Last week, psychologist David Ludden gave a talk at New York’s Rubin Museum of Art entitled, ‘on Intuition’. During it, he presented an interesting theory: that ‘women’s intuition’ is the result of society’s collective decision to allow women to feel. As reported by New York magazine David explained that the traditional views of women as ‘emotional’ and men as ‘rational’ have created an environment where women’s intuition is to be trusted, because women are told to listen to their emotions. Men, however, are taught to disengage from theirs, so the assumption is, they have no intuition.
The feminist angle to take here would be one of outrage. Outrage at the news that society, MEN, have brainwashed us women to such an extent that our very gut instincts have been created by them because we, as the ‘carer’ sex, have been conditioned to listen to our feelings. Isn’t it dreadful???
I’m hiding behind a pillow as I write this, but, no, I don’t think it is. Whilst obviously I don’t subscribe to the opinion that women are solely emotional and men, solely rational, I do subscribe to the opinion women have ‘feminine intuition’ and – I’m actually hiding behind the sofa now – I don’t care if this is something men have brainwashed us to believe. Why? Because I’m proud of my feminine intuition. Pow!
But before I get into that, let’s quickly look at what ‘intuition’ actually is. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: ‘the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning’. So we can basically see it as our instincts, our gut feeling.
Next question: what is ‘feminine intuition’ and how does it differ from normal intuition? Scientists have failed to come up with an answer – or even prove it exists. Largely I’d say the term describes a more astute intuition; an ability to read people and situations even more acutely, based on the feelings of compassion and empathy. It could be knowing that someone needs a hug in spite of the fact they’re laughing, or rushing to a child’s side even though they haven’t yet started crying or knowing that for whatever reason you absolutely have to call your gran tonight.
The times when my feminine intuition has enabled me to read a person or situation correctly are amongst the times I’ve felt most proud of myself. I don’t care if the reason I am able to do it comes down to the fact that, as a woman, I’ve been trained to be more in tune with my emotions than a man would be. Because I believe the ability to understand something without even thinking about it and acting on that understanding to help someone or make better a situation, is an incredibly powerful tool to have and one I would never give up, let alone resent.
In fact, the only thing I do resent (if David’s theory is correct) is that men have been denied this power by ‘society’. Being taught that your emotions should be ignored and contained, your gut separated from your brain, presumably because listening to it is considered ‘unmasculine’… Isn’t that denying men a fundamental part of what it is to be human? That women have been ‘allowed’ by society to nurture this important part of humanity – to feel things – is actually wonderful. What’s not is the knowledge that men have not been allowed to do the same.
So yes, I am absolutely proud of my ‘feminine intuition’ – though I’m not too attached to its wording. I greatly look forward to the day where society decides its ok for both men and women to feel things, to be emotional, so this ‘ability’ can take on a new, altogether more unisex phrasing, of simply being: ‘intuition’.