Live Science: Men are clueless
An Indiana University research study says men are “clueless” when it comes to female gestures as sexual. I’m about to explain why, and I don’t need a college education to do this.
Ugh, speaking of media male-bashing, we have this little article here from Live Science dot com, also picked up by Yahoo! News.
http://www.livescience.com/health/ 080320-clueless-guys.html
Basically the articles goes over a study at Indiana University where men were far more likely to misinterpret friendly gestures as sexual comeons, and women were better at reading men. Well, first off…they’re polling COLLEGE STUDENTS…of course sex is on their brains. Aside from that, the article goes on to say the following…
For instance, “women are supposed to be the communicators, concerned with relationships and others … men are supposed to be less concerned with communication and to be constantly alert for sexual opportunities,” McAuslan said. “This could mean that men in general may be less sensitive to subtle non-verbal behavior than women.”
Yup, not only do we have the “clueless” stereotype, but we also quote the old stereotype that men are sexual perverts and women are sexless beings looking for love, comfort and security. But aside from that, there is a far more easier explanation to all of this.
I’m definitely not protesting that men frequently misinterpret women’s gestures and intention. However, the reason for that is quite simpler than the article tries to conclude. I was listening to a speech on this very subject once and it made complete sense to me. Remember, like any other animal/creature on Earth, we are genetically programmed to procreate and pass our seed to the next generation. That’s why the goal of life for nearly all people is to get married and raise a family…and they never question “why” that is or why they think that way. On a more simpler and primitive level, we are simply seeking sexual relations.
As I’ve said before, men have the ability to spread his seed and impregnate far more women in a shorter time span than a single woman can produce a single offspring. His flaw is that he fears rejection more than the female does since she ultimately does the choosing whom she procreates with. If a female rejects him, that is subconciously coming across to the man as “I do not want to help you continue your bloodline.”
Because of the fear of rejection, he stands a far better chance of keeping his spirits up and passing his seed if he believes that more women are attracted to him than they really are. Therefor, his programming makes him think that way. It’s simple math, an overconfident man that comes onto 30 women is going to be more likelier to procreate than one who is afraid of rejection and asks only two out.
But…what do I know. I’m just a “clueless” man.
Alex Foster Says:
April 6th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I’ve always thought that men interpret friendly gestures as sexual because they don’t use friendly gestures as frequently as women. Most straight men think that if they were to touch a woman on the back it would be because he was sexually attracted to the woman in question, so if a woman touches him in that way she must be physically interested. When in reality a woman may touch a man on the back just because she’s comfortable with that man.
I think this has a lot to do with the rules Western culture sets for appropriate touching by men as opposed to women.
Understanding that men and women have different societally-defined rules is important for all people–it’ll keep women from getting offended when a man ‘misreads’ her gestures and thinking all men are pigs and men from thinking women are all sending mixed signals.
I say gestures are societally-defined because in the Middle East it’s perfectly all right for men to hold hands (it doesn’t put their sexuality into question) but a man and woman holding hands is a taboo. Likewise with men kissing hello in eastern European countries.