Women are unnecessarily stigmatized in a gendered way by shyness-as-disorder as well. For example, in the context of established relationships (Giddens 1991) [7]. This “newly discovered insideous problem” is described as a woman’s inability to assert herself to a point that it poses a serious threat to a particular view of how, “life-politics”, should be. Shyness in women is often seen in western culture as just another, “female malady” (Showalter 1985) [8], as some sort of unnecessarily feminine behaviour.

Those in the APA and other organizations who helped create “social phobia” as a disorder in 1980 (Marc-Antoine 2015) [9] hopefully acknowledged shyness at best occupies a blurred line between health risk and an unnecessarily socially constructed deviance. But we argue that the social construction begets the health risk, with the APA playing a large negative role. We ask that you publicly acknowledge people wouldn’t suffer emotionally from shyness if the desire for people to achieve an arbitrary set of cultural values related to confidence went away. So, this emotional disturbance from shyness is not usually a biological problem. A variety of anxiety phenomena is an, insular, biological problem instead from the drugging of psychiatric patients and personal victimization from street drugs (Cohen 1995) [10]. Emotional disturbance from shyness is a valid social reaction from shy people who are ostracized more so than others from those who need confidence from *others* based on a certain masculine set of cultural values.

You probably agree that shyness itself appeals to it’s own set of cultural values Americans hold dear, such as thoughtfulness, modesty, kindness, and sensitivity. We pathologize shyness instead of those who identify shyness as a negative trait (such as the APA) in an unprecedented amount of people. If you encourage people to see shyness as a current or potential sign of maladaptation, shy people who aren’t already emotionally suffering from shyness will be further socially alienated and stigmatized.

Please pathologize those who discriminate based on shyness instead. You could call it, “Identifying Shyness as a Negative Trait Disorder”. I don’t know you are better at coming up with names for things than we are.

[1] McDaniel, P.A. (2001) Shrinking violets and casper milquetoasts: shyness and heterosexuality from the roles of the fifties to the rules of the nineties, Journal of Social History, 2001, 34, 3, 547–68.

[2] Scott, S. (2004a) The shell, the stranger and the competent other: towards a sociology of shyness, Sociology, 38, 1, 121–37.

[3] Scott, S. (2003) Towards a Sociology of Shyness. PhD thesis. School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University.

[4] Gilmartin, B.G. (1987) Shyness and Love: Causes, Consequences and Treatment. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

[5] Bem, S.L. (1974) The measurement of psychological androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 152–62.

[6] Broverman, I.K., Broverman, D.M., Clarkson, F.E. Rosencrantz, P.S. and Vogel, S.R. (1970). Sex-role stereotypes and clinical judgements of mental health, Journal of Counselling and Clinical Psychology, 34, 1, 1–7.

[7] Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press

[8] Showalter, E. (1985) The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830–1980. New York: Pantheon

[9] Marc-Antoine, C. (2015) A history of anxiety: from Hippocrates to DSM, 2015, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 319–325.

[10] Cohen, S I (1995) Alcohol and benzodiazepines generate anxiety, panic and phobias, Feb, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 88, 73–77.