Monday, February 4, 2008

Divine Sexism


I read Men are From Mars Women are From Venus in High School and found it, to be frank, full of shit. John Gray's got a new book out, Why Mars and Venus Colide, and it's about stress. In this article in the Globe and Mail, Gray explains that marriage stress is increasing because women are entering the work force. Apparently women just can't quite cope the way men can. Solution: The Salon, compliments of your man!!

A woman may thrive in the workplace but she needs to go elsewhere to get her fix of stress-reducing oxytocin, he explains. She needs to go get her hair done, have a manicure, hug a baby or grow some vegetables in a garden, among other choices.

Her partner can help. "The following list of suggestions will give men some ideas of how they can promote oxytocin production in their partners," he writes. "If he does one or two of these things, he'll see a change in his partner right away." The actions include "notice her new blouse," "hug her when you get up" and "take her apple or berry picking."
Now here's an implicit warning: Don't question what "Dr." Gray has to say; God tells him what to write. How depressing to think that one of the world's best "gender" self-help books is written by a sexist crazy person who hears voices in his head.

2 comments:

Oni Baba said...

I read the article this morning. *sigh* The best line (apart perhaps from the parts where he goes on about his conversations with God) was certainly the "Hug a baby" crap.

I still can't decide if it makes me want to laugh or puke.

lilith attack said...

Truly! I think Puke.

Check out the "Dr." Link in the last paragraph; I do reference the Rebuttal from Uranus: the fact that he's not actually a PhD!