"You are emotional because you are a woman"

Unfortunately, the title of this blog post is a quote that was directed at me this weekend. I had my final trial for my Trial Advocacy class on Saturday and the gentleman who played our judge said this to me. After our trial was over and I had lost, sending my battered woman of a client to jail for attempted manslaughter and aggravated assault, the Judge asked us all to stay so he could give us our critiques. The whole trial had been a little rough on me, mostly because I did not get much sleep the night before and all of the built up stress and emotion of having a newborn seemed to be busting out of me in the middle of court. So when it got time to tell the judge what we thought we could have improved on I burst into tears. Some because I really thought I should have prepared more and done a better job but some just because I lost. Through the tears I told the judge that I was just sleep deprived and that I was sorry for crying. My co-counsel and opposing counsel told him that I just had a baby. That is when he said "I hope you don't take offense to this but....you are just being emotional because you are a woman." At the time I guess I thought he was referring to the almost endless hormonal roller coaster that I have been on post pregnancy (and a little during pregnancy if you ask my husband's opinion). I did not take offense to what he said until later when I realized he never said it was because I had a newborn just that I was a woman.
I guess I better get used to being talked to like that since I will soon be entering the male-dominated field of law. Hopefully, things will change in the future and emotions won't be blamed on sex.