What if we just looked at what men and women actually talk about in private?, Emil Kirkegaard asks:
We see that the male topics include politics, war/sports/gaming/weapons/death/killing, swearing, music (especially metal/rock), work/science, metals. Women’s topics are much more mundane. There’s a lot of expression of emotions, especially positive. There’s a lot of family talk shown by all the terms of human relationships (sister, daughter, nephew, brother, boyfriend etc.). Of interests, the main thing we see is food (cooking), and some shopping. In fact, it is surprisingly devoid of any abstract interests, I am surprised there are not more words related to clothing and child-rearing.
Overall we see that results are consistent across studies that men and women are interested in and talk about quite different things. It’s amazing to live in a society that often pretends these differences are not real.
(Hat tip to Arnold Kling.)
“…the main thing we see is food (cooking), and some shopping.”
Some shopping? They’ve never talked to my ex-wife.
Gardening seems to be an area of mutual interest.
All my ex-wife would talk about with me was how much money she was going to get from the divorce.
We need to repeal women’s suffrage.
Emil Kirkegaard is so right: it’s amazing to live in a society.