[HPforGrownups] Nel Question #9: Gender - Perfect Sense

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 127504

Geoff:
> I have been married for nearly 34 years and am /still/ left clueless
> by my wife's take on events from time to time; the female mind just
> doesn't touch base with mine. :-)

Tammy:
> -Tammy, who wanted to post a "me too" to bboyminn's post and add that
> it's not all that hard to get into the male mind :P

I suppose I see this sort of attitude enough that I ought not be so 
shocked by it anymore, but every time I see the kind of "women are 
complicated, and we poor, silly boys will never understand them / boys 
are really quite simple, and we girls have them all figured out" 
reasoning, I am just . . . boggled.  It is really quite intriguing that 
our male-centric culture would come up with a stereotype which 
basically says men are simple and stupid and women are complicated and 
savvy.  Especially when it's, well . . . incredibly and demonstratively 
untrue and insupportable.

Geoff, I'm sorry, but I'm going to pick on you for a bit.  Please bear 
with me, it's all in the spirit of friendly debate.  ^_^  I just think 
that this particular stereotype is one that people often take for 
granted without ever really examining it.  Are you seriously saying 
that when your wife has a different opinion or perspective that you 
don't 'get', it's because she's female?  If you can't see her side of 
things, it's because Men Just Can't Understand Women?  Don't your male 
friends ever have opinions that you can't understand?  It that because 
they're from a different race/nationality/religion than you?  Does 
there have to be a tangible *reason* why people sometimes have 
different ideas or can't/won't understand each other?  In fact, are 
there truly any situations in which people are *actually* incapable of 
at least looking at an issue from someone else's perspective?

Maybe the whole thing has to do with the fact that women, by necessity 
in a male-centric culture, so often *have* to think of things from a 
"male" perspective, while it is unnecessary, even undesirable and 
taboo, for a man to try to think from a "woman's" perspective.

Anyway, to bring this slightly back on topic -- I definitely see this 
stereotype in the Potterverse, along with the stereotype that Women 
Know About Feelings And Men Don't.  Furthermore, they are presented so 
*casually* -- as if they were undeniable truth -- again, it just seems 
absurd to me.

Laura (who is left stunned at the apparent eagerness some men -- 
including many of her college professors -- to declare themselves 
stupid and hopeless.)