Or: Since when is the common cold a life-theatening condition?
So have you ever noticed that a man, no matter how many bears he has killed with only his hands, or how many beers he can drink without having to take a piss, or whatever kind of masculine activity you can think of, is always such a whimp when he gets sick?
I just got off the phone with my brother (who really doesn’t kill any bears, but he’d like to think so) and boy, was he miserable! He had a cold, and his nose was running, his throat was sore and he had a slight temperature. But in his world, he was close to death. I was tempted to ask what flowers he wanted for his funeral, but even sick brothers can get pretty mad. So instead I talked to his wife. She had been seriously ill for almost a week, yet when my brother woke up this morning with a really minor headache, he had asked her to get him some OJ and aspirin.
Now, you’ll say my brother is a wuss. Well I can’t argue with that. But the point is that he is not the only one. My dad, my ex-boyfriends, my buddies, they’re all the same. All I have to say is grow up! Be a man!
::cough cough:: Soda dear can you get me an asprin please? I really dont feel well… I think I have some rare disese… I might be gone from this mortal realm any minute now…Oh woe is me… ::looks real miserable and coughs some more:: pleaaaaaaaaaase?
Don’t know how scientifically sound this is…but haven’t you heard that women have a higher pain threshold than men do? I’ve also noticed that they seemed to have a higher bullshit tolerance too. Must come from dealing with men who have colds.
Needs2know
Mrs. Pluto is of the same confused opinion about male reaction to apparently trifling illnesses. I have tried to explain to her that men actually have a higher tolerance for pain, so that when it is finally exceeded we are, in point of fact, actually suffering more and complaining less than women would.
She, of course, has another theory but I won’t clutter up this message board with her ravings.
It takes more than a little cold to knock me out.
I firmly believe that even the most macho man turns into Elmer Fudd when they catch a cold. I know I do.
“Hunny, I don’t feeo vewwry well. I fink I haff to lay down. Will you get me some owwrage jwuice pweese?”
Mind you, any cold I’ve had would kill a lesser man! 
By the same token, when my wife has a cold I have to fight to keep myself from saying something like: “Oh, it’s not that bad. Let’s go out tonight!”
I don’t know about you, but I tolerate sickness better than my wife. When I get sick, I just want to stay in bed. I don’t complain and I don’t whine (very much). When my wife gets sick you might as well consider everything to be YOUR FAULT. She snaps at me constantly, complains, yells, and is generally not a nice person to be around (All this when she is sick. When she is in good health, she is the greatest!).
Ummm. When I am sick, I just want everyone to leave me alone. Even when I was younger (in grade school, never mind the math) I just preferred to have my mother go to work and let me just sit around, watch TV and drink my ginger ale. I don’t complain, I don’t do the “oh, honey I’m dying” crap, even when I -do- have an SO. If I have no food, or no asperin, etc. I go shopping, get what I need (although at a much reduced pace) and go back home. I am a man, and can get my own food, dammit! Even when I am sick. To be honest, when people go get stuff for me, ask me if I need anything, whatever, I have to be sick enough to be woozy for me to say OK. I think it might be some kind of weird macho crap that goes into overdrive when I am sick or something. [/rant mode]
I hate people who whine, whether they are sick or not. I must have gotten this from my mother as she used to recite a poem to us that put us in our place when we whined. Maybe it’ll work for you:
In Latvian:
Kus, kus bernin,
dakters nak!
Bet tikmer dakters atnacis,
tikmer bernins nospradzis.
Translation:
Hush, hush baby,
the doctor is on his way!
But before the doctor gets there,
the baby explodes.
current SO doesn’t wimp out, doesn’t want company, sympathy etc. DID allow me to hand him the advil the other day (I was standing right by it, he was sitting down…). son, who has always been healthy as a horse, got sick, took him to clinic, he was sitting there bemoaning the otehr people going in ahead of him while he “was dieing” - but you know what? he wasn’t far from wrong. He had mono + strep + a few other throat infections that nearly closed his airways, ended up in intensive care for 3 days. On the other hand, his father (the scum sucking, bottom dwelling, waste of oxygen) had chronic “bad back” which always prevented him from helping with the groceries or trash but never seemed to stop him from his motorcycle etc, told me once (while I was still in bandages covering my torso from second degree burns that put me in a crouching position 24/7), “you don’t know what it’s like to have back pain”… so 2/3 of the males in MY immediate world don’t share the symptom that you describe…
Oh, dear God, Sax. I just let a resounding snort out in my office. I MUST learn how the pronounciation on that poem. Is it phonetic? Heh.
Tough guy checking in.
I don’t complain. I’ve suffered through some pretty serious illnesses without ever admitting to anyone that I am unwell. Growing up, I was conditioned to believe that admitting discomfort was a sign of weakness. I’m certain that this was not the intention of my family, but that’s how it worked out.
Now, the most I will say is “I have a headache. This sucks.” Or, “I’m bleeding out of my eyes and my spleen has just clawed its way through my flesh and is doing a happy dance right in front of me. This sucks.” Either statement would be delivered in the same flat tone, not intended to attract attention to my suffering. Sympathy, like pity, makes me very uncomfortable.
Tolerance for pain differs by individual, not by gender.
SaxFace,
Can I have your mom?
I am judging Latvians from a second hand source, but from what I have seen, y’all are a strange bunch. I’ll admit it. A headache is like cryptonite to this superman. But I am very healthy and rarely get sick, so any change from the normal is devastating.
I dunno about that… I’m male… I don’t complain at all. I generally continue with normal activities, restricting only those that would cause someone else to contract whatever I have at the moment.
My ex girlfriend used to get upset that I never whined or complained when I was sick, as it made her look bad (life was hell for me when she was sick.) In fact, she used to wonder if I really WAS sick because of the lack of complaint. Always hated it when she tried to baby me when I wasn’t feeling in top form.
I guess we can’t all be superstars! 
-niggle
I’m so pleased that some of you loved my mother’s poem.
My mum is quite a classy lady and even though she would give a lot of much needed sarcasm and cynicism to the board, I don’t think she’ll be appearing here anytime soon as she says, “I’m scared of the interweb.”
Sorry, Tymp, she’s MY mother, back off, bub.
Chris P, it’s true, avoid us while you can.
Swimming Riddles, it is phonetic, but not how you would pronounce it, so I’ll recite it and teach it to you while you’re in NYC. It’ll take you two seconds and you’ll be surprised how often you’ll use it.
Is it just me, or does everyone start rolling their eyes when people start complaining about their medical problems, especially gross or personal ones? I can understand old people doing it, but I really get annoyed when people my age start listing off ailments, especially ones that aren’t particularily serious. There’s no way these people would have survived a hundred years ago.
Ok, I’m guilty of it, too, but why are we a bunch of wimps now?
Soda,
You have expressed the opinion of Mrs. Sili to the T. She insists that men are wusses when it comes to tolerating sickness or pain. I have to agree to a point, but the majority of the time I do complain much less if I’m sick. I like to be left alone with the remote or a book, and she can’t stand it! She wants to be entertained, and does not believe that I would not rather talk to her even f I’m not feeling to well.
OTOH, when she’s ill she insists on being pampered (which is always a pleasure for me anyway), but will never admit this the next time I get ill, etc.
The average male cannot tolerate the pain the average female can. But for most men I know, the reaction to non-life threatning stuff is more low-key.
Real men can open beer bottles with their teeth; they can certailnly get their own aspirin!!
Sili
Well, I’m a she and I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer, but…
I would MUCH rather have the leaking-out-of-all-three-orifices-flu than a cold. If I get the flu I stay home and puke and…uh…whatever and drink Nyquil and play on my computer. If I get a cold I whine.
I should mention that, while I’ve never gone through childbirth, I have gotten in fights with cows and lost and never whined about it. It’s just that little crap that makes me moan and bitch and whine and complain.