Sunday, June 15, 2014

Rushing women's syndrome

Lisa Curry was a champion Australian swimmer who married an ironman champion, Grant Kenny. They were married for 23 years, had three children and then divorced.

She has hit the Australian news again after blaming herself for the divorce. She now says that during the marriage she suffered something called "rushing women's syndrome" which made her, too often:
an absolute b****, a cow, angry and irritable for no reason. He [Kenny] wasn't actually doing anything wrong, I just couldn't control it. It created a lot of tension for us for a lot of years.

I had days where I just felt completely out of control. I was angry, irritable, moody, cried for no reason and wanted to kill the world.

On behalf of me and all women in Australia, I want to say sorry to all the guys, cause they cop it, the men cop it, it’s the men that are closest in your life, and ...they don’t even have to do anything, yet they can't do anything right or wrong...in our eyes they’re the worst person in the world

The reaction to these comments hasn't been good. Some of the criticism is understandable. Some critics are saying she is blaming the condition rather than herself; others are wondering why you need a label like "rushing women's syndrome" to describe too hectic a lifestyle; and there are some who have pointed to fact that Lisa Curry is plugging a cure for the condition.

Lisa Curry



That's legitimate criticism, but even so I don't think her comments should be entirely ridiculed. First, Lisa Curry is going against social trends in not blaming Grant Kenny and other men for her problems. She recognises her part in what went wrong.

Second, she's probably right that too rushed a lifestyle takes its toll on relationships. This would be true for both men and women, but it's possible that women are tipped against their husbands by this kind of pressure a bit more quickly.

I would like to think that in a traditionalist society there would be an effort to get the work/life balance right, in part because of the value placed on marriage and family.

4 comments:

  1. "Rushing woman syndrome" and all the other excuses are simply euphemisms for real lack of commitment to marriage. Lack of a reasonable work/life balance is a feature of many societies and may cause marital strain but not breakup. What about societies which are in a state of war or economic and political collapse? Do societies which over the last couple of years, have been through massive turmoil have high divorce rates? Egypt? Iraq? Syria? Ukraine? Greece? The answer to this is no.

    The idea of a busy lifestyle destroying a marriage is a manifestation of Western liberal narcissism. Commitment to marriage (and an undertaking to make marriage work is a feature of the RC Mass) means that you make it work regardless of the circumstances and difficulties in your life.

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  2. "I had days where I just felt completely out of control. I was angry, irritable, moody, cried for no reason and wanted to kill the world."

    PMT

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  3. It's amazing that even when it's the woman at fault, it's not her fault. It's an illness! Not her fault at all, not her responsibility.

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