Human Grief Research

How different genders grieve

I found this an important thing to research because it will impact my decision on the gender of my character. 

Please keep in mind that all people grieve differently. This is simply a collection of research which examines the commonly observed traits in men and women, as well as a general research on grief that is not gendered.

Women	Gender-neutral	Men
According to Tom Bekker with Green Bay oncology, women tend to accept their emotions when grieving and confide in other relationships. Bekker also writes that women often like to talk about memories and grief, because it helps “it helps them process and work through their grief.”	In this column I will be collecting research on the human grieving process, and analyzing the impact  of my research on the creation of my character. According to the National Library of Medicine, there are five well known stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. According to the American Cancer Society, it takes one year minimum for someone to go through the fifth stages of grief, however people continue to mourn the death of a lover far beyond that. Based on this, I’ve established that my main character’s lover died at least two years before the film takes place.	As opposed to women, who work through their emotions by communicating with others, it’s common for men to shut others out and hide their emotions in order to avoid appearing weak or vulnerable. Men also take the opportunity to distract themselves from their grief

Based on my research, I’ve decided that the gender of my main character does not need to be decided, and I can leave it up to be decided based on casting. I’ve also decided that the film takes place a minimum of two years after the death of their lover. This is because the way I intend to portray the character’s grief is not specific to any gender. However, this may be because the research I’ve collected is more closely associated or relevant to recent deaths.

Bibliography:

https://gboncology.com/blog/gender-differences-in-grief/#:~:text=Women%20confide%20in%20friends%2C%20outwardly,about%20the%20person%20who%20died.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5375020/#:~:text=In%20essence%2C%20K%C3%BCbler%2DRoss's%20stage,sometimes%20called%20the%20DABDA%20model).

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/end-of-life-care/grief-and-loss/grieving-process.html#:~:text=It's%20common%20for%20the%20grief,the%20deceased%20for%20many%20years.