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'''Shyness''', under the label of, | '''Shyness''', under the label of, '''social anxiety disorder''', has been built up as an “unhealthy”, or “suspicious”, state of mind for people living in modern Western societies. In that it’s behavioral, “symptoms”, suggest a failure to achieve a non-universal set of racial or culturally based values, such as chattiness, individual expression, and assertiveness. Shyness is more and more defined as a problem for which people can, and should, be treated, usually with [[psychiatry|drugging]]. | ||
Shyness in sexual matters is a [[life history|slow life history]] adaptation in that it involves careful mate choices and high investment in the offspring. Even though such adaptations are valuable for modern society, sexual liberation favors the [[hybristophilia|exact opposite]] in sexual behavior. Shyness may be the result of an [[evolutionary mismatch]] due to modern society abandoning [[arranged marriage]] traditions which were highly prevalent in human history. | |||
==Female shyness 'cute', but male shyness 'bad'== | ==Female shyness 'cute', but male shyness 'bad'== | ||
McDaniel (2001)<ref>McDaniel, P.A. (2001) Shrinking violets and casper milquetoasts: shyness and heterosexuality from the roles of the fifties to the rules of the nineties, Journal of Social History, 2001, 34, 3, 547–68.</ref> argues that high amounts of concern regarding shyness comes during times when it is thought of as a barrier to the emotional work required to achieve intimacy in hetero relationships for both genders. | McDaniel (2001)<ref>McDaniel, P.A. (2001) Shrinking violets and casper milquetoasts: shyness and heterosexuality from the roles of the fifties to the rules of the nineties, Journal of Social History, 2001, 34, 3, 547–68.</ref> argues that high amounts of concern regarding shyness comes during times when it is thought of as a barrier to the emotional work required to achieve intimacy in hetero relationships for both genders. | ||
Shyness in women and children has traditionally been seen as endearing and ‘cute’ (Scott 2004a)<ref>.Scott, S. (2004a) The shell, the stranger and the competent other: towards a sociology of shyness, Sociology, 38, 1, 121–37.</ref>, and men are given more social stigma as being shy. Media representations of shy male characters focus on the barriers this poses to success at work and in personal relationships (Scott 2003),<ref>Scott, S. (2003) Towards a Sociology of Shyness. PhD thesis. School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University.</ref> where the shyness in romantic situations (Gilmartin 1987)<ref>Gilmartin, B.G. (1987) Shyness and Love: Causes, Consequences and Treatment. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.</ref> implies a tragic, “failure”, to assert one’s masculinity. Shyness is shown as a ‘feminine’ trait in the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem 1974)<ref>Bem, S.L. (1974) The measurement of psychological androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 152–62.</ref>, alongside moodiness, gullibility, soft-spokenness, compassion and unpredictability. Being, “mentally healthy”, typically implies masculine instead of feminine traits (Broverman et al. 1970)<ref>Broverman, I.K., Broverman, D.M., Clarkson, F.E. Rosencrantz, P.S. and Vogel, S.R. (1970). Sex-role stereotypes and clinical judgements of mental health, Journal of Counselling and Clinical Psychology, 34, 1, 1–7.</ref>. Therefore, shyness being a feminine trait would explain why shyness has been seen as an undesirable attribute, particularly in men. Besides mainstream culture, the relatively underground network of men’s websites acknowledge this phenomena as well, just more to-the-point: | Shyness in women and children has traditionally been seen as endearing and ‘cute’ (Scott 2004a)<ref>.Scott, S. (2004a) The shell, the stranger and the competent other: towards a sociology of shyness, Sociology, 38, 1, 121–37.</ref>, and men are given more social stigma as being shy. Media representations of shy male characters focus on the barriers this poses to success at work and in personal relationships (Scott 2003),<ref>Scott, S. (2003) Towards a Sociology of Shyness. PhD thesis. School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University.</ref> where the shyness in romantic situations (Gilmartin 1987)<ref>Gilmartin, B.G. (1987) Shyness and Love: Causes, Consequences and Treatment. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.</ref> implies a tragic, “failure”, to assert one’s masculinity. Shyness is shown as a ‘feminine’ trait in the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem 1974)<ref>Bem, S.L. (1974) The measurement of psychological androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 152–62.</ref>, alongside moodiness, gullibility, soft-spokenness, compassion and unpredictability. Being, “mentally healthy”, typically implies masculine instead of feminine traits (Broverman et al. 1970)<ref>Broverman, I.K., Broverman, D.M., Clarkson, F.E. Rosencrantz, P.S. and Vogel, S.R. (1970). Sex-role stereotypes and clinical judgements of mental health, Journal of Counselling and Clinical Psychology, 34, 1, 1–7.</ref>. Therefore, shyness being a feminine trait would explain why shyness has been seen as an undesirable attribute, particularly in men. Besides mainstream culture, the relatively underground network of men’s websites acknowledge this phenomena as well, just more to-the-point: | ||
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==American psychiatric association== | ==American psychiatric association== | ||
Those in the APA and other organizations who helped create “social phobia” as a disorder in 1980 (Marc-Antoine 2015)<ref>Marc-Antoine, C. (2015) A history of anxiety: from Hippocrates to DSM, 2015, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 319–325.</ref> hopefully acknowledged shyness at best occupies a blurred line between health risk and an unnecessarily socially constructed deviance. However, the social construction begets the health risk, with the APA playing a large negative role. A variety of anxiety phenomena is due to drugs (Cohen 1995)<ref>Cohen, S I (1995) Alcohol and benzodiazepines generate anxiety, panic and phobias, Feb, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 88, 73–77.</ref> rather than biology. Emotional disturbance from shyness is a valid social reaction from shy people who are ostracized more so than others from those who need confidence from *others* based on a certain masculine set of cultural values. | Those in the APA and other organizations who helped create “social phobia” as a disorder in 1980 (Marc-Antoine 2015)<ref>Marc-Antoine, C. (2015) A history of anxiety: from Hippocrates to DSM, 2015, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 319–325.</ref> hopefully acknowledged shyness at best occupies a blurred line between health risk and an unnecessarily socially constructed deviance. However, the social construction begets the health risk, with the APA playing a large negative role. A variety of anxiety phenomena is due to drugs (Cohen 1995)<ref>Cohen, S I (1995) Alcohol and benzodiazepines generate anxiety, panic and phobias, Feb, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 88, 73–77.</ref> rather than biology. Emotional disturbance from shyness is a valid social reaction from shy people who are ostracized more so than others from those who need confidence from *others* based on a certain masculine set of cultural values. | ||
''(The above text was originally authored by Wiki admin [[:User:William]] on Medium for the anti-psychiatric social justice blog ''Mad in America'', it has been reproduced with permission, and may be taken down with subsequent permission)'' | ''(The above text was originally authored by Wiki admin [[:User:William]] on Medium for the anti-psychiatric social justice blog ''Mad in America'', it has been reproduced with permission, and may be taken down with subsequent permission)'' | ||