Women Love to Shop

It’s one of the oldest stereotypes, but it’s also probably one of the most accurate: WOMEN LOVE TO SHOP.

Men, on the other hand, don’t seem generally all that excited by the activity. There are, of course, some men who enjoy the browsing the racks as much as women (if not more) but many just appear to tolerate it, while some outright can’t stand the thought of shopping!

But the fact that women like to shop more than men is not just an empty stereotype — there is actually some scientific data to back it up. Back in 2013, researchers conducted a survey on British people and discovered that men get bored with shopping after just 26 minutes.

Women, meanwhile, are generally pretty happy shopping for hours before they start to get bored or stressed out. In my case, I tend to only get fed up when I can’t find what I am looking for, when shops become too crowded, or when my other half starts moaning about being bored or hungry.

Why is it that I love to try on every pair of shoes before deciding whether to buy anything at all, and my husband wants to get out of the mall seconds after we get in?

It's all in the genes!

According to Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan. Kruger argues that it's natural for women to love to shop and men to hate it because of our evolutionary past. Men were the hunters in our ancestral cultures, so when they find a satisfactory specimen, whether it's an elk or a pair of shoes, they want to shoot it and get out before it gets away. On the other hand, women were the primary gatherers in early hunter-gatherer cultures, so they feel a need to check every berry on the bush to make sure they are getting the best deal.

Polly Young-Eisendrath, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Vermont, puts forward the theory that today’s method of shopping is simply an offshoot of advertising and commercialism that was created by corporations to encourage women to feel in charge.

As commercialism grew and grew, advertisers continued to tell women that shopping was a liberating way to act on one’s own desires and control one’s destiny. The phenomenon is depressing in retrospect, but I have got to admit it is something of a power-trip when I hand over my credit card at the cash register. It feels fantastic to be able to buy something what I want, when I want it….even if the power I feel is but a problematic illusion.

Action Expresses Priorities

Everything Is Illuminated

“She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

I believe, chronic depression can lead to feelings of despair and hopelessness, and a suicide attempt is one way some people (yes, SOME people) choose to express these feelings. I think most people who attempt or commit suicide don't really want to die- may be they just want their pain and suffering to end? I also don’t think a suicide attempt is also not done to gain someone's sympathy, as those that attempt to take their life do it for internal reasons-they simply can't stand the pain they feel emotionally and or physically.

The majority of the people who take their lives (estimated at 90%) were suffering with an underlying mental illness and substance abuse problem at the time of their death. They weren't sick, but their brains were!!! Too often we think that a person is their brain, that’s where their personality or character resides. This is not true.

The brain is an organ just like the liver, the kidneys, the gall bladder, etc. When it gets sick too often the appearance of the problem is in the form of a mental illness, as in the case of depression, anxiety disorders, or even schizophrenia. If the brain is sick too long, research says it can lead a person to taking their lives. This isn't always the case, as millions of people live with depression and never attempt or die by suicide.

A Wife

I am fat with love! Husky with ardor! Morbidly obese with devotion! A happy, busy bumblebee of marital enthusiasm. I positively hum around him, fussing and fixing. I have become a strange thing. I have become a wife.