B L O N D I E wrote:
I don't think men want anything much different than what women want. I see the vast majority of men on this site--and elsewhere--saying they want a long-term relationship with someone they share a deep connection with. They want trust, loyalty, security, understanding, validation, affection, attention. intimacy--all the same things women want. I think this idea that men and women want different things is bullshit, to be frank. It's just a ploy to make us think we're against each other when we aren't. Just my opinion.
Hi B L O N D I E,
I'm no so convinced. I certainly posit you could be correct but there are implications to what you are saying that the general public would not support.
I recognize this could be landslide fallacy but if I understand you correctly that you are arguing men and women are sufficiently similar, then we must say that men offer no significantly unique perspective and ladies offer no significantly unique perspective.
Thus many of the efforts to place ladies in male dominated spaces under the premise of diversity value is a dud goal. It is important to distguish for the general audience that is not a dud goal in the name of enabling ladies to do and get what they want from life. Merely that no intellectual benefit from thought diversity can be gained, which is a significant justification offered for these pushes to motivate ladies into picking these spaces of their own volition.
I don't think many are ready to accept that premise though. Thus if women and men do have different perspectives, then it stands to reason they would have different perspectives on what they seek from relationships.
I think it's very romantic and even desirable to say that men and women want the same things from relationships. At a high level and reductive view (which is at times an effective way to view things) I would say on paper you are exactly correct, just as how you posed your argument. But in important nuance and the reasons why men and women want things, experience suggests your world view does not quite snap into place.