Intriguing questions, no doubt. I think it's a safe assumption that everyone can at least in some way relate to this story. Maybe you have friends like that, or maybe you've been there too. But I think there's one thing we can all agree on: Barry did give a message, a message about how the typical man and woman acts.
But then, what is typical? Did you feel that in some ways this story was unrealistic? Can one be general enough to say that that is simply the difference between men and women?
Frankly, I think this falls nicely into the stereotype category. Only two qualifications are necessary for something to be a stereotype:
- It has to have some element of truth to it. For example, one can't say that certain people do certain things because of just one incident. It has to be evident that anyone who qualifies would live up to that drawn reputation.
- It emphasizes generality, a people on the whole, but like with all stereotypes, there's always an exception (and that's no stereotype!).
What this means is that there are all kinds of people out there in each gender: selfish people, friendly people, popular people, naïve people, outgoing people, aloof people, rebellious people, the list goes on. In some way, we're all human beings, so do we all sort of fit in to this stereotypical relationship dilemma? The variety of ways, or just how accurate this is can range from person to person, and to some, it may not even qualify (these are the exceptions). For all one knows, there really is a man out there who thinks things in a variety of ways, much like the woman in Barry's story, or there could be a woman who doesn't give her relationship a second thought.
So from all of this, we have to ask ourselves, what did Barry mean by his case? Is that truly the difference? Is it just the stereotypical difference, or does it reflect a human part of ourselves that we can't control? Can a man and a woman ever truly understand one another? How about just two people?
-Will Duffield
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