Controversial?: Many/most women are like Patrick Jane!

Apologies for the provocative headline, I have no doubt I will be shot down in hours. But having watched a few seasons of the series - which I enjoy very much, by the way! - I feel I can share the following opinion.

This is at the same time also a question to other women and male empaths in this thread - so do share your thoughts!

Much of Patrick Jane’s ability to read people in situations; spot secret moments between people in a room; sense romantic connections or complex tensions; notice out of place behaviour or features; connecting random pieces of details together; and his general empathy towards people, etc… are… (and here I go): something that many if not the majority of women are already highly skilled at.

…Patrick Jane is essentially an average or more likely a slightly above-average woman, in terms of women’s higher prevalence of empathy, emotional and social intelligence, observational skills, horizontal/lateral thinking, abstract thinking / ability to view seemingly separate things from a bird’s eye view, etc. compared to men. Patrick Jane is essentially a universal woman empath (or a less common but still existent male empath).

I do realise I speak somewhat in stereotypes / gendered tropes, rather than actual biological or cognitive differences between men and women - especially considering the complex factors in nature vs nurture. But I do believe a combination of nature and nurture is the reason why women tend to be more socially and emotionally intelligent, empathetic and selfless than men. Not because of innate biological differences (at least not solely), but because of nurture / societal imprints / history of deeply rooted patriarchy that have a compounding effect on both sexes.

In any case, my point is: apart from his trained pro magic/mentalist tricks, a lot of Patrick Jane’s “special gift” is not ultimately all that special from the perspective of a woman: he thinks, observes, feels, empathises and relates to other people very similarly to most women. Many of his deductive “achievements” are a direct derivative from that skill set. The only reason he feels like a person with a superpower is because he is… a (rather dashing ) man.

Realising this made me realise why I never felt particularly surprised or inspired by the series. I feel it’s entertaining, for sure, and I enjoy the characters and the crime mysteries. But I always felt the “superpower” skillset was kinda lame. Until it dawned on me is that I was just watching myself and many other women I know, who think, observe and feel like him - and often even better.

Feel free to disagree? :D