Kay S. Hymowitz strikes again. Previously, she wrote an article positing that "that too many single young males (SYMs) were lingering in a hormonal limbo between adolescence and adulthood, shunning marriage and children, and whiling away their leisure hours with South Park reruns, marathon sessions of World of Warcraft, and Maxim lists of the ten best movie fart scenes."
Now she has a new thesis: That angry, disenfranchised single young men use "Darwinist" philosophy to justify "resistance to settling down" and "unsentimental promiscuity". [via]
posted by shotgunbooty on Nov 17, 2008 - 162 comments

Why aren't men and women becoming more alike? A husband and a stay-at-home wife in a patriarchal Botswanan clan seem to be more alike than a working couple in Denmark or France. The more Venus and Mars have equal rights and similar jobs, the more their personalities seem to diverge. International Sexuality Description Project findings.
posted by desjardins on Sep 9, 2008 - 45 comments

"Women and children, first," is a familiar cultural refrain, with its popular roots in the gallant sacrifice made by the male contingent aboard the doomed Titanic. Their sacrifice has inspired poetry, sculpture, male social clubs, and, of course, cinema. Yet, this sacrifice of near-mythic scale was in some respects a myth, with survival statistics skewing well in favor of men of higher social and economic class than children (and, to a lesser extent, women) of lower status.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Aug 25, 2008 - 70 comments

Men in Women-in-Prison [Films]
"This dynamic — of eroticized male exclusion from, and investment in, female relationships — was the defining feature of a handful of women-in-prison films from the 1970s. In these movies, female sisterhood, generally in the face of oppression, is itself fetishized — feminism is turned into a kind of masochistic male wet dream. How this unlikely cathexis occurred, and how it functioned, is the subject of this essay." [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Aug 7, 2008 - 23 comments

Walking a mile in our heels. [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster on Jul 30, 2008 - 186 comments

Are men boring?
posted by djgh on Jun 19, 2008 - 163 comments

Virginia Woolf: A feminist's view on why we go to war.
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 24, 2008 - 25 comments

Why Real Men Don't Cry [YouTube] [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 9, 2008 - 81 comments

In what may be the silliest poll ever taken, British women say Men Named Dave are Most Likely to be "Well Endowed". There's a whole "Top 10" and "Bottom 10" list of names... see how you stack up. The people who did the survey do this kind of thing for companies to get publicity. It works pretty well. [more inside]
posted by wendell on Feb 4, 2008 - 97 comments

Chasing women will take years off of your life. But hey, things always even out somehow. You'll just return the favor to your poor, innocent mother.
posted by miss lynnster on Oct 19, 2007 - 56 comments

Language Log is a great linguistics blog I have been reading, and I thought that Metafilter might be interested in these posts about sex differences in language use. The (less-technical) articles to which the bloggers are responding are all within the responses, so I didn't link to them. The Barry White Effect (voice pitch seems to correlate with reproduction) - Gabby Guys (men talk more than women) - Young Men Talk Like Old Women (usage of certain words) - Gender and Tags ("Certainly we don't seem to find real women and men as sums of the characteristics attributed to them") Are any of these differences actually caused by the speakers sex? The really fascinating thing, to me, is how unbelievably hard it is to study such a distinction.
posted by MNDZ on Oct 1, 2007 - 18 comments

“With the number of human beings having increased more than six-fold in the past 200 years, the modern mind simply assumes that men and women . . . will always breed enough children to grow the population . . . Yet, for more than a generation now, well-fed, healthy, peaceful populations around the world have been producing too few children to avoid population decline. . . . Throughout the broad sweep of human history, there are many examples of people, or classes of people, who chose to avoid the costs of parenthood. Indeed, falling fertility is a recurring tendency of human civilization. Why then did humans not become extinct long ago? The short answer is patriarchy.”
posted by jason's_planet on Apr 26, 2007 - 79 comments

Ask A Man? "You have come to the right place for love, relationship and dating advice. Ask a man will provide you with the love, relationship and dating answers you seek. Our staff of amazing men have agreed to break the "man code" and tell you the absolute truth about what your man is really saying to you." For example: "Men want respect. In a man's world, men are nothing without respect. In a relationship, a man needs to know his woman respects him. "
posted by feelinglistless on Oct 20, 2006 - 43 comments

Text messaging for teenage girls is like an orgasm explains neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine. The doctor from Yale provides the science behind why male and female brains are different in architecture and chemical composition.
posted by The Jesse Helms on Aug 8, 2006 - 82 comments

Gender differences in literary taste - The Guardian (inter alia) has been reporting two English professors' studies of reading habits and feelings about books by gender. Others (newest to oldest): most revelatory books by reader gender (for men), (for women), author gender by reader gender. The methodology may not be unassailable but the findings are interesting and plausible. [viaduct vianochicken]
Sidenote: I did a little research following a comment on MR and reached a non-obvious conclusion: women hate Akira Kurosawa (check out those charts; for comparison). Theories welcome.
posted by grobstein on Apr 10, 2006 - 36 comments

Body Image Relates Differently To Sexual Risks Taken By Men And Women. Males with positive body image may seek multiple sexual partners and engage in unprotected sex. Women, on the other hand, may use the confidence that comes from a positive body image to resist multiple partners and insist that a condom be used when they do engage in sex.
posted by semmi on Mar 16, 2006 - 48 comments

No list that puts MeFi at #55 is perfect, but Yahoo's 100 Sites for Men includes lots of other goldmines, like an info source for embarassing problems, hangover cures, and other gems like Draw Your Boss. Ladies, don't miss the top 100 Sites for Women, and if anyone's Ball of Paint needs are unfulfilled, you can always check out the Top 100 Weird Sites.
posted by BuddhaInABucket on Oct 31, 2005 - 31 comments

Why Your Wife Won't Have Sex with You. That quack Dr. Phil says that while sex is only 10% of a marriage, it's 90% when you're not getting it. Or words to that effect. There's some truth to that. This site discusses, from woman's point of view, why a wife might not feel like sex--often for years at a time. She also goes into greater detail (with insights taken from her own life and experience) such issues as some causes and what a man can do.
posted by John of Michigan on Oct 23, 2005 - 55 comments

(all links safe for work) Some once hypothesized that as pornography became more accessible and more mainstream, men in turn would become uncontrollable, ravenous sexual beasts. I always thought this myself: a man will see something in porn that a real woman won't give him—Internet porn now caters in a click to every fetish you can imagine—and he will find a way to get it.
 
My ex-girlfriend, observant and intelligent beyond her years, always used to tell me the opposite: it wouldn't turn men into beasts, having their way with every woman they saw. No, it would turn them away from women completely, libidos and their ability to connect with real females weakened by the hardcore acts and impossible bodies that only porn stars could give them. The porn would crave some intrinsic desire, but leave both people in the couple lonelier and less fulfulled.
 
Now I think she was absolutely right.
posted by symphonik on Apr 17, 2005 - 209 comments

Single-Sex Education When WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show decided to discuss (audio) the Summer's gender brouhaha, an interesting thing happened. The guest expected to support gender difference interpretations, Dr. Sax, and the guest expected to discuss structural challenges to women in the sciences, Dr. Bell, agreed on one solution: single-sex education. As the AP noted last summer, single-sex public education is up. Though some object on the basis that separate is never equal, Dr. Sax's organization claims both boys and girls see definite results. And even if you don't agree with Dr. Sax's reasoning, he says the studies are on his side. After all, girls schools have given us awesome ladies like Rosa Parks, Sally Ride, and me.
posted by dame on Feb 9, 2005 - 115 comments

She may not have the grey matter, but what's that matter anymore, anyway? A recent study shows that men have more gray matter, women have more white matter and in the end these differences seem to be no matter. Apparently men have more raw computing power, while women have a more efficient infrastructure -- resulting in similar general intelligence.
posted by ThePrawn on Jan 21, 2005 - 27 comments

Personal ads in the Arab world "Resident of the UAE, 28 years old, high-school diploma, looking for a veiled wife, a citizen of UAE or any other Gulf county. Will be allowed to continue working after marriage." ~ "Syrian, 36 years old, holds a government position, is interested to meet a tall, fair-skinned and green-eyed virgin, Lebanese or Moroccan."
posted by onlyconnect on Aug 29, 2004 - 21 comments

The story of Ohh! For men it is quick, easy and essential for reproduction. For women, it is slow, difficult and purely for pleasure. Yet despite such differences, it brings the sexes together and is the basis of the monogamy that distinguishes us from other animals. In his new book, Jonathan Margolis examines the phenomenon of the orgasm
posted by Postroad on May 2, 2004 - 74 comments

TheSafetyNet.Org • A collective of men who are working to stop date-rape and sexual abuse. "When a person is raped, it’s trust that’s used as the weapon...We’ve decided that it’s time to reclaim that trust, reclaim that responsibility. Men Rape. Men abuse. And men can stop it."
posted by dhoyt on Jan 10, 2004 - 2 comments

Fake lie-detector reveals women's sex lies - "Women are more likely than men to lie about their sex lives, reveals a new study ... Women who thought their responses might be read said they had had an average of 2.6 sexual partners, compared with 3.4 partners for those who thought their answers were anonymous. But those who thought they would be caught out by the polygraph reported an average of 4.4 partners." I'm guessing a similar study done on men would reveal that as the likelihood of getting caught in a lie increases, the number of partners claimed would decrease...
posted by RylandDotNet on Jul 14, 2003 - 25 comments

Eh... I never liked high school anyway.
posted by mcgraw on May 16, 2003 - 38 comments

She works, he doesn't Last week's Newsweek had a story about women who work and their husbands don't-either laid off or for other reasons. Personally, I know of at least 10 couples where the woman has been the "alpha earner" as well as where the men have been out of work for long periods of time. They may not go out and golf the whole time and they surf the internet "looking for jobs", but the bottom line is they don't go out and get a job, any job, to pay the bills, and appear to be okay letting their wives (who aren't happy about it) earn the money. Why is this happening? It wasn't "ok" just a few years ago. Is it a passive-aggressive thing? A reaction to years of expecting to be the sole bread winner? Why do all my women friends in this situation agree that if they were laid off, they would get ANY job immediately, but their men seem to think it's okay to coast for months to years. And why the double standards? Why does being the sole earner make women angry and resentful, even though they may embrace the feminist agenda wholeheartedly?
posted by aacheson on May 15, 2003 - 91 comments

Hookup vs. Dating Seems that the 'hook up' is gaining popularity with girls (it's always been popular with boys) in high school and college these days. More and more women are looking to expend their sexual energy in a manner that they perceive to be safe and committment-free. Why didn't this happen when I was in high school?
posted by cpfeifer on Jan 19, 2003 - 159 comments

The Ladder Theory... a theory of adult male/female interaction. While some may find this a bit offensive, it is quite interesting. It includes rating systems, attraction breakdowns, scenarios, consequences, and manifestations.
posted by darian on Nov 20, 2002 - 76 comments

According to scientists who study sex we can toss some common misconceptions: there is no battle of the sexes; the Mars and Venus book is misleading; extreme body builders are not sexy; breast size isnt always sexy; men and women cheat equally; the notion of man "spreading his seed" is a cultural invention; thin is not sexy. All thanks to our caveman brain.
posted by stbalbach on Aug 28, 2002 - 61 comments

Hot Sex Tips And Sure-Fire Techniques For The Uncompromising Sexual Predator Of Today: An irresistible Flash-requiring entertainment for men and women alike, built around the eternal quest of how to turn on the opposite sex.[As in "The Rottweiller suddenly turned on its owner and savaged both his ankles", that is.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jun 28, 2002 - 14 comments

What do big city women want.. men with money
posted by stbalbach on Jun 7, 2002 - 21 comments

Looking at an attractive woman swell's a man's ego. Looking even at a picture of an attractive woman is enough to dramatically boost a man's estimation of his earning prospects, career success, generosity and dominance --and research has found that women find them attractive.
posted by semmi on May 22, 2002 - 17 comments

SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE BRAIN: Men and women display patterns of behavioral and cognitive differences that reflect varying hormonal influences on brain development Sugar and spice versus snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Or was it masculinizing androgens 'organizing' behaviour at critical periods? At least now there is a scientific explanation of why my girlfriend beats me while watching Pat spin the wheel.
posted by srboisvert on May 21, 2002 - 9 comments

Women browse the Web better than men?
posted by Kevin Sanders on Mar 22, 2002 - 22 comments

At Northwestern University, psychologists are paying women to be aroused by porn. It's more fun than looking at ink blots. "Last spring, [the two scientists] were involved in a similar study that tested Chicago-area men for their reaction to straight and gay porn. The results were fairly definitive — straight men [were aroused by] watching a man and a woman have sex; gay men [were aroused by] watching two men have sex. Neither had much crossover. But when Chicago-area women [were exposed to] both stimuli...? 'It appears that women, regardless of sexual orientation, respond to everything.' This is science at its steamiest." (from Jim Romenesko's Obscure Store)
posted by verdezza on Nov 30, 2001 - 22 comments

Women Fear attacks more than Men More Women fear terrorism are the men afraid to say so
posted by timetostepback on Sep 28, 2001 - 9 comments

"Men Too" abortion leaflet.
"Men have no legal rights when it comes to abortion. Legally an abortion is a matter between a woman and her doctor - and this is as it should be. "
posted by nonharmful on May 14, 2001 - 42 comments

Jane Want Relationship, Tarzan Want Sex. A study seems to confirm what women have long suspected -- women seek security in relationships, while men stick around for the sex.

The study says that in most species, monogomy is the top choice when fertility is hidden. Wonder if they took into account the Pill? ;)
posted by jennak on Apr 26, 2001 - 14 comments

Affirmative action seems to be taking root in an unlikely place: the Bush White House. "There's been talk inside and outside the administration about having no more than half the 484 political positions in the cabinet and agencies go to white males and at least 30 percent to women," Fred Barnes writes in the conservative Weekly Standard.
posted by rcade on Apr 17, 2001 - 6 comments

This article about Warren Farrell, ex-feminist, now a "masculinist", raises some interesting points for pondering. Is the emphasis on feminism inherently as unfair to men as chauvanism is to women?
posted by jammer on Feb 6, 2001 - 77 comments

Men listen with half-the-brain. Women, the whole. Now it's obvious that women are superior and it is inevitable that they will dominate the human race, kill off the male and live like those space Amazonians you saw in Star Trek. Yep.
posted by tiaka on Nov 29, 2000 - 34 comments

Does this teach any males here anything? I'm sure that it would be very useful to someone. Though I'm not sure who exactly.
posted by davidgentle on Sep 26, 2000 - 80 comments

A survey on Gender Bias recorded that America's largest survey of sexual activity asked, "What is the best moment of intercourse?" Of the top three men's answers, the MOST popular single response was "my partner's orgasm." Feminists complain that men are preoccupied with performance rather than intimacy ("my partner's orgasm" did NOT make the top three list for women). If things were reversed and men's favorite moment was their own orgasm; (a) Feminists would complain that men were self-centered. (b) Feminists would complain that men didn't care about satisfying women.
posted by murray_kester on Aug 2, 2000 - 11 comments