The Hedgehog and the Rabbit: A Story About Gender Stereotypes

In response to my last post, a couple readers shared how they handled stress in ways opposite to what was supposed to be "typical" for their gender. Those comments reminded me of a hedgehog story told by my professor in the Intro to Philosophy class I took as a freshman, and particularly of my response to it. It goes something like this, although it might have been a porcupine, and I have no idea what the fuzzy animal in question was, so I'm making it a rabbit.

A hedgehog was hibernating in a comfy hole one winter when a rabbit showed up, begging for shelter, as his own hole had just been destroyed. The hedgehog agreed to share his home, and the rabbit moved in. As the days passed, it became clear that the situation was less than ideal: the hole was not well suited for two animals, and the hedgehog's spines only made things worse. What were the animals to do?

As my professor explained it, this scenario typically provokes one of two responses: