# Mens thinking **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2002, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747 "2002-09-10T01:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/21 "2002-09-11T14:29:49Z")
No. What is the irony? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/22 "2002-09-11T14:35:09Z")
In the springtime, you can always tell which are the male pigeons. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/23 "2002-09-11T14:39:19Z")
I gotta say that **Enola** really summed it up well. Although I’d slightly alter the second sentence “Men think of how to achieve status and rank, and accordingly jockey for position” as women think this way as well, though more from a social aspect rather than a power aspect. Just my observation anyway. I think that once a man is married he is somewhat comforted (or relieved) that there is a woman that he can go home to be with and has implied through her commitment to him that there just might be nookie involved tonight. No awkward pickup lines, flexing to impress, or the touch and go mind games that a bachelor might have to go through. Half the fun (or frustration) in the pursuit of sex is gone so the idea doesn’t course through the brain for a large chunk of the day. Not to say that this _doesn’t_ cross the married man’s mind upon encountering various women throughout the day but sizing them up as potential mates really doesn’t apply anymore (well, for most of us). I’d be interested in seeing **Enloa Straight** ’s top 4 list for women. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/24 "2002-09-11T17:59:56Z")
So am I the only guy here who thinks about math and physics more than sex? But then, I suppose you’uns already knew that I’m weird. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/25 "2002-09-11T18:05:28Z")
Probably men who have as much sex as they could ever want, but hardly any maths and physics want maths and physics, and men who don’t have enough sex, but have as much maths as they want want want sex. Guess which sort is more common 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/26 "2002-09-11T20:37:18Z")
Oh, I didn’t say that I _want_ math and physics more than sex, just that I _think_ about them more. And I could certainly use more of all three. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/27 "2002-09-11T21:53:10Z")
Who couldn’t? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EXTREME](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@EXTREME](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EXTREME)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/28 "2002-09-11T23:59:33Z")
Well I don’t know about most women but I think about sex everyday. It’s not just the guys, in my opinion, that think about it alot. I think about other things, don;t get me wrong. But sex does cross the mind more then it should, :). ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/29 "2002-09-12T19:01:27Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, EXTREME. I can’t really give a top 4 for women, but I know that women are motivated by emotional intimacy, communicated verbally. A woman’s brain is hard-wired for communication: compared to a man’s brain, a woman has communication super-highways within the various lobes of the brain. To us guys, though, emotional intimacy and communication can be rather infuriating at times. Listening to a woman talking on the phone for hours and hours, trying to start a conversation with us at the breakfast table when we try to read the morning paper, and especially waking us up at 3:00 in the morning because you just have to get something off your chest…UGH! that just drives us nuts! ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/30 "2002-09-12T19:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **So am I the only guy here who thinks about math and physics more than sex?** You mean… there’s a _difference_? ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/31 "2002-09-12T22:23:27Z")
**Of course** there is. Physics has to be consistent with the universe as we observe it. Maths has to be consistent with whatever axioms you start with. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/32 "2002-09-13T11:49:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*So am I the only guy here who thinks about math and physics more than sex? But then, I suppose you’uns already knew that I’m weird. \*\* Mathematicians obsess About _Sets_, they’re confused, so I guess For they thought it was shown Indeed proven and known That’s it’s true that x=ts ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/33 "2002-09-13T13:37:32Z")
In-side-Her - I get it Ethilrist. That is definately one for Beavis and Butthead fans. Not that you are one but that’s what came to mind. Of course if that is not what you meant then I have a dirty mind. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/34 "2002-09-13T14:52:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*So am I the only guy here who thinks about math and physics more than sex? But then, I suppose you’uns already knew that I’m weird. \*\* Well I don’t like math or physics much but I do think more about music and motorcycles then sex. As my ex wife and girlfriends will tell you. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/35 "2002-09-13T15:11:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*Oh, I didn’t say that I _want_ math and physics more than sex, just that I _think_ about them more. And I could certainly use more of all three. \*\* …and it’s posts like this that have me half-convinced that Chronos is really just a disembodied brain floating in a jar… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/36 "2002-09-13T15:56:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enola Straight \* > \*\*I can’t really give a top 4 for women, but I know that women are motivated by emotional intimacy, communicated verbally. > > A woman’s brain is hard-wired for communication: compared to a man’s brain, a woman has communication super-highways within the various lobes of the brain.\*\* Got a cite for that? > [@](#): > > \*\*Listening to a woman talking on the phone for hours and hours, trying to start a conversation with us at the breakfast table when we try to read the morning paper, and especially waking us up at 3:00 in the morning because you just have to get something off your chest…UGH! that just drives us nuts! \*\* What does “talking on the phone for hours and hours” have to do with emotional intimacy? For what it’s worth, I think what men and women think are very, very similar. They just learn to refer to it by different names. It’s as if men referred to one color as black and women referred to the same color as white. But that’s just a guess, based upon my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/37 "2002-09-13T16:14:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NYR407 \* > \*\*In-side-Her - I get it Ethilrist. That is definately one for Beavis and Butthead fans. Not that you are one but that’s what came to mind. > > Of course if that is not what you meant then I have a dirty mind. \*\* In-side-Her is more bad phonetic joke than irony. \*\*Ethilrist \*\* probably found it ironic that somerone with name like **insider** posts a question looking for inside information. No dirty mind, just too much Beavis and Butthead. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/38 "2002-09-13T16:22:33Z")
The woman brain’s communication superhighway reference came from one of John Gray’s (Men are from Mars…Women are from Venus) appearances on Oprah…so its GOTTA BE TRUE! \ Talking on the phone for hours? My SO gets this glazed-eyed, far-out smile, taking to her girlfriend about such heavy topics as: Nail polish, The shoe sale at the local mall, The girlfiend’s new hair style, How upset she was at me for not continuing to talk to her…after she had fallen asleep, How the girlfriend is late (get off the phone and maybe she’ll be on time!). Except for being put on hold, I don’t think I have ever been on the phone for more than 15 minutes at a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbazine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbazine/32/362_2.png) [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/39 "2002-09-13T16:31:34Z")
Sheesh! If men thought about sex as much as some people think men think about sex we’d all still be living in caves. Men are wired such that our bodies keep throwing the desire for sex up in our faces, so to speak, (not that way you pervs) but when we learn to ignore our biologcal imperatives, we get a lot of thinking done about math and physics and engineering and biology and … where the Hell was I going with this, oh yeah, stop generalizing about what men, or women, are like, what they think about, etc. **We’re all different, dammit!** ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747/40 "2002-09-13T16:37:48Z")
Jus to add to **Enola Straight** ’s cite, the topic was also addressed in Deborah Tannen’s **You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation**. If you’re looking for the neuroanotomy cite, I seem to remember an essay in **Taking Sides: Clashing views on Controversial Isuues: The Family** that addressed this topic. Quite a few years have passed since I read this but the thrust of the arugument is that the corpus callosum (CC) is proportionately larger in women. The CC allows for exchange of information between the two cerebral hemispheres and as some have it, because of the difference this happens quicker in women. Don’t know if I’d call it a super highway but hey, whatever floats yer boat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-thinking/127747.md?page=3)