Racism, sexism and all the various other “hate these people” isms and phobias are arguably methods for expressing and rationalizing anger. And they’re bad. But what’s a good way?
Racism, sexism and all the various other “hate these people” isms and phobias are arguably methods for expressing and rationalizing anger. And they’re bad. But what’s a good way?
I’d have to agree that anger isn’t usually it’s own emotion, it’s a specific expression of fear or sadness. There are always exceptions I think, but usually there’s more to it.
My favorite thing is to express those things through humor. It’s not for everybody. If you’re not funny enough you can just sound like an idiot or an asshole, as I can. Other times it enables you to attack the root of the problem in a digestible way that doesn’t make a person feel attacked.
Especially in men, as men are generally socialized to keep most of their feelings to themselves. The only ones that are socially acceptable for a man to display tend to be ones like anger and maybe joy (or just contentment). So instead of fear or sadness, men have to express those emotions as anger to fit the expectations for their gender.
I think this is where most road rage comes from. We feel fear because someone does something stupid, or something bad happens on the road…but men aren’t supposed to feel scared, even if they could’ve gotten into an accident. So they express that strong emotion as anger, because that’s an acceptable outlet.