Thursday, 04 June 2009

  • Is there a difference between men and women?

    We get a number of comments on Mancouch saying things like, "I want people to realize that different people want different things regardless of gender."  I completely agree that we are all individuals, and that it's not fair to cram all men into one stereotype and all women into another.

    But are there any differences at all between men and women?

     


    Well I guess it's clear that there are differences between men and women. But I guess it comes down to a practical question: do you treat men and women the same way all the time?

    For me, I spent a decade attempting to do just that.   When I entered college, I was extremely egalitarian.  I treated men and women as individuals, and was very careful never to let any gender stereotypes color my interactions with anyone.  It worked ok, and I felt really good about being so evolved.  However, my dating life sucked.

    Over the years, I slowly started to pick up on some differences between men and women.  Some of them weren't true all that often - I found that men were becoming more female, and women were becoming more male.  But still, I found that treating women differently than I treated men had a huge impact on my friendships and relationships.  My dating life completely turned around.

    In my experience, I've found that there are important differences between men and women.  I am really happy I tried to be PC and 100% egalitarian for a decade, because I learned so much from that experience.  But it didn't work for me, and I had to learn from that.  Now I vary how I treat men and women... but I'm really careful to keep in mind that each person is an individual, and could surprise me at any moment.

    Anyway that's just my experience.  What about you: do you treat men and women the same way all the time?  Or do you vary things a bit between the sexes...

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