This is that rare RhymerPoll based on something from the real world. Rejoice and be happy. Here’s the sitch:
My father is in his late 70s and has been widowed for almost five years. As he lives alone and is less than blessed with culinary skills, I frequently make him several days’ worth of dinners and take them to his house. Doing so recently I was mildly surprised not to find him at home on a Saturday afternoon. I took the dinners home and called a twice before 9 p.m., at which point I decided to let matters be till the next day. On Sunday I delivered the food and asked him where he’d been; he said he’d been out with his friend, Mrs. Rodgers, who is also widowed. When I asked what they’d been doing, he replied, “We were out,” so I left it there.
Later that day I had a telephone conversation with my baby sister, who lives in another state and is, short of my wife, my favorite human being. During our aimless chat I mentioned the above incident, and she asked me what sort of friend Mrs. Rodgers is; I replied that I didn’t know any more details. I’ve overheard the tail end of conversations between the two of them, but Dad has never volunteered any information; figuring that if he wanted to tell me he would, so I didn’t ask.
This annoyed my sister, though only a little. If she had been there, she said, she would have insisted on knowing more about Mrs. Rodgers. I pointed out that Dad had the opportunity to say more and didn’t, so clearly he didn’t want to. She replied that my failure to follow up was emblematic of the difference between men and women: women, she says, are much nosier. I disagreed. Some men are nosier than some women, and vice versa, but I don’t see a sex-based pattern.
Which brings us back to the thread question. Do you think women are nosier than men? The reverse? Or somewhere in between?
Poll in a moment, but don’t let that slow you down.
IMHO women are more likely to ask a lot of questions. Not necessarily out of a lack of tact, but simply because they are more interested about personal details.
“I think women are generally nosier than men”. Women generally find the details of people’s lives more interesting than men; they are more curious, so they ask more questions about that. Whereas a man would be more likely to strike up a long conversation about their shared interest in sports or Star Wars or whatever.
Women gossip more, men boast more. I understand that some intelligence agencies these days favor hiring women over men for that reason; women get drunk and blurt out that their neighbor is having an affair, not that they know this really cool stuff about what the government is up to.
I’d say yes women are nosier, but not because they must know everything that’s going on, but because of the simple innate desire to talk about any and everything.
Men can usually get by just fine with a series tonal grunts, as long as no women are around.
I guess I’m not too sure what the difference between nosy and curious is, really. I’m a woman, and yeah, I really do like knowing stuff about people and their lives and relationships.
I misread the title as “Are women noisier than men”. The op was then somewhat confusing, so I re-checked the title, and noticed I’d given friend **Skald ** an extra vowel for no apparent reason.
I then voted that I’m male, and believe women are nosier than men.
Nosiness is a manifestation of curiosity, tempered by societal expectations.
I’m not nosy, not because I’m not curious, but because it’s usually none of my business, and I don’t want to seem nosy, which is a huge expectation for men.
I think the expectations for women are a lot lower- gossiping and being nosy are much more accepted among women than men, although both groups do it to some extent.
