# Women are the fairer sex. Your opinions? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938 "2010-10-31T00:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/41 "2010-10-31T16:30:35Z")
I’ve absolutely no doubt that boredom with Malacandra’s schtick (and yours as well) is expressed with complete seriousness all the time. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/42 "2010-10-31T16:39:49Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > The word “girl” has come up on the board before. And women are just as guilty as men calling grown adult women “girls”. Why do we do this? Is it a throwback to olden times when women were overtly considered child-like and immature human beings? Is it because women are vain about their age and like being referred to as “girl” rather than “woman”? Or is it that “woman” just sounds too formal and “lady” too old-fashioned? I don’t know, and can’t complain too much because I’m guilty of doing it too. So maybe I’m overthinking this as well. For some reason, the word “woman” is kind of awkward on my tongue. “Women,” which I kinda pronounce as “wimmen,” is easy to say. “Woman” isn’t. And it’s two syllables, which makes it inherently feel less casual. Woman. Now it’s gone into that land where words go when they stop sounding real. Woman woman woman! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/43 "2010-10-31T17:49:16Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > I’ve absolutely no doubt that boredom with Malacandra’s schtick (and yours as well) is expressed with complete seriousness all the time. You know quite well that I was talking about you “jokingly” expressing indifference towards abuse and injustice aimed at men. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/44 "2010-10-31T18:00:30Z")
No, the _joke was that monstro should administer a throatpunch to her coworker. Blahblahblahbored was not a joke, but it was also not aimed at actual abuse or injustice toward men, it was aimed at Malacandra’s response to said joke with his tiresome, (and hey, to give credit where it’s due, tireless_) insistence that men are a relentlessly persecuted and oppressed group. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/45 "2010-10-31T20:42:33Z")
> [@](#): > > A lot of people don’t, I’ve started to notice. I’ve never considered myself an ardent feminist, kill-all-the-men type, but I guess as I’ve gotten older, annoying things become more noticeable. Or perhaps I can now see how things can be perceived in multiple ways, and both ways can be equally annoying. I’ve noticed that liberal women tend to be more feminist as they age, and conservative women become more conservative. Which makes sense - young women at the peak of their attractiveness have fewer reasons to be dissatisfied with the status quo, but as they get older and stop reaping those benefits, _then_ the activism, from either direction, steps in to denounce the “injustices” that used to be just fine. And **DianaG** , what are the conditions under which you would _not_ respond to violence against males with kneejerk derision? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/46 "2010-10-31T21:05:57Z")
Well, I find women tend to need a lot more handholding and afirmation than a man. For example…oh…this OP comes to mind. Fact of the matter, personal opinions and anecdotes aside, women are generally physically smaller than men. I’m not really sure what the argument is here. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/47 "2010-10-31T21:11:24Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Well, I find women tend to need a lot more handholding and afirmation than a man. For example…oh…this OP comes to mind. **DianaG** , permission to throatpunch? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/48 "2010-10-31T21:32:41Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > **DianaG** , permission to throatpunch? See, now his guard will be up. Jeez, monstro, do you need your hand held with **everything**? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/49 "2010-10-31T21:33:27Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > I’ve noticed that liberal women tend to be more feminist as they age, and conservative women become more conservative. Which makes sense - young women at the peak of their attractiveness have fewer reasons to be dissatisfied with the status quo, but as they get older and stop reaping those benefits, _then_ the activism, from either direction, steps in to denounce the “injustices” that used to be just fine. No, that doesn’t make sense. How would becoming less attractive make a conservative _more_ conservative when it comes to sexism and feminism? Expound please. And can we infer from this argument that attractiveness somehow forms the political beliefs and opinions of women, but that this isn’t the case in men? I disagree with you regardless. The more parsimonious hypothesis is that a pretty young woman would be _more_ of an ardent feminist simply because they notice sexist crap–like men gawking at them or being patronizing to them because they’re so “pretty” and “fragile”–than a less comely woman would be. But I have actually never noticed a correlation between looks and degree of feminist streak. I _have_ noticed a relationship with intelligence, though. None of the really intelligent women that I know (and I know many) fit into the “frail and delicate” stereotype and all consider themselves “strong” (which is often code for “I don’t take shit from anyone, especially if he’s a man”). Indeed, the men that I know with impressive intelligence also don’t fit the gender box that men have been squeezed into. Smart people, from my experience, tend towards androgyny. But I’m guessing YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/50 "2010-10-31T21:39:37Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > I’ve noticed that liberal women tend to be more feminist as they age, and conservative women become more conservative. Which makes sense - young women at the peak of their attractiveness have fewer reasons to be dissatisfied with the status quo, but as they get older and stop reaping those benefits, _then_ the activism, from either direction, steps in to denounce the “injustices” that used to be just fine. Every time I notice your username you’re either plagiarizing someone or just randomly making stuff up. You’re slightly more impressive when you’re using someone else’s words. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/51 "2010-10-31T22:27:30Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > You know quite well that I was talking about you “jokingly” expressing indifference towards abuse and injustice aimed at men. Her joke would have been funny even if she had been suggesting monstro throatpunch a female coworker. The humor, for those of us who found humor in it, is in turning the speaker’s idea of a frail, passive femininity on its head via extreme violence. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/52 "2010-10-31T22:37:17Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > **DianaG** , permission to throatpunch? With what? Your little girlie fists?😃 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/53 "2010-10-31T22:41:31Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > With what? Your little girlie fists?😃 God help me, I laughed. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/54 "2010-10-31T22:53:53Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > See, now his guard will be up. Jeez, monstro, do you need your hand held with **everything**? Yes, I do. I mean, I’m living in a city where half the population are MEN, which means everybody’s raping everybody up in here! I’m so afraid of just _being_, girl. I mean, woman. I mean, wimmen. See? I’m so confused. Must be because I realized I’m not reaping the benefits of my good lucks any more, and the perceived injustices are overwhelming my frail, overly emotional brain. Maybe I can convince some of the zombies roaming my street right now to eat it. We really need a devil smilie. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/55 "2010-10-31T22:54:37Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Well, I find women tend to need a lot more handholding and afirmation than a man. For example…oh…this OP comes to mind. Condescend to me, **msmith**. It gets me so hot! ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/56 "2010-10-31T22:57:07Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > With what? Your little girlie fists?😃 It won’t be too hard. I doubt you have much of a neck, and what you have is probably covered in a beard. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/57 "2010-10-31T23:02:25Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Females are hunters and males are fighters. > > One of the funniest Youtube videos I’ve seen was of a bunch of lionesses being chased away from a kill by hyenas while My Boyfriend’s Back played in the background. The hyenas had them up in trees before the music switched to metal and the male exploded out of the grass and steamrolled the little bastards. Was it [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIU6JPBDszo&feature=fvst) footage? A pride of lionesses ends up in a tree or chased off by hyenas until a single male comes running in and dominates. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/58 "2010-10-31T23:36:42Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Was it [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIU6JPBDszo&feature=fvst) footage? A pride of lionesses ends up in a tree or chased off by hyenas until a single male comes running in and dominates. Those look like two different clips that have been edited into one video, though… ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/59 "2010-10-31T23:40:21Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I hear this kind of thinking a lot, especially in debates about the supposed shaping of the human brain from evolutionary pressures. The thinking seems to be that because of the different levels of effort that each gender requires for reproduction (men require just the time to have sex while women require nine months), evolutionary pressure would favor aggression among men and passivity among women. To which I have always responded with an unthinkable word. But, in more depth, the theory fails because it doesn’t account for observation. Or, as **monstro** said, some men apparently believe that they know women better than women know themselves. > > The idea that feminine behavior is somehow natural and innate can be debunked by looking at how standards change over time. I can understand that evolutionary psychology maybe went too far, but can’t understand how anyone could throw it out entirely. I mean, the difference in reproductive role is so clear when you look at the difference in _sexuality_ between the genders. And I’m not saying that men are more highly sexed than women. The difference is not \ versus \. The essential difference is between men being willing to engage in casual sex (even with women that they don’t deem to be especially attractive), versus women needing to feel that a man is a “winner” in some sense, and needing to feel safe before they can engage in sex. This is so obvious among the world’s populations that I can’t believe anyone would deny it. It’s lame when EP opponents try to scratch around the Amazon for counter-examples. And that’s before we even get to the supporting research. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938/60 "2010-10-31T23:44:44Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > The essential difference is between men being willing to engage in casual sex (even with women that they don’t deem to be especially attractive), versus women needing to feel that a man is a “winner” in some sense, and needing to feel safe before they can engage in sex. > This is so obvious among the world’s populations that I can’t believe anyone would deny it. It’s lame when EP opponents try to scratch around the Amazon for counter-examples. Who needs the Amazon when we have Jerry Springer? For some women, yeah, feeling “safe” is a prerequisite for sex. For others, “safe” seems to be antithetical to sexy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-the-fairer-sex-your-opinions/558938.md?page=4)