Mister Big Smartypants

Men and women, in general, are different.

This alone shouldn't be a controversial statement. But for many people we are already taking the first steps towards goose-strutting around and oppressively pinning labels on everyone. For these hypersensitive types any overt attention paid to differences may contain a covert threat to our equality - which, it should be noted, has always been seen by sensible constitution-writers as a matter of how we started off in this world, not how we end up. In other words all bets are off when the cells start splitting, or it's time to turn in your homework, or otherwise fork out a section of wealth and/or fulfillment.

So the "Free to Be You And Me" generation is caught in a pickle. In increasingly defensive tones they will point out the omni-present exceptions: Sally wants to be a firefighter. Bobby plays dress-up. And uncle Tommy has man-boobs. See, see! And plus, are you saying that men's interests are somehow better than women?!

This is the conversation that devolved when I recently pointed out that men and women bloggers, in general, have different areas of interest. My intention was to point out the need for more issue oriented blogs written by women* - especially here in Cincinnati. Breakup poetry and pictures of the dog are equally legitimate. But why is it all of the boys think their opinion matters so much? And likewise -- I was never able to make this point, because the shreiking had commenced -- many men should write more reflectively about their interior lives** and reflect on their relationships in life. I've always thought that some of this actually builds credibility; it reveals more about the person behind the big smartypants opinions.

But, in general, we can't talk reasonably about these things.

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* I just saw GroupThinkers, written by "mean girl" - a spinoff from Cincinnati Black Blog. Best of luck - and let's hope we see more. (But where are all the nice girls?)
** A notable exception is Joe Wessels - a local with a journalism background who takes on public issues and news, sure, but also writes thoughtfully about his friends, family, and experience. I met Joe at a panel discussion last night. He's a good guy. Visit his weblog.