h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And belle curves!

I liked Mars and Venus - so many books about relationships are written by women, and want the man to do all the changing. I found it immensely useful in terms of explaining what was happening during my divorce, and in terms of being much more patient and laid back about men generally.

Er - did I *really* type 'laid back'?

*decides to post anyway!*

B

Oh i found it useful too, to explain many things to me.
AND it has a handy format to be thrown...

You're full of wisdom, Ben, forget the lists of Do's and Don'ts, bein' laid back about it appears indeed to be the answer!

As a GUY who has also read that particular book, I felt rather the same. It struck me that the work required by the male side of the equation was far harder than the effort required by the female side.

Still I figured that maybe, just maybe, that had something to do with me actually being a guy, so I tried some of it.

Wow, was that a surprise.

Don't knock it till you try it. Oh and a weeks worth of trying, isn't worth anything - try it for several months.

On multi-tasking, we used to have a manufacturing unit that involved a physically repetitive task while sitting at a microscope.

Over time and with a fair recruitment policy, this particular group did end up with 100% feamle operators and not because the pay was low - it wasn't.

Whenever anyone observed the group with male workers and female workers, it was apparent that the female workers constantly engaged in conversation while working, whereas male workers had to physically stop working to listen and join in.

As a consequence males tended to find that their working day was eight straight hours, with their eyes pressed to a microscope, barely moving and slowly, like a process of chinese water torture, going mad. Few men lasted in to week two and none made it to week three.

Females viewed the situation differently. They were well paid, constantly working and engaged in stimulating conversation with their friends and colleagues.

Kelli: "An example is that I aligned strongly with some of the 'male' characteristics and my boyf seems to be more 'female' than I am in some cases." - My wife and I are taking some classes on couples stuff... problem resolution and fighting fair... a sort of Geneva Convention for married people.

Anyway, one of the typical behaviors for couples in an argument is something they identified as "male withdrawal." And no, that's not a form of birth-control. It's where the male seeks to retreat from the argument, looking away from his wife and muttering platitudes to make her stop. Only it has the exact opposite effect... she doesn't see that she's getting through, so she presses harder.

Anyone who has ever had an argument with me on this site knows there's no retreat in me. There is only victory or surrender. My wife, on the other hand, goes absolutely silent when we have an argument. So apparently, she practices male withdrawal.

Is this supposed to make me the woman of the house?

"a sort of Geneva Convention for married people..."

What's their stance on biological warfare?


Okay. Seriously now. I've flipped through "Men are from blah blah", didn't bother reading it much. I don't put much stock in that kinda thing, though.

One thing that does get up my nose, however, is "The Rules". Yeesh.

As posted before, generalisations like that can't hold true in every case. (Or was that a generalisation?) If people and thier books like that *cured* even half of the problems we have intersexually, they would be acclaimed Emporer(ess) of the Universe in days!

True, generlisations will not be true all the time. Any discussion on human behaviour can only ever be generisations as each and every one of us is different from the other. Thats why we have the bell curve as Ben described. But they can act as a guide as to which direction we should be heading while still being aware of the exceptions that can arise. Its the exceptions that make any *cure all* an impossibility.

A discussion on animal behavour can be more specific because animals do not have such well deleveloped brains and the abilty to communicate abstract concepts.

Stuart

Hello all! I am female.

I believe that all people should be treated equally, untill they give reason to be treated differently. That, of course, is completely naive and probably can never happen b/c people have a hard time letting go of past wrongs and social predjudices. It's a vicous circle, really. I think that whenever a specific group recieves 'special treatment', be that negative ot possitive, it endorses predjudice. However, I think clubs, shops, organizations that are gender or race specific are all in good fun. So long as they see it that way. KKK is not an all-in-good-fun organisation, but I can see that a women's only gym would make the clients more comfortable. Make sense? If only the rest of the world has a little more 'common' sense to go around...

Is that why women call me a cheeky monkey?