TheApple

 Dear FER,

Here’s a prime example of “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” offered by an English professor from the University of Phoenix

The professor told his class one day:

“Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back-and-forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.”

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students:Rebecca (female) and Gary (male).

——————————————-

THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca) At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

 

(second paragraph by Gary)

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. ” A.S. Harris to Geostation 17,” he said into his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far…” But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.”Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,” Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. “Why must one lose one’s innocence to become a woman?” she pondered wistfully.

Gary

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu’udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu’udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent,chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)

Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. “Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of FREAKING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I’m such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!”

(Rebecca)

Jerk.

(Gary)

Idiot

(Rebecca)

YOU NEANDERTHAL!

(Gary)

Go drink some tea, sister.

 

FER: The differences are attractive!

DEAR MATEJA: I haven't but that play  is here too!!! . I'll see it when I have time. thanks!!!

I like what this guy has to say:

Men and women are from the same planet. We have to learn to accept this, and treat it as normal. They're not entirely different species. They are two sides of the same coin. They are two halves of the same apple.

Historians may go into the whole hunter gatherer thing. That back in the days of the caveman, men went out to beat up and kill things to win food for the family, and women stayed around the cave and gathered berries and edible roots and wood for the fire. Maybe that's where it started, but it's more complex than that. Our society is built upon millenia of restrictions and misguided assumptions. It is a largely patriarchal society in which men dominate most every industry and vocation. Until less than a hundred years or so ago, women were told to stay barefoot and pregnant and shut the hell up. Some men STILL feel this way about women, and some women STILL put up with it. These people perpetuate the incredible truckload of myths and false beliefs that we're still struggling with even today.

The situation is this. Men Hear. Women Listen. It's that simple. Men need to listen and think more, and women need to act more and think less.

Men don't usually look before they leap. They act first and then suffer the consequences later, unless they can find some way to avoid the consequences. Men need to focus more on cause and effect. They need to realize that their actions do affect their surroundings, and those they love. Sometimes the best way to prove one's manhood is to tip a hat to maturity and NOT act foolishly or impulsively.

Women generally think so much they sometimes forget to act at all, or talk themselves out of actions that would have been perfectly fine to do. I think this point right here is what drives men up the freaking wall more than anything. Women ask "Why?" Men just go "Why Not?"

And since John Gray's book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus did absolutely nothing in the Big Picture to change the attitudes of the world's population, I don't suspect my little diatribe here's gonna make any difference. I mean, what the hell do I know? "Physician Heal Thyself" you might say. If I was right at all, theoretically I should be swimming in women, right?

But it's because I've given up trying. I used to think men just don't understand women. Nowadays I understand that I don't have to understand them. Men? For once, make them come to you. Okay? Stop this incessant stereotype where the guy has to ask the girl out. Just be yourself PLUS actually listen to what they have to say. Every now and then you'll find yourself on a date with a great babe and you won't even know how you got there. No muss no fuss.

http://everything2.com/node/895611

I was all set to reply to this post....then I read the existing replies.   Much of what I wanted to say, has been said.

I own several of those female/male relationship books, incl. Mars/Venus,and have studied them carefully.

The relationship book that has helped me the most is:   "The Power of Two".

It's a training guide teaching communication skills.

Dearest John,

Your response is funny.......and it is not-so-funny, too.

And, that's "fine".

...refer to #1.

~debo

John says:

One thing I've learned is that when a woman tells you about a problem she's having, she isn't asking you to FIX IT (which is what we guys ALWAYS think); she just wants you to listen and commiserate.

So true & typical, John! These are the cases when men usually feel under pressure and when/why all those little annoying arguments start.

I'm not so sure about the NINE WORDS, especially If translated in Slovene.