; even controlling for the fact that parents with CPTSD tend to traumatize their children, the reason the parents developed CPTSD in the first place was a naturally hypersensitive amygdala.
Until feminism is willing to admit these intractable issues it is going to continue pounding its head against a brick wall
Feminism isn’t about equality, it’s about stoking divisions between men and women to create the inevitable class/race/sex war that will lead to the glorious revolution.
Back when I was studying chemical engineering, second-year org chem was the undergrad killer.
I knew a number of chemistry majors and pre-med students. It was not uncommon for them to take a reduced course load in the semester that they took Organic Chemistry. Organic, Diff Eq’s, and nothing else.
She was flunking org chem, which means she’s never going to have a medical career. This is the Angry Black Woman equivalent of pulling the fire alarm during an exam.
Probably for the best: I would not want to be under the care of an Angry Black Woman (or Man).
having to eat vegetables you don’t like
Stop oppressing me!
Ah, organic chemistry.
Boy Two is a ChemEng major who is “enjoying” his organic chemistry class so I understand those comments.
Instalanch
“It’s David Thompson, so fight the patriarchy by reading the whole thing.”
Organic, Diff Eq’s, and nothing else
O_o I wouldn’t want to take DEs and Org Chem in the same year, much less the same semester.
Stop oppressing me!
No. And eat your broccoli. It’s an antioxidant.
These bozos think the impinging of reality on their bubble is oppression. Things like tradeoffs, and everything costs, and other people have rights, and you have to work your way up, and courtesy goes a long way. They do not want to look up to heroes because it makes them feel bad about their shitty life.
Apologies to the real bozo.
Well, victimhood, however pretentious, is now a kind of status. A ready-made identity, and often a substitute for a personality or individual charm.
Well then, the just need to go get a tatou, that seems to be the current substitute for personality or individual charm…
She was flunking org chem”
Wasn’t doing great at inorg, either. Point is that “chem” classes have been dialed back (as have most others), so there’s “kollege chem” for all, then “slightly advanced” (now called inorg), then on to organic. Her screed is unclear, but seems she bailed on both…
Either way, sad that she’s a voice for Haaavad.
O_o I wouldn’t want to take DEs and Org Chem in the same year, much less the same semester.
“The DEs give me the DTs.”
I never took Org Chem, but DE was indeed tough. Likewise Quantum Mechanics and Theory of Electromagnetism.
Wasn’t doing great at inorg, either.
I suppose I should repeat that I concluded from her political complaints that she was struggling with the course material: If she had been doing well then she would not have been so chronically unhappy.
I have chosen a path to justice and healing that is rooted in self-love and preservation.
That path will involve either a “grievance studies” degree followed by a career using Diversity Inclusion and Equity dogma to bully white and Asian people, or else she will drop out to work in a restaurant where she can spit in people’s food.
Today is the anniversary of the taking of the HMS Macedonian by the USS United States.
Free trade and sailor’s rights!
“PSD can impact anyone, including nonbinary people and men.”
Well, she may have something there. Just look at PMS.
“PSD” sounds like it’s actually “PDS” — Patriarchy Derangement Syndrome.
#SupplyChain: The local Chinese restaurant is out of bean sprouts. Bean sprouts.
Chinese restaurant is out of bean sprouts.
You say that as if it is a bad thing.
Today is Saint Crispin’s Day.
You say that as if it is a bad thing.
You can’t make Hong Kong style chow fun noodle dishes with bean sprouts. Barbarian.
Without bean sprouts. Without! See how angry you’ve made me, you heathen? Heretic! Goth! Defiler of all that is sacred!
Without bean sprouts.
Substitute biodegradeable packing peanuts, same taste, more filling.
Care to step outside?
Care to step outside?
I already am, got some char siu going over a coat fire.
Might be able to scrounge a can of La Choy from a hobo for you…
Sidewindin’ bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker!
Sad, no sprouts and you have the Hong Kong Blues.
Sad, no sprouts and you have the Hong Kong Blues.
I didn’t recognize it until I clicked the link. Just for that fun link I won’t kill you. This time. (Insert the cheesiest 1930’s gangster film dialogue you can think of.)
On a more serious note, anyone have an answer to my Walt Kelly question in the previous thread?
…I won’t kill you. This time.
Yeah, yeah. I’ve been killed more times than you have had hot suppers, Sonny Jim.
Isn’t that expression supposed to be Sunny Jim? Or did it mutate when it came across the Atlantic?
Or did it mutate when it came across the Atlantic?
Sounny Jim. Covers both bases…
Re Related Victim Science: …”my body inhaled molecules of white supremacy as they seeped out of my computer…” Guys, is this one of those deadly computer viruses (virii?) they’re always banging on about on the front page of the tabloids at my supermarket checkout?
…I won’t kill you. This time. …
I’ll just hit you so hard I’ll kill your whole family.
Just so I understand the searing depth of her oppression here:
Here we have a college educated white woman who prances around in tights all day and then heads home to write a fact-free complaint column designed to sow discord and rip up the whole fabric of society to gratify her feminist egotism.
While she’s comfortably living off her deceased husband’s life insurance proceeds.
There’s a special place in Hell reserved for people like her: Canto XXVIII, Bolgia 9, “Sowers of Discord.”
You know what word I’m not comfortable with? Nuance. It’s not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture’s a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong.
Saint Crispin’s Day [1415]. Don’t forget the other ‘away’ matches previously played in the ‘series’ at Crecy [1346] and then Poitiers [1356]. The Frogs got thumped 3-0 in spite of a home ground advantage.
The Frogs got thumped 3-0 in spite of a home ground advantage
I wouldn’t say it was quite 3-0
Baceseras: I suspect Mark Steyn shared your distaste — at least, one of his favored insults for John Kerry used to be “nuancy-boy”.
Almost any kind of uncertainty or dissatisfaction, whether substantive or self-indulgent, can now, it seems, be blamed on “the trauma of our ancestors” and the drowning of witches, and thus on “gender inequality,” however non-existent in the here and now.
Snake oil.
[ Rummages under bar for tongs. Picks up discarded bra. ]
Is Felicity coming back for this?
Actually feeling kinda liberated, think I’ll leave it.
Snake oil.
Yes, pretty much. And so, dissatisfied or neurotic feminists can blame their dissatisfaction and neuroticism on other people, strangers long dead. And I should make clear that the reference to witches isn’t some flourish on my part – Dr Valerie includes it as an explanation for contemporary woe.
And if the feminist urge to displace responsibility sounds familiar, you may be thinking of this.
Actually feeling kinda liberated, think I’ll leave it.
The lost property box gets stranger by the day.
discarded bra
Band name.