Different Buttons
Yesterday I bought one of #1 bestseller books by the Peases Why Men Don’t Have a Clue and Women Always Need More Shoes. The book always sits in front table of any Periplus bookshop for months. I once thought they don’t have other books to attract people. It is successful though, I gave in yesterday. I bought the book after a friend recommended.
The Ultimate Guide to the Opposite Sex. It sounds interesting but do we need guidance to understand others (not necessarily the opposite sex)? Open mind is the only key to handle anybody, I thought. Why Men Don’t Listen and Have a Clue? Because men have monotracked brain. I call it being focused so… it’s positive! Why Women Can’t Read Maps and Always Need More Shoes? It’s women’s nature to just sit and relax, and get where they want. I call it being simple. Positive! What about the need to have more shoes? Aahh… we are women after all, we are led by mood and want to look good any time, any place, with anybody. It’s for men in the end. Why fuss?
So I needed less than an hour to go through the book – no wonder the bookshop shrink-wrap the book to avoid people browse quickly without buying :-) I checked the Table of Contents as always and tried to just read what interests me first. It doesn’t work with the book. I have to read in order. Fine. I did.
The first chapter is about Nagging. It shows extreme examples of women’s nagging. Ugh.. hardly touch my experience but I see the uses of different terms. Women’s request is nagging. Bad. Men’s request is instructing. Not so bad. It’s people who create the term, not the women. So I laughed to call my request nagging because I’m a woman. Interesting.
The next chapter is dedicated to only seven things men do that drive women insane. I was curious, it must be really important seven things. Why do men continually offer solutions and give advice? Ha. I hardly feel that. They will after I nag ha ha. If not, they stay in the dark. And the next is why do men keep flicking through the channels with the remote control? Get other TV in other room. Easy. If share same room, keep your eyes on other thing. No fuss.
The rest are not important for me about men don’t ask for direction, leave the toilet seat up, don’t like to go shopping, and like gross jokes (well, I enjoy it too though). So my friend is right that the book is not for me because I’m a female with male element, and the book differs both sexes strongly.
I flipped through other problems to absorb the whole information. Emotional Blackmail. I won’t never do. Pushing someone is not my style and I don’t let anybody does to me. So it’s not my problem. Women’s Top-Secret Point-Scoring System. Of course we have that to justify that women are always right ha ha.. Solving the Seven Biggest Mysteries About Men. Ha. Simple mysteries. We all know men avoid commitment, some women do also recently, so about Why Men Lie. The need to be right? We all do. Boys’ Toys? Girls have too. Fashion, shoes, handbags? Women and men are different shoppers, that’s all. We don’t need to solve, to understand is better. If you can’t, it’s okay too, back to point #1 We Are Different.
The only thing I enjoyed is doing the Women’s Sex Appeal Test. Of course I pass. I don’t need to revamp myself to make men notice. In the end, I’m happy to have bought the book and reveal the mystery of a book in shrink-wrap. The book will not change you, like to make you understand the opposite sex better. No. It provides you with reminder about what the opposite sex do to you (or do in their world). Let's admit that we only have good understanding just after we find each other. It wears out after a while because we are all back to our nature as woman and man. Happy ending!
Photo of a man-woman buttons showing how monotracked and multitracked brains work. I got from a friend.