Two items catch my eye this morning.
One was this article about how women don’t like the news, says a study. “Consumption of news is ‘very much a masculine action, particularly in Canada, Norway, U.K and U.S.'” I found this as I was catching up with the news, thereby proving once again that I am unique among all of female kind. Ha!
The study authors then go to great lengths to try and figure why this might be:
He suggested three partial explanations. One is a “historical hangover” from an age when public affairs was men’s work, and women stayed home. Another is that women can be more busy than men, with less time for news. A third is that the men seem to be more prominent in current affairs, which can discourage some women from taking an interest or feeling involved.
Excuse me as I recover from laughing. “A historical hangover”? Seriously? NO ONE, no one, for one split second said to themselves, Hey! Maybe it’s because women are not interested!?
Next article was this one on how men only mature by age 43.
Given some fairly recent experiences I could easily quip that this one is perfectly true. But I won’t, because I’m, er, more mature than that. Ahem.
In any event, all jokes aside, in this article you don’t find any discussion of “matriarchal domination,” or the array of excuses we are prepared to provide women.
In short, men are immature, simply because they are. But if women don’t care enough to read the news it’s because a) there is systemic prejudice against us, or b) because we are so, so, so busy (and mature?) that we don’t have time.
I see a double standard. And I am weary of the long list of excuses we are prepared to provide women while not extending the same grace to men.
by 
I particularly liked the recent article in The Ottawa Citizen, with the heading Men are Pigs… which then explained that a certain percentage of men do not wash their hands after going to the washroom. The headline caused me to reflect upon the outrage that would ensue if there was an article entitled Women are Cows, which then would expound on about obesity rates, or women’s liking milk, or the results of some other inane study.
Diminishment of men in our culture is so ubiquitous that it has become the norm.
Speaking about maturity I wish our culture would mature beyond this incessant male/female (oops! female/male), sensitive/assertive, equal/oppressed, matriarchal/patriarchal, passive/aggressive, right brain/left brain, spaghetti/waffles, mysogyny/misandry, paradigm. I grew up thinking, I didn’t realize till later, that men and women were people – full stop. It was later I had to do all the hard work in figuring out if that were true.
Men don’t mature till they turn 43?
Sweet, another decade of adolescence left … 🙂
Very kind of you to sympathize with us poor persecuted males, but really, I’m not sure I see a very close parallel between the two issues you mention. While being “immature” as an adult is pretty much by definition a bad thing, what fault is there in failing to listen to the news very much? Since news reporting is inherently quick and dirty, it’s rather suspect as a means of getting informed, don’t you think? And the dominant focus of the news–politics–hardly seems like the most important aspect of life for people to devote their mental time to.
Hey Joel,
Enjoy the final decade! 😉
My point is not that the news is so very important, although I would say not being aware of current events is a shortcoming. I think of voting as an important obligation, and thus, my voting decision ought to be based on something other than “boxers or briefs.”
I think my main point, however, is that it is perfectly RIDICULOUS to bend over backwards to explain this lack of interest in news as being some form of systemic discrimination.
There may be something to the “busy” factor too–if they fleshed that out a bit more. Ie. if women take on the lion’s share of childrearing in the early years, then yes, their attention would rightly be diverted. But that’s not what they are saying, either.
The explanations were so PC, they hurt. And they didn’t resonate.
The connection between the two items is loose, I freely admit. But I think the only connection remains that women get excuses up and down the block. Where men don’t. I’d rather we both be responsible for our actions.
Anyhoo. Thanks for writing.
Yes, your general argument makes good sense. I was seizing on a bit of a tangential issue there and treating it like the crux of the matter. (Perhaps that’s just a sign of immaturity?)
Unrelatedly, RIDICULOUS is now my new favourite word. We come across ridiculous things often enough, and life is brighter for them, but when the chance arises to denounce or snort at or giggle over something RIDICULOUS, well, all the bounce comes back into Tigger’s springs right away, faster than you can say Rabadash …