Apples & Oranges
-or-
Why it is a waste of time to compare Men & Women
A friend of mine, Linney (the) Dew, explained this to me once. He interrupted
a tirade about the virtues of my ex-wife's gender, reminding me that he had
heard it already.
It is ridiculous to compare or contrast Men and Women. It is useless for
one to try to understand the other because any observation will be completely
distorted by the observing gender's frame of reference.
Allow me (Linney) to illustrate:
5 Men sitting in the living room, watching sports, eating chips.
The bowl becomes empty.
Man1 says 'Hey, we're outta chips!'
Man2 says 'It's my house'
Man3 says 'I bought the chips'
Man4 says 'I carried the bowl in here'
Man5 says 'I helped eat them'
{pause}
Man1-4 look at one another, then say; 'naaaahhh!'
Man5 jumps up, goes to the kitchen, refills the bowl and returns.
Men are negotiators, and Man5 clearly lost the negotiation. Therefore he
refills the chip bowl and the incident is forgotten.
The same situation, involving 5 Women, Oprah, and Fat Free Popcorn occurs in
another Living Room somewhere in the city:
The bowl becomes empty.
Woman1 says 'Oh my goodness, the popcorn's gone, we're such pigs!
Woman2-5 say 'Oh dear!
All 5 Women jump up and go to the kitchen, where they talk about Men and
make another bowl of popcorn. The woman closest to the living room hears
Oprah deliver a castrating reply to some guests remark, she squeals, and
they all run back to the couch.
Women seek group approval, and tend to do things as a herd.
Both approaches have distinct advantages, and a few drawbacks, but overall
each group is served very well by their instincts. It is only when a
mixed approach is tried that the Apple/Orange absurdity arises:
Later that week, the situation includes 5 Women, 5 Men, Seinfeld, and a
platter of Crudites which quickly dwindles:
Woman1 says: "Oh look, the celery sure went quick!"
Man1 states: "Well, it's my house"
All 5 women shout "What a jerk!!"