EULALEE THOMPSON
WOMEN OFTEN ask the question, "Do men feel?" And maybe it's because too many men pretend that they don't. Well, my best friends are usually men so I know the answer to that question. However, I placed the question squarely on the table when I visited Professor Freddie Hickling's University of the West Indies (UWI) offices the other day.
"Oh gosh, absolutely," replied an animated and more-than-slightly amused Professor Hickling.
It was embarrassing for me to pose the question and perhaps, even more so for the professor, himself a man, to hear it, but we kicked up the comfort level by laughing briefly at the situation and made the best of the interview.
"Men and women have the same anatomical limbic system, there is no difference in the make up ... do men have emotions? Yes, intense emotions. You may be referring to crying or tearfulness but that is just one simple action ... and women may be more socialised to cry," said Prof. Hickling, head, UWI's Section of Psychiatry.
Of course, I was very conscious and aware of my femaleness (and, of course, revelling in it) as I attempted to explore an issue for which my gender excludes me from experiential reference; I was, however, enjoying the challenge.
"It is a myth that we have to knock on the head ... men are very sensitive creatures, just like women are sensitive creatures and there have been lots of socialisation processes to make us believe that men don't have emotions and don't feel emotions. That's not true at all," he continued.
WHAT IS MALENESS?
Models: Robert Taylor, Edward Massias, Olando Pascoe & Adrian St. Louis -Saint International.
Just as I was conscious of my 'femaleness' in the interview, I wondered about the concept of 'maleness'. The response may have taken on a more psychological perspective, but as the interviewer, I should not impose the response. Prof. Hickling said that there is definitely a genetic component to maleness.
"Anatomically and physiologically, men are different from women and this is based on the genes and the DNA. So, in other words, when you look at the chromosomes of a man, it's XY and the female is XX. There is definitely a chromosomal difference between men and women, so there's no doubt that there is a physical attribution of maleness," he said.
The chromosomal and then hormonal (testosterone and oestrogen) differences covered, Prof. Hickling went further to say that although the world view is that men think differently than women, in general life event issues, men and women have the same thought mechanisms.
"Men and women think about eating ... providing things for the maintenance of life ... but the way in which men and women do things is sometimes controlled by the culture, the social environment in which they live. And, of course, the way in which men and women do things are often controlled by hormonal drives ... so there are things that they do together similarly and things that they do apart," he said.
THE MALE MID-LIFE CRISIS
Ad nauseam, women are told, often by their male gynaecologists, about dread of menopause. Now and again we hear of a male mid-life crisis -- andropause - does it really exist?
"There is no doubt that there is a hormonal pattern in women's life that doesn't happen in men's life in the same way," Prof. Hickling said. "A woman has a discrete reproductive period unlike men ... however, there is no doubt that as men grow older their sexual potency begins to diminish. This may be due to hormonal changes ... other physical changes and illnesses ... such as diabetes and hypertension ... which can diminish their sexual capacity and potency."
He said that the mid-life crisis in men was more psychological than physiological.
"When men come to the point in life where their potency is falling off ... some men reject their partners (who might not be looking the same now as in the early relationship) and tend to look outside their relationships. Many men now try to experiment, thinking that a young girlfriend will excite them... and so you have many of these older men having relationships with younger women. Of course, that doesn't work too well because their potency really is not good and the women realise what is happening because they are not being satisfied by these older men," he said.
The psycho-historical impact of slavery on current male/female relationships, he said, should not be overlooked. Based on this history, the concept of companionship was not learnt and passed on through the generations.
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