What one sex knows that is like Greek to (or simply mystifies) the other sex.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay…here is what I am talking about. There are some things that men experience that are 100% foreign to women - and vice versa.

For example:

Men - you could walk into a bathroom and potentially see your boss peeing, or a professor peeing. You could actually see the guy’s penis. Now, I know you have this rule about not looking and all but it still blows my mind that you could potentially walk into a bathroom and see someone’s naughty bits.

Also, my guy friends laughed at some movie where a guy goes to pee after having sex all night and his urine stream shoots up into the air. I had no clue what this was about but my guy friend said that sometimes after sex, a little sumpin-sumpin dries and blocks the stream - making the urine shoot out in a funky direction. Apparently it was common enough to put into a movie and all the guys got it but I’ll be damned if any of the women knew what the fuss was about.

What I’m looking for is other examples of things that seem 100% normal to one sex but quite foreign to the other. I’m not talking about how to use an eyelash curler, necessarily - but more standard things, if that makes sense.

For example - I think a lot of women feel damn near naked without a bra on. Women live a very large part of their life…strapped in. I think men would find that a very, very odd sensation and would probably think they could never get used to it.

What other things come to mind?

Tibs.

2

I have to go with the guys on the bra one. (Yes, I am a girl!) I feel strapped in and horrible when I sport a bra. I feel natural when I go without one.

Okay let’s see…I will never understand sports or why watching them is fun. (I know that women like sports too, but I don’t understand them neither! :p)

Also I don’t get why guys think getting hit in the crotch is such a big deal for them. That is, I am aware it hurts like hell and all, but I’m sure it hurts just as much for women. Its just that guys must go around hurting themselves in that area more than the other sex.

I don’t think many guys comprehend PMS either. (Understandably.) I think it just scares them, but how many men really know what goes on in a woman’s head during menstruation?

3

Uh… No.

4

What is the basis for your sureness? Although a strong blow to the genitals surely hurts a woman, it would have to be a much stronger and more focused blow to create the same amount of force on an internal set of organs as is possible on a hanging, external organ. And I’ve never seen a woman fall to the ground and curl up in a fetal position after being hit in the crotch. I have seen men do it, and men are generally less inclined to admit that they are in pain.

5

I don’t think men will ever understand how some women can be consoled when upset by going shopping or getting their hair cut.

6

Um…well, I don’t know and won’t venture to guess how well acquainted you are with the nether regions of the male anatomy, but there are significant differences between men and women in that area. All of our stuff is right out there and dangly and extremely vulnerable to physical impact. There is absolutely nothing like the sensation of being hit in the organs…white hot pain shooting up the nerves to your stomach, where it explodes in a ball of incandescent deep hurting. Men do not fall on the ground and flex into a fetal position in a bid for sympathy…that’s real.

7

Shopping as a recreational activity.

On several occasions, I have seen pairs of women subject each other to the psychological equivalent of a catfight, and then be best friends the next day. “Forgive and forget” is an admirable attitude, but how do you do it so fast?

And why do you always leave the seat down?

8

Well, I think we can all understand why they leave the seat down. What I’ve never understood is why many of them insist that we should. Needless to say, this has already been covered in several threads in the past. The arguments from the women who insisted that men should leave the seat down almost always turned out to be nonsensical, or not stand up to scrutiny. Stuff like, “It would make you seem like a prince. You do want to be a prince, don’t you?” and “If it is so important to her, why don’t you just do it?” These kind of arguments ignore the fact that if there is a source of conflict, then obviously, both parties have a preferred way to behave, and neither is relenting. I don’t see why it should be the default that the man should do what the woman wants. Especially since the man isn’t trying to tell the woman to do anything, he’s just going about his business. (And don’t bring up the mathematical arguments either, because they were roundly refuted in those previous threads. The numbers are actually solidly in favor of leaving the seat up.)

The only decent argument was that an open toilet sends germs out into the air when it’s flushed. However, this applies to the women just as much, since most women I know don’t put the lid down. It would, of course, be best if everyone urinated sitting down. Then the guys wouldn’t even have to risk getting urine on their hand, making it less important if they fail to wash their hands.

And just FTR, I put both the seat and lid down every time, just out of habit. Women still have to do the same amount of effort to use the toilet, but they don’t complain. Don’t ask me why. They often don’t make much sense.

9

"I’m Sorry"

When a woman says it she means to console you and share in your grief or misfortune.

When a man says it it is to apologize for something he feels responsible for.

"Throw Pillows"

What the fuck? The couch has cushions on it allready. I say throw them little fring pillows out.

"Sexual Attraction"

Women don’t understand why many of us like shaved pubic areas. They think it means we want to have sex with pubescent girls, when in reality we just want to pretend we are having sex with pubescent girls.

Oral Sex

I think TMJ is bullshit.

Whats the big deal about my fluid? You think your dry when I’m down there? I’m swallowing gallons of your stuff and you freak out over a tablespoon or two? NOT FAIR! I even drink the pineapple juice!

Why is it that the better I’m doing the worse you are doing when we “69”? Thats not exactly positive re-inforcement. You want me to do a really really good job then when I’m doing it right you need to really make it pay off.

I can understand if you don’t want me to pull your hair when your giving me head, but that does not mean you can’t pull mine. Please, pull my damned hair, it’s damned hot.

Other Sex

No I don’t want you to have sex with other men unless I’m there and yes I do think about having sex with other women without you there. Why does this confuse you?

If you break up with me and then say you “faked your orgasms”, am I suppoed to feel bad? Don’t get mad when I reply “Too bad. I didn’t.” and grin. You are responsible for your orgasms. You need special lighting, impliments, incense, music or whatever you need to tell me. I’m simple. I just need a room and a partner and I can do it with only one of them in a pinch.

Porno

Just because I like to look at porno with women that don’t look like you does not mean you don’t turn me on. I read Road and Track too, that does not mean I hate my old reliable classic.

Never ask me if I would do it with the women in the porno movie, I’ll forget to lie. But don’t worry, it’s not too likely to happen and if it does I’ll remember to lie about it.

Lying

Chris Rock was right. You lie more than we do. We don’t really care about it though so it’s no big deal, but then when we lie and we are not too good at it (lack of practice) you get all bent out of shape. Whats the deal? Copywright infringement piss you off?

Relationships

See the movie Men Don’t Leave. It’s pretty much on the money.

Why do so many women get mad when you treat their parents as human beings and peers? I have always been on a first name and friendly basis with the parents of any woman I have dated long enough to meed her parents and the women always freak about this. I just don’t get it. I’m an adult, I support myself. Same with her parents.

Jealousy

Why is it that over half of the women I have loved han be casual about their ex’s and I have to pretend mine don’t exist?

One ex had a big photo scap book and she would show me all her friends and say “oh he and I went out for years. He’s married now, they had a great wedding” etc. WTF!! I have recurring nightmares about my ex’s getting married. How is it that women can be so casual and just move on like this? Must be the same deal with how women are better at dealing with pain and blood than men are because of natural pre-disposition.

Driving

All women tailgate. If you are a woman and you want to reply “I don’t tailgate.”. Sorry, you are either a cyclist, pedestrian, or delusional. You tailgate.

All men do that stupid thing when you are in a semi-hot car at a stoplight or sign where you look to see if the other driver is revving or making eye contact with you like he wants to drag. I don’t care if you are 15 or 115 you do it and you know you do it and it is stupid so stop it.

Men do stupid “show off” stuff while driving. I used to drive my motorcycle with no hands on a curvy road near my home whenever my ex was behind me. It really pissed her off and it was really dumb. If you take Stephen Hawking, put him in a car and make sure there is a woman with big boobs nearby his IQ would drop to below 100.

Women put on makeup while driving. WTF!! The first time i saw a vanity mirror on the driver side I crapped myself laughing until I realized that my ex would be driving my car some times.

Thats about all I can think of off the top of my head.

10

I have seen guys curl up into a fetal position after taking an injury that I, myself, have had. In my experience, males tend to not cope with pain over a long period of time as well as women. Yeah, they’ll play through a sports injury, when they’ve got those endorphins going. But a man suffering with a cold is usually making everyone else around him suffer, too.

I don’t doubt that a crotch shot is very painful to a guy. I do think that nature played a cruel joke in this case. But ask any phlebotomist, and s/he’ll tell you that the guys are the ones who faint when getting blood drawn.

From someone else:

I leave a MINIMUM of 1 car length between myself and the car ahead. And that’s when I’m in a school zone, going 15 miles an hour. My comfort zone is about 3 car lengths for city driving. That ain’t tailgating. My brother likes to leave about 1/4 car length between his car and the car ahead.:eek: THAT’S tailgating. For freeway driving, he might leave one or two car lengths. I love my brother, but I really don’t like to watch him driving.

You’re distracting her from the task at hand, that’s why. I don’t see WHY guys make a big deal out of 69, rather than taking turns, when you can each concentrate on what you’re doing. I don’t know why any guy would want to take the chance of being bitten really hard when she’s crazy with passion.

11

Oh fuck me! I don’t get shopping as some kind of “heal all your wounds” activity and I GET a hit in the crotch as painful and I get “ball” oriented sports but don’t get the “shoe” buying thing. So shoot me. Does this make me a man or a woman? I don’t CARE that the seat is up or down on the potty and I don’t see why this is such an issue and I don’t get toilet paper under or over and I don’t get the issue over porno as I watch it too.

I don’t fucking tailgate and wonder why anyone else would. I can drive a hot car and not act like a moron and wonder why some folks do. I love to look at other people and wonder why my date flips out if I notice that there is another good looking guy/gal within thirty miles of us.

I enjoy doing nothing for nothing’s sake and I even enjoy doing something I don’t really get just because it’s something to do…

So, you tell me. Am I a man or a woman? Seems to me some of you folks have very clearly defined “rules” of male and female. Stupid ass shit I think but so… with all this am I a man or a woman or just a human being with attitude and direction?

Let me give you a little 411 – in this age, our current society, there are not many man/woman issues. It’s just people issues. Get a big old grasp on to my whanker of “That’s fucking life” and get ON with it!

I think by relegating everything to man/woman you further separate yourself from a relationship and can actively point to it like, "See?! See?! THAT’S why I don’t like (men, women)! As some lame ass justification. Why don’t you pull your finger out of your ass, see the differences, the similarities and just BE!

12

::Applauds Byz::

13

[pauses to applaud Byz, too]

Zog, sweetie, I know it seems like we’re all jumping on you about this, but we’re not really, okay.? :slight_smile: It’s just that you sound like you must not have had a very close or personal (read: sexual) acquaintance with any guys. If you had, one of the first things you’d have learned was that the male of homo sapiens is EXTREMELY tender around his testicles, especially on the underside, where it connects to his pelvis. All a girl has down there is just her pubic bone, the bottom of her pelvis.

There was a GQ thread a while ago concerning “How much pressure does it take to crush a testicle?” All I did was mention this thread topic to my husband, and he instinctively hunched over, right where he was standing, and went, “Ooooo!”

Even a harsh squeeze can hurt, let alone a good kick. A long time ago, I heard a guy talking to some ladies about kicking a man in the testicles as a self-defense measure. What he said was, “Don’t ever do that unless you’re prepared to kill him immediately afterwards–it’s the only humane thing to do.”

I second Zoggie on this, especially when it comes to the managing of the Kotex pad on Day #1, and what it’s like to walk around with World War III going on inside your abdomen (and then people tell you brightly, “Oh, cramps are all in your head, you should get more exercise, that will help!”)

It’s also very spooky to have to think about possibly making a baby every time you have sex. Guys can just shoot and run.

14

Okay, clearly my OP was not entirely clear.

I am not talking about things we PERCEIVE that the other sex experiences. I am talking about things one sex could experience and the other could as well. Shopping, tailgating, etc. Those are all off the mark. And now that I think about it - it is probably entirely my fault because I may have used an example like that in my OP which was unintentional.

Here is what I am talking about:

Experiences that are 100% unique to men and (which does not mean 100% of all men experience this - only that it is unique to men) 100% unique to women (which does not mean 100% of all women experience this - only that it is unique to women) with no exceptions. Shopping doesn’t work here because it isn’t unique to women - some men love to shop.

Again, like the fact that men can walk into a bathroom and see people standing and peeing into a urinal. I think that is just plain WEIRD but guys are completely used to it.

This isn’t a battle of the sexes at all. Frankly, if a guys says getting a swift one to his boys hurts, I believe him - who cares if it hurts one sex more than the other to get a chop to the bits?

The question isn’t as simple as “What does the other sex do that bugs you?” You have to think more. :slight_smile:

It can also be something that you think is fairly common knowledge or a faily common experience among one gender but not the other (like men who have a urine stream shooting off in one direction because something dried funny). I had no clue about that but most men nod along like they’ve experienced it.

Come on! Get those thinking caps on. :slight_smile:

Tibs

15

Women apparently have an ultra-sonic sub-channel they communicate on that is beyond the range of human male hearing. A woman can bring her husband or date to a social setting and engage in conversation with other women about their respective jobs, children, social events etc. etc…

The man will hear these as normal, polite “What’s happenin’?” conversations until they get back to the house or into the car on the way home and his female significant others “decodes” them for him into a rich tapestry across which are woven byzantine schemes of personal status, power and intrigue.

Women must live far more interesting interior lives than men. It’s like having this magical shortwave on all the time that no can hear but them.

16

I don’t know if this one counts, but I have had discussion with my male friends about… well, discussions.

They say that men don’t sit down and talk a problem out with each other, and they don’t understand why we need to. He seemed not to be able to understand how we (my female friends and I, anyway) need to sit down and disect a problem before dealing with it.

Anyone else notice this one?

17

What about…thinks…how guys can never understand why women like to go to the bathroom in groups?

18

I understand that totally. They are going in there to scheme and conspire in secret.

19

Things unique to the sexes huh?

Story Telling:

A woman’s train of thought seems really fragile to me.
Unwritten Code:

I don’t think women know the complexity of the Male Unwritten Code of Conduct. For instance, the need for a one urinal “buffer zone” between stalls. Or the necessity to not crack a smile in the locker room. These are things never talked about…boys just know them.
Smell:

Every house or apartment that only has males in it will smell like it. No ones sure where it comes from or what it is exactly, but there is a definite MAN smell.

20

Tiburon, I don’t think they get it.

No, the emotional need to talk about what “they” do that bugs “us” is far greater than the desire for an objective consideration of our differencs. Makes me wish I had something to add (something as good as peeing in the wrong direction- I didn’t know about that!)

Wait! I have a question at least. How come if you’ve got somebody spending three hours on the toilet it always seems to be a guy? I’ve never spent ages of the toilet. Is this just a cultural perception? Is there a physiological reason?

Anyway I just came here to comment:

This goes both ways. This DEFINATLY goes both ways, and it’s not much positive re-inforcement for us either.

However, if it is indeed more woment than men who are voilating the contract inherent in “69”, consider:
You can get lost in the moment and still continue a lot easier than we can. What if, lost in ecstacy, I forget myself and bite down? Maybe you should be gratful if we slack off.