So I finally decided that I needed to experience the famed book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. I got an audio book version and was listening to it yesterday. There seem to be some good insights there, but I simply couldn't get through it. Framing these concepts in the context of people from different planets is brilliant in establishing the point that men and women are fundamentally different. Unfortunately this approach quickly had me feeling talked down to like I was a child. Still I persisted...
I became annoyed with the constant repetition of what was really just a few points. This is particularly bad when you consider that I was listening to an abridged version of the book. I was also bothered by the over-simplificaton of the needs of each gender. Again I felt that I was listening to a book written for children. Still I pressed on...
In the end I was so frustrated with the gender stereotyping that I didn't finish the book. It's not that most of the stereotypes aren't true, but I would have liked for the author to at least acknowledge the factor of individuality. I think the careless stereotyping did me in because I've never really fit those molds very well. While I couldn't get through the book, I could see lots of beneficial stuff there. If my soap boxes of over-simplicity and stereotyping hadn't been triggered I may have finished the book and learned some wonderful things. Maybe in the future, when I'm less triggerable, I will try this again. For the moment I'll leave it to the masses.
| July 30, 2003 09:35am | 
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