I feel it safe to say that both genders wish to be respected for what/how they are. We don’t like women getting their ideas about men from Cosmo any more than you like us getting our ideas about women from Hustler, so we all need to get out of the magazine articles and look at how the other gender really is.
The reason most men don’t try to understand the emotional nature of females is approximately the same reason that most women devote any effort to understanding N-spatial geodesics or string theory; some minds are not wired to handle certain things. Hell, I am not good with languages or introspection, and most people are not as good as I am when it comes to certain other things. Not all minds are the same, and that’s okay!
Women don’t like being taken for granted, and many men don’t like to be forced to make our entire lives revolve around one thing (or person) 25/8 to the exclusion of all else. It’s hard to find a happy medium there. Personally, I wander between the extremes. Sometimes I wait on my wife hand-and-foot, catering to her every whim while other times I disappear for hours. Over the years, we’ve developed an understanding. She knows how important she really is to me even when I don’t remember to mention it every few minutes and respects my need to live off the leash.
@syz Don’t ever tell a man about a problem unless you actually want a solution! You women want to talk about your feelings without ever addressing the actual problem while us guys are solvers and doers. If your house were on fire, would you talk about how fire makes you feel, or would you just call 911 before the whole block goes up and kills people?
It’s not that we minimize problems; it’s that we approach them differently and in ways that don’t cause drama or psychological trauma every time something goes wrong. On average, we are more pragmatic, direct, and goal-oriented than women.
In the end, neither approach is correct as that directness can cause us guys to miss out on some of the beautiful things in life, but it is a difference that needs to be taken into account if you ever want to have a meaningful relationship with someone of the opposite gender.