Revenge
Revenge is like prescription medication, a little can cure you, a lot can kill you. But, if you must, get even, get over it, and get on with your life.
Revenge fascinates us all, but we have a particular appetite for women getting mad, then getting even.
Men just don't think about revenge the same way women do. Guys often contemplate destroying property, punching a hole in the wall. Women don't think in terms of keying their ex-lover's car. They want to key their ex-lover. Further, women, especially if they consider themselves to have been nice women, act out their vengeance, not in order to control, but because they are out of control.
Of course, we all start out as nice women. Nice women are not supposed to crave disaster, even when we experience pain, betrayal, humiliation, or ingratitude. We're supposed to turn the other cheek with the appropriate amount of blush. If we love deeply, it’s no surprise we grieve deeply if that love is taken away. It might also follow that we want to exact recompense and restitution.
It is deeply and wonderfully gratifying, when hurt or humiliated, not to be nice. That's not unfeminine, that's human.
In 1970, after serving as Press Secretary for the First Lady in the Johnson administration, Liz Carpenter wrote a book about life inside the White House. One evening Carpenter ran across statesman Arthur Schlesinger Jr. at a cocktail party. Approaching her, he smiled and said,
"Like your book, Liz, who wrote it for you?"
"Glad you liked it, Arthur," she replied.
"Who read it to you?"
Psychology Today
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