When Women Argue
Originally published May 15, 2006
There was a recent hullaballoo at some of the message boards that got me to thinking. A poster at AAR really dissected some sentences from a new book by Adele Ashworth. Miss Ashworth responded with some measured replies. Some posters agreed, some didn't. And then . . . . . an 'anonymous author' weighed in with the sort of comment that made me and many others cringe. His/her main thread related to bothersome, nit-picky readers who demand books with few or no grammatical errors. The proverbial gloves came off. Long, technical rants about verb usage and dangling modifiers followed by many angry replies on both sides of the fence.
I couldn't help but wonder how this whole thing would have played out had the participants been men. Perhaps the argument would go as written below.
Poster # 1 "Didn't like your book."
Miss Ashworth "Oh yeah?"
Poster #1 - "Yeah."
Anonymous Author sucker punches a bystander. Riot erupts.
A single voice from the crowd - "Ya want ta get a beer?"
Poster #1 and Miss Ashworth reply in unison. -"Yeah."
There was a recent hullaballoo at some of the message boards that got me to thinking. A poster at AAR really dissected some sentences from a new book by Adele Ashworth. Miss Ashworth responded with some measured replies. Some posters agreed, some didn't. And then . . . . . an 'anonymous author' weighed in with the sort of comment that made me and many others cringe. His/her main thread related to bothersome, nit-picky readers who demand books with few or no grammatical errors. The proverbial gloves came off. Long, technical rants about verb usage and dangling modifiers followed by many angry replies on both sides of the fence.
I couldn't help but wonder how this whole thing would have played out had the participants been men. Perhaps the argument would go as written below.
Poster # 1 "Didn't like your book."
Miss Ashworth "Oh yeah?"
Poster #1 - "Yeah."
Anonymous Author sucker punches a bystander. Riot erupts.
A single voice from the crowd - "Ya want ta get a beer?"
Poster #1 and Miss Ashworth reply in unison. -"Yeah."
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Anne wrote: "So what you are implying then, is that men are incapable of intelligent discourse when they are angry. You know, it's exactly this kind of thinking that makes my blood boil.In my experience, I've ..."
Morning Anne,
I didn't mean to imply that men are incapable of intelligent discourse. The post was meant to imply that that sometimes women over analyze and sometimes men underanalyze. And it was meant to be harmless and humorous. I've done a poor job though if you took offense. Sorry about that and have a great day!
Holly
I didn't really. And reading what I said makes me want to apologize, I read this on the beginning of a BANNER day. I still meant what I did say, just didn't mean to be so harsh.Merry Christmas/Happy Channukah and Happy New Year! :)
Anne,Points well made and taken. No apology necessary.
Happy Holidays!
Holly
In my experience, I've found that women argue verbally and brawl with the same ignorant abandon as men do, ESPECIALLY on the internet.
How do I know? Well, in the past year I have been involved in several knock-down, drag out discussions via e mail and twitter.
I've been called everything from 'ignorant' to 'stalker', and when I've even ATTEMPTED to make peace, or un-ruffle feathers, the name calling on the other side(which, to my mind is just as damaging as a sucker punch) has worsened.
Be very careful when you overgeneralize this way.
It's my personal opinion that no good can come of it.