As before my responses are in regular text, the article in italics.
Guys Are A Little Intimidated
No question, women are expert communicators. They throw questions like Oprah after her third cup of coffee; they're connecting on all cylinders. And like the divine Ms. W, women bring a lot of skill to their game: A special awareness of the people-scape around them, a keen set of emotions keyed to that awareness, and a rich vocabulary they use to talk about anything at anytime.
And they're always practicing their Q&A skills on their many friends, so they're in top talk mode all the time. Men know this. And they also know that more than one-third of women say that men simply can't relate and don't understand women. The result: Men are afraid of saying too much, because saying the wrong thing may get them into more trouble than Lindsay Lohan as a designated driver.
Are guys intimidated by womens ability to talk, not really. The only thing guys are intimidated by about women's ability to talk endlessly is exactly that. Once we open our mouths and ask 'one' question that's enough to keep talking the rest of the night. As Chris Rock said 'How was your day is a 30 minutes conversation.' Chris also made another interesting observation, 'When a woman is talking all you're supposed to say is uh huh, nooooooo, really, no way, i told you that bitch was crazy.'
Lets be honest with ourselves, how often has a guy asked a woman 'are you ok?' when its obvious shes not ok. 9 times out of 10 what does a woman say? FINE. Or how about when you ask if 'anything's wrong?' Again the answer is NOTHING!. Now how can women accuse men of not opening up and sharing their feelings when women are the worst offenders. You want a man to talk and open up but when we ask you those questions and try to talk you clam up. Why?
Men are afraid of saying too much because it might get us into more trouble, very very TRUE! Women please pay very close attention to what i say. If a guy is explaining something to you (esp on the spot) and theres something that can be taking wrong and piss you off do this calm down and ask him to maybe explain it again because you didn't fully understand a certain part. DON'T LOSE YOUR MIND! Odds are that what he said sounded right in his head but didn't realize the double connotation that happened that you picked up. ask politely and CALMLY ' i may have misunderstood you, what did you mean by that?' DON'T immediately come out all guns blazing accusing him of whatever. Wrong move. Once that happens its next to impossible to explain your way out of an incredibly deep hole you just dug yourself.
Here's an example: Say you're fooling around with your GF and you don't have a condom. She wants to get down to business without one. You try to sound responsible and tell her you don't want to do it without a condom because you don't want to catch anything over something stupid. Now to a guy that sounds alright because you don't want to make a bad decision that'll lead you to getting something that was easily preventable. But to a woman 'over something stupid' can be misinterpreted as having sex with her is stupid or something to that effect.
Why do women always think it's the worst when it comes to a little misunderstanding in communications?
Guys Need To Decompress
Woman's view: When a man walks in the door, he ought to cough up some of the details about his day. After all, it's been 10 hours since they've communicated, not counting the two IMs, three voice mails, and one actual mid-day conversation.
Man's view: Can I please make a beeline to the bathroom? When men reach home, it's like those ultra-marathoners staggering across the finish line in Death Valley. The last thing they want to do is discuss how bright the sunlight was, and how scarce the water stops were.
Further up on his want-to-do list after arriving home: 14 percent of men want to check email, 12 percent are looking for a little private time in the bathroom, and 10 percent simply want to eat dinner. The common theme here: After they've spent a day serving the needs of others, they want to take care of themselves a little.
Yes why do we, the moment we walk through the door have to start talking? Can't we take our clothes off and get into something comfortable? Can we go to the bathroom? Take a shower? Can we relax for 2 seconds before we tell you about our day or worse have to listen to the drama in yours? Is a few minutes of calm too much to ask when we get home?
So when a man is hit with a demand for conversation so closely after returning from the stressful environment of work, he has only one gear left to shift into, and sometimes it's reverse. He's retreat, retreat, retreat.
'Nuff said.
Guys Are More Comfortable With Actions Than Feelings
Rather than talking about how he "feels," often a man would rather express his love by changing her oil, or bringing home a flower, or relinquishing control of the remote.
And when men do talk, they'd prefer to talk about actions rather than emotions. For instance, a lot of guys would choose to express their long-range faith in a relationship by talking about next summer's vacation plans, not by launching into a soliloquy about undying love.
Both conversations can mean the same thing (that he plans on sticking around); he just prefers to say it with plane tickets, rather than poetry. It's one of the reasons men are more comfortable talking at work (the practical universe) than they are at home (the castle that emotion built). But you can bring out his great communicator by making him feel more like he's operating in work mode, even when the topic at hand is your love life. Here's an incredible article, "The Home Office," that shows how he can use his best office skills for great success at home.
This is all true.......except for giving up the remote. I'm sorry it's not our fault that the important game just happens to come on during your reran programs.
It's amazing how often ladies forget the small things a guy does to please them. Flowers are forgotten the next day, oil changes last as long as the hug after its done because another car problem arises, cleaning the house lasts as long as the thanks before she goes over everything he does because he may have missed something or did it wrong. We express through actions. After all whats the old saying? 'Actions speak louder than words.' Try remembering (more than 2 seconds) that ladies the next time a guy does something nice for you.
Guys Don't Want To Be Put On The Spot
When men talk less and women want more, the scenario can escalate. Like when the bad cop is pummeling the reluctant witness, more silence equals more questions. A full 65 percent of men we surveyed recently told us they don't want their partners to ask them more questions about themselves.
It's clear that some men are just plain tired of feeling like they're on the witness stand. They're not necessarily hiding anything; many guys simply prefer not to have to relate confusing feelings that they may not even understand themselves.
Also true. Take notes ladies. Guys don't like this at all. The number 1 thing guys hate to hear is 'we have to talk.' You wanna piss a guy off faster than anything? Say that sentence. To a woman that simply we 'we have to talk.' To a guy that means, 'you're in trouble now!!!' Why do we think that? That's very good question.....because every time a woman says that to guy its always about something he did wrong. Even Dave Chappelle commented on that in his stand up. His GF said, 'Dave.....we need to talk.' Dave thought to himself showing no emotions, 'FUCK!'
As the author of this stated, guys are tired of being on the witness stand. We are, if there are things we need to tell you let us come to you on our own instead of being in some sort of torture chamber during the Spanish Inquisition.
An age-old tactic can make things better: Back off a little, give him room to operate in a conversation, and he's more likely to open up.
That's the key ladies, remember this
