Why do men and women continually make stereotypes about each other that aren't really correct? For example, there are people that claim that Men think about sex every two seconds, but, if that were true, wouldn't I think about sex every two seconds? I believe I have more control over my thoughts than that. And there are men that think that women are just sexy and should just work around the house. That they shouldn't have real jobs because they don't think women are fit to do a man's job. And then there are people that think that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. There are women that accuse men of doing things they do themselves yet somehow they are exempt from being hypocrites.

Why do men and women continue to do this?

if a man says something and there is no women around to hear him is he still wrong?

i guess stereotyping is a sign of lazy thinking or the product of frustrations about a particular issue in a persons life, but then i guess to say that i could be sterotyping ...

Well Frank, the bottom line is that most of these stereotypes are purported by those who post the "poll results". While these stereotypes are fictional amost entirely in nature, so are the "results" of these findings.

When we stop believing every "scientific study" and "poll" ou there, then we will never be free to undertake the massive problem that is understanding each other.

The biggest reason men and women continue to spread misconceptions about the opposite sex is because we all want to understand the other side of the coin, but never can fully, because I am not a man and you are not a woman.

On the subject of sexual misconceptions:

Sex is such a conundrum to the opposite sex, which fuels misconceptions, because people tend to make sex about gender, but it isn’t. Everyone is different sexually, sure the majority of vaginas and penises work the same but different things cause arousal and different things help people to experience orgasms.

That could be, however if you look at it a different way, men and women always fight about little things, why? Because one or the other want to. The understanding is there, it is blatantly obvious, and even joked about on a regular basis. Men have women figured out, women have men figured out. We as humans just want to think that there is more to the situation than there really is.

When a woman wants something, she takes 37 steps and 5 arguments to get it.

When a man wants something, he just goes to the store and buys it.

Men are simple, simple creatures. We move on to the next topic very quickly, but we do have that female uderstanding within us should we choose to use it. Women know how to let a man be if he is doing something, or they know how to complicate the hell out of a situation that doesn't need to be complicated. That is the way we both work.

We have each other figured out, the tricky part is coming up with the right forumla and TIMING to make life happen smoothly.

Men have women figured out, women have men figured out.

I respectfully disagree. I’ve dated plenty who didn’t know squat about women, even a man in his twenties who thought female orgasms were a myth.

When a woman wants something, she takes 37 steps and 5 arguments to get it.

When a man wants something, he just goes to the store and buys it.

I find this statement a little offensive, because you group all men together, you group all women together, and your generalization about women makes them sound more complicated than men. There are plenty of female/male relationships where men fit that description you gear towards women and where women fit the description you gear towards men. You yourself are only fueling misconceptions.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by rapinbatsisaltherage]

Hmm. I have been married to my husband for 10 years, and I can say with complete honesty, that we have never had a fight. We have been irritated with each other for sure, but it comes down to respect. We don't call each other names, we don't make each other do stuff that the other doesn't want to. We give each other space. He doesn't tell me what I should be. I don't ask him to be something he is not. If he doesn't pick up his clothes, I do. If I forget to put the milk away, he does. It all comes out in the wash. I don't know if I even know how to fight anymore.

By no means did I intend to offend. My intentions were simply to put forth that this is how we percieve each other. While it may not be completely correct in every case (such as it never is), the core value is there.

Men and women as adults are products of our environments. If you grew up devout catholic, you would be reserved, open, and caring about most people and the world around you. (I'm not religious by the way) If you grew up in a ghetto, you would learn to hate the world around you and distrust almost everyone around you that couldn't give you something.

The core understanding is the same, men are different from women and in most cases as I stated, women are more complicated.

Of course you have a different point of view because you are a woman, which is perfectly fine and I respect that, however it does not change the overall notion that we need to work together despite out differences to ensure that both parties are happy.

After all, we are only but one of a select species who is expected to have the same mate for their entire life cycle. You know that has to get annoying after a few decades.................or months, your choice.

Originally posted by seagrass
..... but it comes down to respect. We don't call each other names, we don't make each other do stuff that the other doesn't want to. We give each other space. He doesn't tell me what I should be. I don't ask him to be something he is not.

Exactly! This was my point. The understanding of each other is about them as an idividual and not about what you expect of them. Life is complicated enough without having to clutter it up with needless arguments and squabbles over whether the living room should be painted green or orange.

You both pick a color, mix them together and if it doesn't look like vomit, your set.

*one extra typo**

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Kingalbrect79]

well, I don't let my husband pick the color. When I met him he was painting his house a hideous color. So I pick the colors. But I also paint the house, and I only ask him to paint the high stuff, as I am afraid of heights. The peak of my entry has been half painted for 6 years. It has become a big joke around here. I have to look at my fear everyday, and he doesn't even notice it isn't painted. People who visit always ask which is the newer color?

Again you are being specific.

I am not generalizing and grouping anyone. I merely state an example. I could go on for days about how this person lived in this house and in this state and ended up like this. Yada Yada Yada.

I grew up going to church, I am atheist. Happy?

The CORE IDEALS are the same. If I have to break apart everything I say, then you are just re-inforcing everything I am trying to put on the table.

When it comes down to it, this is just an internet forum, and everything can be misconstrued without the facial expression to define it.

My point for catholics are that most of them I know are nice people who care about others. Are you going to sit here and tell me this is not the case because you can find one person, scratch that, two people including myself that are not? I'm a good person despite not believing, but I do not want to derail the thread.

Fundamentally if women, OR MEN in general try to pick things apart, they will ineveitably tear each other to shreds.

Seagrass, I think you more closely understand the point I am trying to make as an individual yes?

Compromise, not infliction of will.

What color was it anyway?

No one is going to like it but I'm going to say it anyway. Stereotypes exist for a reason. People didn't pull the ideas for stereotypes out of thin air. Enough people in one group acted in such a way that eventually people thought everyone in that group acts that way.

I'm not saying that all stereotypes are true, but I am saying that those ideas aren't pure fiction invented simply to be mean.

A stereotype only goes away when everyone pegged with it stops acting that way. Know any stereotypes about ancient Egyptians? Me neither, and that's because they all went away along with the stereotypes. Know any about Men? Women? French? American? Canadian? Chinese? Black? White? Fat? Skinny? Southern? Californian? New Yorkers? Call center operators? Rich people? Poor people? Freemasons? Jews? Southern Baptists? Athiests? Hippies? Republicans? Democrats?

Damn right, you do becaue all those groups are still around and they all still have members who fit their respective stereotypes.

The CORE IDEALS are the same.

Well your core ideals are wrong, to many, not just me (to women and men, lol). Core ideals about everything help to fuel misconceptions, far as I'm concerned they are lazy ways of thinking to help make life simple for people who like simplicity.

Keep up with the misconceptions while you speak against them...

[edit on 16-7-2008 by rapinbatsisaltherage]

Originally posted by sc2099
No one is going to like it but I'm going to say it anyway. Stereotypes exist for a reason. People didn't pull the ideas for stereotypes out of thin air. Enough people in one group acted in such a way that eventually people thought everyone in that group acts that way.

While I'm not going to try to tie this in with my arguement, it does bring up a thought based on what you said and what I posted earlier.

Enough people in one group act.............Everyone in that group acts.
Um basically this makes you a product of your environment doesn't it?

If you grow up believing that certain situation are just that way, then they will be until you change your understanding of the problem you are working towards solving.

"You cannot solve a problem by thinking in the same dimension of that which created it."--Albert Einstein

even if only on a biological level.

Men also have several biologic issues women do not, including many that regard the prostate, which women do not have.

men are less complicated

No men are different; you are confusing differences with complications.

If you don't like it, blame the hundreds of thousands of humans before you for making each gender so specialized(and dependant) on one another

I don’t like it because many stake it as a fact when it simply is not. There is proof men and women are different, not that women are more complicated.

How true how true. That is more to the point I was trying to make. I was not bashing women or what you think Miss RapinBat, only that we should accept our differences instead of pointing them out and trying to isolate them. Wouldn't that only fuel the stereotype more?

And yes, I have a steady girl now, so I spend about 500 on average every six months on little plastic models for wargaming.

Sad, but remarkably fun and it's a creative outlet. She's on the fence about playing, so it's a win-win situation for me if she goes for it. She understands that I only have a few things that I am interested in and she lets me do them with minimal struggle.

It is on this idea alone that I am more than willing to put myself out there to help her achieve any goals/hobbies that she may be seeking even if I do not like them. Give and take.

[edit on 17-7-2008 by Kingalbrect79]

[edit on 17-7-2008 by Kingalbrect79]