What's the biggest difference between men and women?
 

Aside from genetics .....


I'll go with... Women take comments to heart much more than men. Also, most women tend to over analyze conversations. Sometimes when a man replies to the "what are you thinking" question with "nothing" that is truly the case. They are able to just sit and stare at an inanimate object and not be contemplating the nature of their existence. They really aren't hiding anything, they just don't have an opinion on every little thing.

There's at least one of two reasons I can't answer this question...

Either...

A. I don't understand the what the differences are, least not completely. It's like a Rubic's cube when it's not solved. I know it's out of whack but I don't have a clue how to get it back to "right."

Or...

B. There isn't enough space left on the "internets" to write out all the reasons I think men are different from women.

I'll let you decide which one's correct. Mainly because I don't know the answer myself.

How we communicate.

I don't understand.

Speaking from my own experience...

Example:

Women have ability to get annoyed at little things, and to notice when other women are being inappropriate whereas men do not.

Miss Mango, I think you missed Tully's joke :p He's a subtle one.

One of the clear differences I see between the sexes on a daily basis in my work with small children is that at ages 5-6, boys are better with concrete thinking and things they can put their hands on, while girls are better at abstract thinking. This difference becomes less pronounced as kids get older; boys start catching up at 6-7 in abstract thinking, and vice-versa.

Another difference--and this one is a gender difference--I see in adults that troubles me is how young men in particular seem petrified to ask for help, especially when it comes to mental health/mental issues. Women seem to be more comfortable with that, though I'm sure as with all things, there are exceptions. I think that the construct of gender is partially responsible for this.

I guess I do suck at subtle sarcasm

This why only my dogs laugh at my jokes.

Ooops! Doh me! :)

Nature vs. nurture.

The way that parents have consistently fucked up when raising their kids to make society happy.

I have always heard this and it rings of truth. Men marry women hoping they will never change and women marry men hoping to change them. Therein lies the problem........................................

I got it. But, then again, I also have a highly tuned sarcastic sense of humor.

Besides the obvious X vs Y chromosome, and the penis vs vagina answer...it's most definately communication. It takes Mrs. O'Rights 8 hours to tell me how her 8 hour day at work went. It takes me 5 seconds. That pretty much sums it up.

From "The Secrets of Married Men" from Psychology Today:

The average woman uses 7,000 words a day and five tones of speech, [psychiatrist Scott Haltzman] points out. The average man uses 2,000 words and three tones. "Men are talk-impaired, relatively speaking," he says.

I can relate to that.

The Ex-Mrs. Tully used to spend an hour a night trying to get me to detail every second of my day. "What happened in court?" "He was convicted." "Well, who testified, what'd they say, did they get the evidence in they wanted, was he convicted on all counts, what color tie did the DA wear? On and on and on. Man, I just spent all day working, I don't want to spend all night talking about it. Not only that but there were many times I sat in on mental health eval's, which are confidential by law. "But I'm your wife you can tell me." No, I can't and do you really want to hear Jim used to screw the family dog? Seriously, the shit I heard today was sick enough, I don't want to come home and relive it.

BINGO!!!!

Guys fuck and girls make love.

Yeah, and women need a reason to have sex... men just need a place.

Au contraire....

Yeah, I'll second that. I don't like to "make love" all the time, just once in a great while. I actually prefer to fuck. :p I just happen to love who I'm fucking. And a reason? What reason does one need beyond that it feels good?

apart from the jatz crackers?

everything

plumbing

men are hunter/gatherers and women are nurturers. men need to feed their ego and constantly get promoted - even if they can't handle the next job - while women find something they like and become content with it.

I'd definitely go with communication as well. Which is why i find it strange that I'm the one who communicates more and my girlfriend is the closed off one.

women love drama, men don't.

Here it's just the opposite. I answer "fine" when asked about work. If I ask about his day, I get a blow by blow description, right down to the idiots on the road coming and going:rolleyes:

I once heard this difference and it mostly rings true: Women are defined by who they are. Men are defined by what they do.

You've never met the lead singer for my band.

As for an answer to the post. I don't really think there are black and white differences between the two other than the obvious physical difference. You will find women who are overly emotional just as you will find men who exhibit the same behavior. You will find men who lack the skills of communication just as you will find women who do the same.

I think there is overwhelming evidence to contradict of all of the 'differences' posted here to be found right here on the threads of TFP.

I think the differences between men and women are more subtle and complex than we think and the more striking differences are simply personality differences, irrespective of gender.

And I think there are subconscious (and sometimes conscious) resentments and competitive urges between the sexes that make us want to pinpoint differences and give them a negative curve based on gender. I've seen this in myself. I think it's probably true to large extent.

The article was referring to stereotypes that most people appear to operate on, but certainly not all. No way is it universal, nor does the article claim that, and I'm guessing you don't think the articles claiming that either... So I'm curious what precisely you mean. Do you mean to say that these stereotypes are false and don't, in fact, reflect a large segment of the population? Any way you can elaborate, or toss examples?

I totally think you're on to something there. Agreed. Bias and insecurities color everything.

Oh how fun it is to stereotype...

Are you referring to Hain's article?

I think the stereotypes are not reliable from my own experiences and the experiences of other people here at the TFP.

Women like to cuddle and men don't?
I don't find that to be true.

Women like to shop and men don't?
I don't find that to be true.

Women like chick flicks and men don't?
I don't find that to be true.

These things just don't coalesce with what I see.

The first thing that came to mind when I read the OP was...

Plumbing..as GH noted, then 'Paychecks.'

Stereotypes are so tiresome.

If you judged based on stereotypes, I'd be the man in my relationship and my husband would be the female. I think worrying about this question causes more problems than it solves. No one can be conveniently slotted into a niche simply because of their sex.

BTW, Tully...I loved your joke.

Your alliteration skills, however, are spot on.

:thumbsup:

Women's brains are different from men's – and here's scientific proof

They also point out that if these differences are significant, women have been shortchanged by researchers, who generally study male patients.

Here's a short list of some of the differences noted.

Chemicals. And it seems to me the the line can blur, that it is not absolute man/woman. Just yesterday my friend Chuck, a gay man in a gays man's body I guess, told me that I am a gay man in a woman's body.

It also seems to be a bitch to get elected president of the US if youre a woman.

My thoughts as well--seems to be a lot of generalizing going on here. I suppose we're talking about the normal curve of society, though, and not the outliers (a lot of whom we see on TFP, and that's a good thing)...

In which case, one difference that seems to come up time and again (no matter how much I try to ignore it--among almost everyone I know, at various income levels and education and class, etc), is that it takes a little bit longer for the average male to notice "clutter," and to have the motivation to want to do something about it, compared to the average woman. In my limited observation, it's truly the rare male who is anxious about maintaining a state of constant tidiness in their household--they exist, but I know very few of them within my circles. Of course, there are plenty of women who could give a rat's ass about tidiness, too, so the stereotype breaks down on that side--as they always do.

^ It's probably impossible if you're a gay man in a woman's body. ;)

Every rule has an exception.

Women and men are only as different as we make them out to be.

Growing up, I was told a lot of things abomut the differences between men and women.

I was told that women can bear children. But my aunt never bore a child.
I was told that women work in the home. My pediatrician was a woman. My best friends' mothers worked in offices.
I was told that women are generally more nurturing. But I have come across women who were far from; men that were far more nurturing than myself.
I was told that women fall in love with men and men fall in love wth women. But then I met asexual, bisexual, and homosexual individuals.
I was told that women like to chit-chat. I have a couple of close guy friends that I call up when I need some solid "girl talk" because my female friends are not so inclined.

Over time, I have learned to ignore what I was taught and focus on the reality of the individual.

German Prime Minister Andrea Merkel comes to mind...

The million dollar question to me is: If this tendency is generally true, is it prominent enough for us to even bother paying attention to it when deciding whether or not to, for instance, vote for Hillary Clinton...

Men and women have different psycological and biological make-up that evolved independently (or co-evolved) from societal roles. Society copes with biology.