“These alternatives are chosen,” wrote psychiatrist Teresa Bernardez-Bonesatti in 1978, “rather than risk the loss of the support and approval of males . . . and a concomitant loss of one’s given self-esteem and appraised value.” Carol Tavris, in her book Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, explained how men also do this. It’s called “punching down,” and it happens when they encounter higher-status men and then turn on women and children “below” them in an expressive hierarchy.
