What do you think about this generalization about men and women?

I don’t find it useful as a generalization. Isn’t saying something cruel doing something cruel?

Although that monologue was interesting I found it too simplistic and not true in my life.

Sure it’s simplistic, sure it is a broad-brush generalization, and sure, those suck, but there is a tiny little grain of truth to it.

I can see it being sort of true. It is a bit too simplified, as said above, but I can see how it could ring somewhat true.

I think we can add that to…..The only sure things in life are death, taxes and women say cruel things – men do cruel things. ;)

shit, I didn’t think it had THAT much merit!

I think the reasons for it seeming to be correct is most of the time it is men that are in charge of the nations and are responsible for the wars, killing and most of the death of this world.

Yep – in a nutshell.

I did not see one woman in this Last Samurai scene .

@worriedguy, hahahaha

Women are just as capable as men are of doing cruel things.NO WIRE HANGERS!! ;)
ever

Yep – That about says it.

It’s a crap generalization.

‘helpful..’

Dont think so.

@misstrikcy – why not?

It would be useful if you could explain why you find it a helpful generalization? Helpful for what?

Understanding communication between men and women? I think it needs to go deeper than a generalization such as this.
Woman talk more than men (generalization) so therefore does that mean that by default we’re going to say more cruel things, just because of the nature of us?
I

@iamthemob Maybe I should watch ‘The Walking Dead’ so I understand the context of your question better..

In general I don’t approve of generalizations about men and women.

@misstrikcy – The problem with going deeper with it as a generalization is that if you get too specific, I think, with any generalization, you start to present it as a truth or fact – the simplest and least specified ones are the ones that contain the most truth (but don’t hold out as the truth).

But, for me, it kind of plays out on the playground. Boys choose to hurt each other by punching, hitting etc. – this sort of goes to how they’re raised to be more action-oriented still to this day…we want them to do something. Girls tease each other, talk about each other behind their backs, etc. – going to the fact that they’re raised to talk issues out, and thats how they work. (not implying any cause or effect – just some correlations).

This continues into adulthood – men do the damaging things – cheat without thinking, etc. Women will criticize, belittle, call into question motives…in front of people often.

I thought it was the other way around. I thought, generally, women keyed cars and threw your clothes out of the window if you cheat etc.

I wouldn’t word it like that, I would say something more like, “Women are more apt to bash a man over the head without a thought, in response to the man’s thoughtless words.”

@Blackberry And the cheating by the man isn’t the cruel action…..........?

I tend to agree with this statement as a generalization. Again, it’s not the wall all are, but for the most part, in my experience, this has been the case.

@Ponderer983 Oh, yes it is, but there’s no physical damage done. :)

@Blackberry So it’s only cruel if there is physical damage? What if the guy gets crabs and gives it to his girlfriend? A cruel action does not have to have physical damage IMO to be cruel.

@Ponderer983 I’m just going off of the generalization lol…..I distinguish between the two words ‘say’ and ‘do’ with one being words, and the other being a physical action. Calling someone an idiot is cruel, and yes, giving crabs to someone is cruel as well.

I think some pissed off women can do much more cruel things than men…anyway, no I don’t agree with the generalization.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – as it’s based on a gender binary, I expected no less. ;-)

@iamthemob Right…though I do think women can really do more cruel things because being so often in a powerless, inferior position (sexism rules still), they might act out.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – Good point – I think you’re right. I was actually more thinking about initial, more inappropriate cruelty (assuming there’s an appropriate form of cruelty).

When I think of cruelty – it’s more something that’s done because you want to hurt someone just because. It requires no motivation. I think that kind of cruelty is more spoken (e.g., a woman saying “I don’t think you even care about this family” in front of the kids) for women and more action-oriented (a man going…“Well fine, I’ll just cheat on the bitch” to himself and then doing it) for men.

But that doesn’t mean that a lot of the cruelest things can’t be done by women, or said by men.

I don’t agree with it. Many generalizations annoy me because they apply even to those who don’t exhibit those traits, and because some people take these generalizations too seriously and actually base their thoughts on the assumption that a generalization is true in all cases without thinking any further about the fact that it doesn’t always apply.

@NaturallyMe – the weakness of generalizations has already been recognized. ;-)

As a generalization, sure, it’s played up everywhere but I think what @Simone_De_Beauvoir is accurate in that there’s a lot of cruelty that goes under the radar from women who feel supressed, negated, abused, etc.

Is there a full moon out this week Chaz?

@iamthemob I know. :) Just giving my 2 cents, even though it’s not always valuable. :P

The only use for a simplistic statement that ways women are this and men are that is to create a thoughtful discussion about how it really works.

I think that statement is false. I know plenty of men who say cruel things and never go threw with anything. I also know a lot of woman that do some pretty cruel and harsh things. Also I know plenty of men and woman who don’t have a cruel bone in their body. Stereotyping and categorizing people is almost always just stupid lies based on opinions.

@YARNLADY – I agree almost completely.

Hmmm… does that mean that we’re now going to have a thoughtful discussion about what @YARNLADY said, or what you said, @iamthemob?

that would be up to you – the question is in Social after all. ;-)

Nah, I don’t have thoughtful discussions in Social, because I don’t hafta.