Hysterical: Exploding the Myth of Gendered Emotions

(Hardback, Main)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Emotions can be difficult things to define, yet we all recognise them when we feel them or see them in others. How we interpret those emotions and act on them has been heavily gendered, as far back Ancient Greek and Roman times and - despite the improvements in societal equality today - continues to be today.

We've all heard the sayings that girls should be 'sugar and spice and all things nice', while 'boys don't cry'. In Hysterical, Pragya Agarwal dives deep into the history and science that has determined the gendering of emotions to ask whether there is any truth in the notion of innate differences between the male and female experience of emotions. She examines the impact this has on men and women - especially the role it has played in the subjugation of women throughout history - and how a future where emotions are ungendered might look.

Reviews

Praise for (M)otherhood:

'An exhilarating, genre-defying read . . . seamlessly interwoven with statistics, quotes and scientific evidence to clever narrative effect . . . reminiscent of Olivia Laing's writing on loneliness or the body . . . The whole thing adds up to the most thoughtful, empathic and inspiring science of the self' - VIV GROSKOP

'Absolutely sensational. Revelatory and of its time, challenging myths and ingrained perceptions. I could not put it down. Everyone should read this' - MICHAEL CASHMAN, CBE, co-founder of Stonewall

'Brilliant, brave, beautiful . . . such an inspiring book' - ELIF SHAFAK

'Riveting. Agarwal writes with searing honesty and tenderness about the joys and agonies of becoming a mother, of trying and failing to conceive again, and then of pursuing a route to motherhood that's widely seen as taboo . . . Agarwal writes beautifully about her own complicated experience' - Guardian

'Intimate and insightful, Pragya Agarwal expands the meaning of the word motherhood in this brilliant book. This is urgent, essential reading for everyone' - AVNI DOSHI

'A wide-ranging, searingly honest and timely intervention into the framing of a fundamental and fraught choice, as well as an impassioned defence of ambivalence as part of the human condition' - OLIVIA SUDJIC

Author Bio

Dr Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural and data scientist. After gaining her PhD from the University of Nottingham, she was a senior academic in US and UK universities for over twelve years. As well as numerous research papers, she is the author of Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias and Wish We Knew What to Say: Talking with Children about Race. Sway was picked as a 'best science book of 2020', Guardian Book of the Week and was shortlisted for the Transmission Prize. A passionate campaigner for racial and gender equality, Pragya is a two-time TEDx speaker, a TEDx Women organiser and the founder of a research think-tank 'The 50 Percent Project'. As a freelance journalist, she writes regularly for the Guardian, Prospect, Forbes, Huffington Post, BBC Science Focus and New Scientist among others. She has also written for AEON, Scientific American and the Wellcome Trust.

@DrPragyaAgarwal | drpragyaagarwal.com