Are men or women more sympathetic when the other is sick?

On the radio this morning they had a very interesting discussion question, “which gender is more sympathetic when the other one is sick?” This question found me at a great time because my boyfriend is just starting to get sick and the discussion about how differently men act when they are sick as opposed to women came up.

Now the radio said the survey proved that men are more sympathetic when the other is sick. At first I really did not agree with this. My reasoning was simple. Women tend to be the caretakers. So women tend to be the ones who make their partner soup, make sure they are taking medicine, make sure they are getting rest. While men have good intentions I have no experienced many men who are inclined this way. While my current boyfriend definitely takes care of me, it is not a gender thing but rather a fact that he is a good guy.

He gets a gold star for being awesome!

The more I listened though the more I agreed.

Here is where my first thoughts were wrong. Women are in fact the caretakers but that was never the question. The question was about sympathy. If you take a pole of ten women in the room it is almost guaranteed most women will say men are babies when they are sick (including me). That does not scream sympathy. If anything that is the opposite.

But men don’t generally feel this way about women. Of course the reason could be that many women (including myself) continue on with their daily lives even while sick. Many of us don’t slow down. We are women hear us roar! So men may have more sympathy because they understand how they feel when sick and women don’t show it as much.

Of course these are generalizations and many women and men might fall in the other side of things here which is why I find is such a fascinating discussion questions.

So I turn to you bloggers. Which gender do you feel is more sympathetic when the other is sick and why?

Women can love sports the same way as men!

I don’t know how much I have talked about this on my blog, but I am a Female sports fan. My favorite sport to watch is baseball but I also follow Football pretty closely and I am learning to love Hockey ( since the boyfriend is into it).

I have been into sports since probably middle school or early high school. I was the girl with all guy friends so it kind of came with the territory. I would stay up nights on the phone with one of my guy friends watching a game, complaining about the players and complaining about the penalties. I learned to love the sports. I learned everything about the sports just as well as the boys. In fact I became the person people turned to for their updates. And by people I mean the guys.

But this never carried over to new men I would meet. If I went on a new date and offered to watch a game with a guy they would usually laugh at me and say “I dont want to bore you.” If I tried to strike up a conversation about a particular player most men would say “oh how cute, did you do your research for me?” This ALWAYS infuriated me. But I always told myself I love the game for myself and not for anyone else so who cares what they think.

The funny part is, in every relationship I have ever been in, I have been the sports lover. I have had to beg and plead with the guys in my life to watch a full sports game. They just never had the passion for it that I did. And yet girl’s just don’t get sports, or at least accord to Men’s Health Magazine.

Now I can’t point you to the article because Men’s Health (wisely) deleted it. But this rant came up because they posted an article titled “How to talk to Women about sports.” The premise was basically that women don’t care about stats and instead need story lines.

Now, I will admit I am not a math person. But I do actually like to hear the stats of the game. Do I want to figure them out myself? No. But it does not mean I am not interested in hearing them. And I need story lines? Excuse me? Just because I enjoy a good chick flick doesn’t mean I can’t also enjoy a good game, stats and all.

The article is offensive because it lumps all women in as basically incapable of enjoying sports. Yet I am a girl who enjoys sports (without being talked to in a different way about it) and for the most part I know more than many guys do. To learn more about this article and the fall-out click here.

So Men’s Health Magazine please remember, women can be women and enjoy a good sports game.

What do you bloggers think about the Men’s Health article?

Park you car THEN walk in. Please and Thank You!

So every once in awhile, a status I post on Facebook sparks a little bit of a debate. Well a few weeks ago this happened to me. The status I posted was this:

“Alright ladies please explain this. Why do you need to be dropped off at the door of your destination and your beau has to catch up with you after parking???”

The inspiration for this was basically every trip to the grocery store ever! I always end up stuck behind some car waiting at the front of the store to let the woman out. I have to sit there and wait for her to collect her things, cross in front of the car, and the car to begin moving again before I can park. Almost every time the woman who gets out is middle aged at most, no disabilities and seemingly perfectly capable of walking from a parking spot into the grocery store. But it still happens time and time again.

The responses on the status started off pretty affirmative. Other women felt this was absurd. I felt validated. But then the generation gap reared its ugly head. Women that were closer to my parent’s age and up felt this was “chivalrous” or “polite”.

The logic basically was that a man should offer this to a woman because it is the right thing to do. I was told “why should two people get wet?”. I mulled these words over and over in my head but still I am not on board.

My feeling is this: If you are elderly or have a disability of course you should get special treatment in this regard (handicap parking anyone?). However, women are always begging for equal rights yet expect a man to drop them at the door of the store instead of walking with them from a parking spot? How is that equal?

I have two legs and I am perfectly capable of walking the same distance as my boyfriend. In fact I would rather walk in with in rather than worrying about how we will meet up once in the store. Plus unless I also send him out to retrieve the car while I wait for the chariot to pick me up in front, my little legs will need to make the walk back from the store so what is the difference?!

I am realizing that this is a generation gap issue. So I turn to you bloggers of all ages. What are your feelings on this? Should a woman expect a man to drop her at the door of a store instead of walking with him from the parking spot? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!