If women are cowards then someone go tell my niece, that young lady isn’t afraid of anything (except bedbugs apparently), nor would she ever be considered a tomboy even with her two brothers helping her in that direction.
Generally women are expected to behave a certain way from men, but the strange thing is that women nowdays find that “special treatment” is sexist and wrong . Sure it’s sexist, but how is that wrong? Women are far more “sexist” than men anyway, seeing as how they take offense to so many things (strange analogy, but ‘whoever smelt it dealt it’, this can also be applied to racism, IMO, only a racist takes offense at a racial slur, especially if it wasn’t intentional).
[ducks behind bench and quivers in fear from the imminent onslaught]
I actually like spiders. I go out of my way not to kill them. I’ve have picked them up and put them out of the house rather than squash them. They are very talented creatures, and some are rather pretty.
If we don’t define cowardice as shying away from physical confrontation against people twice their size, then everything might even out between women and men.
Men might be more willing to get into physical fights, but they are less likely to confront emotional trouble and less likely to raise a child on their own.
You could also argue that since it’s harder to be a woman in our society, that women as a whole have to be braver in order to be as successful as men.
FWIW, I’m a dude and I’ve been avoiding physical confrontation all my life. I’ve had women save my ass on multiple occasions when I was too scared to defend myself. For some reason guys are less likely to stand up for me.
i think i can answer to this correctly: men often do not stand up for other men if it’s a simple a verbal confrontation or even initial blows. you got yourself into that now you get out of it. what your friend or brother will do is either pull you off when the other guy is about to get killed, or pull the guy if it’s the other way round.
or, he might do a face-saver if he knows for certain you’re going to get killed by barring you from going any further (even throwing a token punch or neck lock on you just to show other people he’s serious.)
as to my lady friends, they’re good at dragging me away from fights and arguments. there’s somthing about a girl’s pulling grip that makes my legs obey automatically.
I will admit that, while I hear of women being afraid, I somewhat hear the word coward being used to refer to said women, and almost never hear the word cowardice being used for them. Cowardice doesn’t just mean fear, but shameful fear, and women have traditionally disbelieved that fear is shameful.
I also think that Dopers in general live in much more progressive areas, at least in the realm of male-female relations. I think they underestimate how much of the traditional male and female stereotypes still permeate the everyday lives of most Americans.
. Sure it’s sexist, but how is that wrong? Women are far more “sexist” than men anyway, seeing as how they take offense to so many things (strange analogy, but ‘whoever smelt it dealt it’, this can also be applied to racism, IMO, only a racist takes offense at a racial slur, especially if it wasn’t intentional).