Men are from.... Earth, Women are from.... Earth

So this blog entry , which ran in Rutgers' "The Targum", as well as a similar article printed in another college's paper, started a small discussion between several of my friends. Why are these articles written so often? Why are there so many article dedicated to men's confusion of female behavior? I assume it's because many of them are confused! In the linked entry, you can read that the author is confused why women wear a certain type of shoe, when men don't care what type of shoes they wear!

....Let's ignore for a minute that, after writing about how much men don't care what a woman has on her feet, he goes on to spend a page writing about how much he disliked a particular type of shoe. Yes, yes, just ignore that.

The bigger issue is the chastisement of women by the author for following current fashion trends, that women are severely slacking in their response to what will attract a man. Why are you wearing warm, comfortable shoes, even though most men find them ugly? The answer may be as simple as "because they're warm and comfortable", but it completely escapes his grasp. Note how the author doesn't wonder why women wear the oh-so-popular yet hideously-impractical high heel. No question why a woman would be willing to elevate herself 2 inches off the ground on a spike half an inch in diameter, causing her to suffer from ankle pain and impair her ability to flee from an attacker. Why would he question that? Cause women in high-heels = hot? To quote Superboy, "form over function, ergo, cool!" ....that lends no real weight to the argument, I just wanted to quote Superboy.

The author implies several times, if not outright states, that women should be dressing to please and attract men, and when they don't, it frightens and confuses him! Scary!

The reason so many of these articles need to be written for men to understand women, or to simply express their confusion over the actions taken by females, is that most men view females as, well, females. And that's the problem.

Now, to stave off any, "but....isn't that true?" comments, well, duh, we are. But the first way women need to be thought of and treated is as a human. An individual. Admittedly, there was a time when women were not individuals - they were the property of their father, and later, their husband. Women didn't really have jobs and had little to do in thir free time except make themselves pleasing to their man. I remember watching a commercial where women were going to the store with curlers in their hair. I asked my mom why women would do this - it seemed stupid, going outside a mess. My mom told me it was simple - the women wore curlers in their hair during the day, and took them out at night before their husbands got home, so they always looked their best for their man. Who cares how her friends and the world sees her, cause in reality, her man IS the world.

However, that was a long time ago.

A woman's primary goal in life is no longer to secure a man.... For some of us, it's at the bottom of the list, and for some of us, it does have a high priority, but some men are finding it difficult to realize it's not our only goal anymore. Often the things a woman does that confuses men are things that make her happy, without necessarily a man in mind.

Why do guys spit on the sidewalk? It's disgusting and it certainly doesn't attract the ladies, (you never hear your mother exclaim, "I was so impressed with the size of his loogie, I knew your father was the one for me!") but it doesn't so completely baffle me so that I have to write a rant on it. They do it because it has a purpose and they want to. There are several men I know who don't shower everyday. Ignoring the implication this has regarding their own personal health and hygeine, does a smelly man attract women more than a clean man? No. But guys aren't always thinking about women...well, thinking about being pleasing to women....they just do what they feel like.

So my big confusion? Why guys don't realize that women may not always be concerned with doing what will be pleasing to a man, and is sometimes doing things just because she feels like it.

It's rather interesting, too, I think. Women typically get confused or annoyed when men don't act or think like them (women), (when men believe the world revolves around them, and things should be done for them.....evidence shows that baby monkeys take three times as long in learning how to feed themselves if they are male than if they are females. The females quickly see what needs to be done and do it. The males simply allow their mothers to feed them - if they don't HAVE to do something for themselves, why should they.....and my experience with human males leads me to believe they vary from their primate counterparts only slightly.....), while men get confused when women do
act like them (men). Wearing unattractive yet comfortable clothing? What is that woman doing!? Nooooo! ....This also lends itself to a nice old rant about the double-standard of promiscuity in society....if a man sleeps around, it's natural. If a woman sleeps around, it's implied she's either doing it to be liked by men, or she has a mental disorder (nymphomania). At no point is it considered that a woman who has lots of sex may be doing it because she....likes it? .... ?!!?!?

....a good thing, too, cause that can't be right.

The end.