Schizoid Ladies: Do you appear less feminine?

under ice wrote:Since you asked this, I'd like to know the same thing about you. Do you appear less masculine? Or are you an alpha male?

Just talking about myself but for some subset of "masculine" stuff I do come across as less of that. That's not to say I come across as any more feminine.

I don't know, people have all sorts of ideas about what's supposedly masculine or not. And it's like it changes every year anyway. In the end I think it's high-schoolers who define it, because they're the ones most worried about it.

All in all I think I'm just an average guy.

But hey,

Rainsworth wrote:for example, women tend to talk faster, they show a more various range of facial expressions compared to men, their body language is faster and they use hands gestures more frequently than men while speaking.

that's not the average woman, it's the average Italian

Holodeck wrote:

Rainsworth wrote:Most SPD symptoms seems to be more appropriate for male than females. with the exception of the low-sex drive/asexuality. but overall, i can imagine a Schizoid Woman with all the SPD traits who still act feminine.

I'd say more asexual, since there's no motivation which is typically attributed to high testosterone. I think perhaps you're more hung up on physique (?) I do certain things that are more feminine/masculine from time to time to deal with things more easily, or if my bipolar kicks in where I'm oddly motivated, making bad decisions, and grinning manically a lot (though still fitting with the schizoid traits other than possibly flirting with women more, though that could probably go in the bad decision pile along with overeating and shopping too much.)

Yeah, the lack of motivation is definitely not one of the masculine trait of SPD, i'd even say it's a feminine trait. i've heard couple of stories about how Schizoid guys met their girlfriends and how she was the one who made the first move. i'd imagine we, schizoid men, aren't as assertive in relationships as the average neurotypical man.

i also notice that men are more motivated than women. not to say women aren't motivated, though. just less so.

Asexuality could be considered more of a feminine trait, too. although i don't personally see how it affects an individual's mannerism, but men are expected to be those super sexual freaks in most cultures. so a guy -probably a young one who's still insecure about such things- would feel he's less of a man compared to other men.

All in all, Schizoid Personality Disorder have its share of both masculine and feminine characteristics.
leaning more towards the male-ish side of things. which explains why it affects more men than women.

zeno wrote:that's not the average woman, it's the average Italian

I've been raised in a similar culture to Italians. and i still noticed how all of these traits i've mentioned are more amplified in women.

Rainsworth wrote:Yeah, the lack of motivation is definitely not one of the masculine trait of SPD, i'd even say it's a feminine trait. i've heard couple of stories about how Schizoid guys met their girlfriends and how she was the one who made the first move. i'd imagine we, schizoid men, aren't as assertive in relationships as the average neurotypical man.

Funny thing is I remember being taught when I was young to never ask a guy out because I was told it wasn't considered feminine. I've dated a handful of guys and two women...never been asked out in my life.

I'm going with the others with feminine vs masculine definitions changing too often to matter. It feels silly since I tend to go with whatever I feel works for me at the time.

Rainsworth wrote:I've been raised in a similar culture to Italians. and i still noticed how all of these traits i've mentioned are more amplified in women.

It might be, but to me those things sound mostly neutral. And if you think about it, those traits you mentioned (which mostly amount to "expansiveness") are probably seen as not feminine in a culture like Japan, where women are expected to be "modest and gracious". The bottom line is it's a cultural thing.

The whole "ultra-male brain" theory seems questionable to me. But even assuming that it does hold water, I don't think it means that the person will seem more or less masculine or feminine, because that has more to do with the learning of nonverbal culture than with actual measurable brain features that are biologically correlated with gender.

I'm probably not the archtypical masculine guy but I'm sometimes curious if I am secretly masculine. If you've ever noticed the guy that takes a little bit too much space and tries a little bit too much to have the most talking time and you just want to give him a little bit of a cheap plastic surgery with some bullets, does that make me even more masculine than him, because I'm removing the enemy?

I'd imagine that personality disorders or not you'd still have some biology inside that nothing can suppress.

But on topic, the only thing I can imagine a schizo girl looks like would likely be skinny, short hair (something like a bob cut, schizoid is too sane for the masculine cuts) and a small amount of makeup. Or at least that's how it seems in theory how I would act if I was a woman.

I can't imagine how a schizoid time of the month would look like, though... or, schizoid foreplay.

EmpathySucks wrote:
But on topic, the only thing I can imagine a schizo girl looks like would likely be skinny, short hair (something like a bob cut, schizoid is too sane for the masculine cuts) and a small amount of makeup. Or at least that's how it seems in theory how I would act if I was a woman.

I can't imagine how a schizoid time of the month would look like, though... or, schizoid foreplay.

zeno wrote:It might be, but to me those things sound mostly neutral. And if you think about it, those traits you mentioned (which mostly amount to "expansiveness") are probably seen as not feminine in a culture like Japan, where women are expected to be "modest and gracious". The bottom line is it's a cultural thing.

I think it's more of a biological thing. Women are "wired" to be more emotional, more expressive.
so wherever you go, in whatever culture, the average woman is more emotional and expressive than the average man. regardless of what the culture regard/consider appropriate.

Honestly, sometimes it baffles me a little bit that people would argue about this or even try to prove that men are as emotional as women. it clearly seems more natural than nurture. at least for me. but yeah.. environment definitely plays a role too.

Watch some bits of this video, the women are clearly more expressive than the men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZL4BLY-n4

Rainsworth wrote:

zeno wrote:It might be, but to me those things sound mostly neutral. And if you think about it, those traits you mentioned (which mostly amount to "expansiveness") are probably seen as not feminine in a culture like Japan, where women are expected to be "modest and gracious". The bottom line is it's a cultural thing.

I think it's more of a biological thing. Women are "wired" to be more emotional, more expressive.
so wherever you go, in whatever culture, the average woman is more emotional and expressive than the average man. regardless of what the culture regard/consider appropriate.

Honestly, sometimes it baffles me a little bit that people would argue about this or even try to prove that men are as emotional as women. it clearly seems more natural than nurture. at least for me. but yeah.. environment definitely plays a role too.

Watch some bits of this video, the women are clearly more expressive than the men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZL4BLY-n4

Only thing I find interesting to note from the video is people who are with more than one person seems to act more emotionally and people who are solitary when he approaches aren't. This happens with both men and women in the video. Most of the time the men in the video are alone, and women seem to be in groups. They all look young so probably know each other from school or whatever. They often seem to be grinning out of nervousness too.

By the way, this is a little bit off-topic, but.. if anyone of you guys happens to be interested in anime, and want to see a depiction of Female Schizoid, check out Neon Genesis Evangelion. for being a mature, well-written anime on its own, and to take a peak at a "Schizoid Waifu"

There's a character in the show that behavior is consistent with SPD. i doubt the author have wrote her as a depiction of the Personality Disorder. but who cares.. ?
I personally watched the show before i even knew SPD exists, i knew she was one of my favorite characters for a reason.

http://p7.qhmsg.com/t011d44f6af0015232d ... ze=640x480
http://www.absoluteanime.com/neon_genes ... on/rei.jpg

There's also a movie "The Remains Of The Day" that features a Male Schizoid character, but i didn't watch the movie, personally.