Most relaxed field trip ever
So, last weekend I was on a geology field trip up to the Central Plateau. Which, unlike every other field trip I've been on, was actually quite relaxing. We didn't have to do work in the evenings! It makes an amazing difference to stress levels. Although the trip to the hot pools probably helped too.

On Saturday night then, most everyone was drinking. Some of them were still drunk in the morning. I, instead, had a very intense debate with one of the boys in my class, Ben. I'm not even entirely sure what we were debating most of the time, but the point that got me all worked up was when he told me women are more emotional than men, that this is scientific fact.

For context: I had been talking about my anthropology lecturer who told us that female anthropologists are all ethnocentric (more so than men). This is so because they are all studying gender. It annoyed me to no end (and one girl actually walked out).

So when Ben says to me, bitter sexist anthropology lecturer is right, I am immediately on the defensive. First, he is telling me that my work is never going to be as good as a man's, because I am a woman, and I am too emotional. (I am quite sensitive about this because I do tend to be an emotional person, and I am not comfortable with it. I don't see how it affects my work though). Second, he is telling me that my feelings towards the lecturer's statement are not justified; I am over-reacting. He is not saying either of these things, but that is how it reads.

Being on the defensive, I wasn't arguing as well as I could. I wanted to know how they could have really proven such a thing, how you can take socialisation out of it. Rather than saying, even if they have proven this, I bet it's on bell curves that overlap very closely - the average might be different, but you can't say anything about any one person based on such statistics. Rather than saying, which emotions are you talking about?

He might've felt confident telling me he wasn't particularly emotional, but see, it sure sounded that way when he'd been describing to me how he liked riding his motorbike. There are stereotypically male emotions as much as stereotypically female ones: you get the anger and ambition associated with testosterone, while us ladies get the sympathy and sadness and love. Maybe each sex is more susceptible to different chemicals, but I will not accept that women are more emotional than men. More emotionally expressive, yes. But that's a socialisation thing.

(Oh, for Heian Japan, where men were supposed to be sensitive and cry a lot, and it was bad manners not to cry when someone told you something sad. I would've done awesome.)

It was actually fun, though I do wish I had used my better points. Scaring people by debating really intensely with them is great. I don't know if he thinks he upset me or not? ( I more couldn't stop thinking about it from an intellectual perspective, an is my position justified perspective.) But I'd already astounded him that night, with the revelation that I don't see pictures in my head. I am just a total freak, really.