Many narratives about women on PPD appear very similar, as if they were all written about the same woman, or were written by the same person. There is a missing spark of life in all of these stories. One is under the impression that none of these women have internal lives, make informed or justified decisions, have unique preferences, or have specific qualities that require specific approaches.

I have to wonder how much social media plays a role in this. Obviously, we don't want to reveal too much about ourselves, and we hide especially unique traits to be anonymous. When every woman-focused narrative online looks the same, it's easy to become cynical. Is this constant barrage of a flattened internal life robbing us of the ability to empathize with each other?

One way to get around this issue is to engage with stories about women that are not from the Internet. Books are an especially good way to understand the internal lives of other people, but even a semi-artistic movie is better than reddit.

Questions 4 Men:

  • Besides Reddit and short form video content, where do you hear a lot of narratives about women? (Friends, coworkers, church...)
  • What was the last movie/book you saw with a female protagonist? What kind of narrative was it?
  • What was the last novel you read by a female author?
  • What's the most unique story you've read about a woman?