"Dudes are just all-around better, end of story." I hear it a lot from my guy friends these days. Usually, this type of comment will drop in conversation right around the time I run out of breath and have to take a break from my stream of consciousness about my frustrations with random "girl drama" which, despite the fact that we all left middle school four years ago, somehow hasn't gone away.
After the boys high five and bask in the glory of being so awesome, I might return fire with the best argument I've got: "Well, we have your babies." Irrelevant, I know. But honestly, there isn't much I can say to defend my fellow females when it comes to the way we handle each other sometimes.
What really baffles me about girls is that on any given day, they could be mad at you, talking about you, trying to make a point by doing nasty things to you because you REALLY ticked them off ... but do you ever hear about it? Well, yeah, when you're bleeding and have to pull the knife out of your back. Okay, that's probably a little harsh. But anybody who has ever been in a "so what on Earth did I do to her?" kind of situation understands that the one at whom the wrath of an angry woman is directed is always the last to know.
During my freshman year, I was spending the evening with a couple of my guy friends, and I could tell they were pretty mad at each other. I didn't know what was going on or why they were upset, but it was clear that they weren't on good terms that night. One of them finally threw out a comment that broke the camel's back, and the next thing I knew they flew into a patch of bushes. I watched, terrified, for about 30 seconds of rustling leaves and the occasional expletive from where my friends were fighting. Then the commotion subsided and they emerged together, covered in dirt but smiling. Somehow, all was well again.
This particular incident had a pretty profound effect on me. First of all, it scared me senseless. But what really made my head spin was that those guys rolled around in the mud hurling punches at each other and it solved the problem instantly. I still ask guys I know about this crazy phenomenon, and they all say pretty much the same thing: "You just gotta let it out. Then you can both move on."
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Now, I'm not saying that I think a full-blown physical fight is the way to solve problems, but the guys have a point. If two people have issues with each other, why is it so impossible, especially for girls, to just say it?
Maybe it's just that nobody likes to hear about it when people see their flaws. But taking other people's criticisms is the best way to grow as a person. We owe it to each other to be candid and sometimes harsh, and if they can't deal with it, it's their own problem. If we can't trust our friends to handle the truth maturely, then why bother having friends at all?
So yes, girls do win in the category of producing offspring, color coordinating, and doing each other's hair. But when it comes to being courageous enough to be honest, even when the truth isn't so nice, boys take home the trophy uncontested.
