What I've learned about men and marriage

[Beestie]

I believe this was the point that jinx was originally making, that simply asking "when will women learn" is a tad hypocritical since it assumes women are on the inherently "wrong" side, that they must be the only ones to change.

I'm not being hypocritical because I'm not saying either side is better than the other. Hypocrisy involves saying one thing and doing another. If I am wrong, I am wrong in both word and deed and not one or the other. Perhaps you mean inconsistent in which case, I respectfully disagree.

When women talk to men and expect empathy, I think it's a problem of misplaced expectations. I don't ask my wife to watch SportsCenter and get pumped about the NCAA because I know she doesn't give a flip. But, and I love my wife dearly, she will repeatedly involve me in a decision about which purse to return. It took me about two years but I finally figured out that she doesn't really want my opinion (god forbid I should actually choose one to take back) as much as to share the difficulty of the decision. I think many men would agree - we've adapted and don't expect our women to be "one of the guys" whereas our beloved have been slow to realize (or, at the very least, slow to accept) our emotional limitations.

As anecdotal support, I offer two scenarios: A woman talking to a gay man about designer shoes and a man talking to a lesbian about chain saws. Just visualize those two conversations to see the point I am making.