And the Battle Rages On

I have spent an unusually large amount of time thinking about how men and women think and speak differently. No matter what feminists would like us to think, there are differences, and that’s a good thing. Each gender, for example, tends toward a predisposed set of skills which facilitates dealing with the other. For example, men are good at something called "strategic incompetence," as it was worded in a Dilbert strip. The idea is that you make youself appear so stupid that you avoid being given any responsibility.

There is one skill women possess that fascinates me. If I could master this skill, I could probably conquer the whole world. Here’s a hypothetical scenario.

Woman: I decided you didn’t need those old clothes in the bottom of the dresser, so I threw them out today.

Man: You what? That was my autographed [insert favorite athlete here] uniform! How could you throw that away without asking?

Woman (tears welling up in her eyes): I was just trying to help keep things clean… (begins sobbing)

Man: I’m sorry, honey. Let me buy you something expensive. Will that make you feel better?

The idea is that the woman can do something wrong, but the man ends up taking the blame and even apologizing. However upset the man gets, the woman doubles the intensity when she becomes upset at his becoming upset. In a contest of such emotional depth, the man will invariably lose. Hence, it all becomes his fault.

It is true that politicians are accomplished at delegating blame, but nobody is really fooled by it. Perhaps that’s an endorsement for more women to enter politics. They might be just as slimy as men, but at least we wouldn’t realize it.