What is Female Passive-Agressive Behavior?

Question

I often hear my brother, a Marriage Fam. Therapist, talk about female passive aggressive behavior being claimed by the husband in court, and the wife always denies it.

Answer 1

It's punishing somebody by NOT doing something, or by doing something that looks innocent. Like refusing to speak.... or leaving the cap off the toothpaste because you know they hate that, etc.

Sneaky but Offensive.
Silent but Deadly.

Answer 2

cut and pasted from http://health.ivillage.com/mindbody/mbanger/0,,5kbs,00.html

Passive-aggressive behaviors are those in which negative emotions -- especially anger -- are expressed indirectly through negative attitudes and resistance to reasonable requests. For instance, a worker resentful of another employee's accomplishments may be consistently late or disruptive in meetings or settings in which his or her co-worker is lauded. An employee angry at the boss for a last-minute assignment may purposefully botch the task in some way rather than directly telling the boss there isn't enough time to do it properly.
Passive-aggressive behaviors are fairly common, especially when people feel powerless to assert their desires directly. Some people, however, show such a pervasive negative attitude and repeated passive resistance to requests for adequate performance in work and social situations that they might be considered to have passive-aggressive personality disorder. (For some reason -- I'm not sure why -- passive-aggressive personality disorder is no longer considered an "official" diagnosis in the current psychiatric diagnosis manual. It has been moved from the "personality disorders" section of the manual to an appendix containing criteria for disorders considered to need further research for validation. So you might want to take this all with a grain of salt.)

Answer 3

Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. Sometimes a method of dealing with stress or frustration, it results in the person attacking other people in subtle, indirect, and seemingly passive ways. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or intentional failure at doing requested tasks. For example, someone who is passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend, that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive.

There are certain behaviors that help identify passive-aggressive behavior.

Ambiguity
Avoiding responsibility by claiming forgetfulness
Blaming others
Chronic lateness and forgetfulness
Complaining
Does not express hostility or anger openly
Fear of competition
Fear of dependency
Fear of intimacy
Fears authority
Fosters chaos
Intentional inefficiency
Making excuses and lying
Obstructionism
Procrastination
Resentment
Resists suggestions from others
Sullenness
A passive-aggressive may not have all of these behaviors, and may have other non-passive-aggressive traits.

Answer 4

Gosh...it's hard to explain. It basically means expressing anger through subtle actions/"hints" rather than coming out and saying "I'm angry". (I'm trying to think of an example, but I'm drawing a blank.) I do think it's more common in women, because we are traditionally taught not to express anger outwardly.

Answer 5

Try this site. Same for men and women.

http://www.virginiahospitalcenter.com/content/adam_000943.asp

Answer 6

It's like saying... "Whatever you want to do." when they mean, say what I want or it will never happen. Best wishes

Answer 7

men can do it too.