In our weekly discussions over coffee and cake this Friday past, my girlfriends and I trangessed from our usual topics (our children and their education/wellbeing/future) and ventured into a realm not often frequented, possibly because its not equally relevant to us but more likely because in this particular friendship group, it has not yet been navigated and okayed as acceptable territory.
Nevertheless, I boldly vented about events that took place in my front lounge room two night previous. I had been privy to the casual and animated conversation between my husband and a couple of his mates- a conversation about women (surprise, surpise) and couldn't help but intervene.
During the course of my 'intervention', it struck me just how lacking in empathy some (most? all??) men are. They really do operate in a parallel paradigm, one where their needs and wants are determined with little or no thought, identification or understanding of another's situation or feelings. There would undoubtedly be cries of disdain or worse had my husband or his mates overheard my girlfriends and I speaking in a similar manner. But of course that would never happen. Because, in my experience, women, on the whole, have a far superior ability to empathise.
Some explain away this and other blatant disparities as being inherent differences in the nature of men and women;
'men are more logical, practical problem-solvers'
and
'Men think more than they feel'
...and this, to placate infuriated women:
'Women have a higher emotional intelligence!', like that will make their behaviour more palatable.
Personally, I think it more than likely stems from broad spectrum chauvinism masqueraded as freedom of choice/light-hearted fun/talking shit.
Please note: I deliberately chose not to disclose the specific content of 'the conversation', because I empathised with my husband and his friends, which consequently led to my understanding that they would not appreciate such disclosure.
That is all.
