Monday, February 27, 2012

We are all earthlings …

Women are not from Venus and Men are not from Mars.

As human beings, we are all very similar both in our needs and in our wants; trying to distinguish behavioral traits of man and woman is very amateurish and cliché infested.

I remember visiting my class mates house, his mother who had very little in common with the young blood went on and on about unverifiable difference in choices of man and woman like she sited that in food guys prefer sweet snacks while girls like savory , in clothing men like dark colors and women prefer pastels etc etc etc. Most of her crazy theories were based on observations of her three sons and three daughters. I remember rolling my eyes and thinking that too much parenting skewed her up.

She was not alone. The fake divide and vague categorization is everywhere.

On facebook, people keep coming with “funny” images of so called differences between the status messages, responses to sympathy generating status messages, computer desktop & rooms of girls and boys. Simple rules are depicted like boys have clean desktop but messy rooms and vice versa for girls. Its easy laugh and share and “viral” material, but its hardly ever that simple or true.

Today on radio, two men bragged about how sales was a woman thing and how man don’t really care about the costs till the “cloths” fit. Seriously? I know of men who know their sales and coupons and deals. These are men with limited income and serious family responsibilities. They don’t always depend on their wives for saving money on purchases. I think some of us have purchasing common sense while others don’t.

Some people use these so called "known" facts to avoid inconvenience. There are many jokes about the wives wanting to talk and connect and husbands suffer. In short women talk and man don’t. Have you ever noticed a couple on their dates? Both talk. If a guy decided to read the menu in detail or watch TV in a sports bar on a date without a conversation, the guy will probably stay single forever. After marriage, its easy to avoid mundane conversation siting being introvert and not much of an talker, which men are "supposed" to be, as an excuse.

Others see them through their convoluted view point. My old colleague rumbled on one of our team lunches, on how he wants to write a handbook on life and relationships. He said and I quote” Men are different from women, they need to feel wanted in a household”. Ha ha ha, can you imagine women want to be sidelined and treated like a trash by their family.

Cliches are funny when they come from “Stand-up comedians” , help chick flicks and make for some easy conversation but there is little basis and should be taken with a pinch of salt.