On a recent rerun of the TV show The Doctors, the featured physicians answered questions from audience participants on male/female stereotypes and comparisons. As a writer, those differences are forever part of one’s psyche. One cannot have an Alpha male responding to a situation as if he is a female. So, understanding some of the basics about male/female relationships is important.

So, these are “givens” when it comes to creating story lines:

Whereas men have excellent abstract orientation, women, for example, need landmarks to orient themselves. That is why women do not read maps well.

On the show, they showed an experiment that proved that women can multi-task better than men. Men are more linear. They must stay with one task at a time – until it is completed.

Women seek acceptance, where men seek respect.

Men who lie do it to cover up something or to build up their ego. Women lie to make someone feel better.

Women in a committed relationship report that they reach fulfillment only 20% of the time, where men say they satisfy their partners completely 55% of the time.

When a group of women eat out, they will divvy up the bill by calculating who owes what. Men, in a similar situation, will compete for the “honor” of paying the entire bill. They will toss money on the table and pretend they would not like some change.

When listening to a person of authority will maintain a neutral face, while women will show up to six distinct expressions.

Women can speak and listen at the same time. Men are totally lost in this type of situation.

Women smile more (showing their teeth) than men do.

Women talk through their stress, while men close up and withdraw to deal with his stress.

Women learn quickly in a cooperative setting, where men need competition. For YA authors, this means differences in a classroom setting (all female vs. traditional classrooms).

Women need the emotional bonding of hearing a man talk to them and to listen to them to be “turned on.” Men react to visual responses: nudity, sexy underwear, etc.

Women are interested in developing relationships; men are interested in the baser forms of recreation.

Women like to talk through their problems; men rarely speak of their problems to anyone.

Being more right brained, women are more in tune with their emotions.

They will, therefore, cry more often. Men have difficulty accessing the right brain centers, which control grief or sadness or depression. A man will seldom cry because of this. Plus, society looks down on a man who cries, saying he must “act like a man.”

For women, testosterone levels control her depression (literally, reducing her irritability, and her nervousness. Men with high testosterone levels, rarely suffer from sadness.

Women not on the pill, find masculine features attractive, but women on the pill find feminized male faces more attractive.

When men sweat, pheromones, which have no odor themselves, are mixed with the sweat to attract the opposite sex.

Males see a female’s waist to hip ratio instinctively when meeting the woman for the first time. It probably has something to do with childbearing and whether a woman might conceive easily.

Large amounts of dopamine and oxytocin surge in a woman’s body when she is talking/bonding with her partner.

Women pay more attention to the tone of a person’s voice and his body language when interpreting meaning. Men are likely to miss these cues to meaning because they need precision in word choice. 

Obviously, the woman’s nurturing center of the brain is more developed than a man’s, while his sexual center is more developed.

Women show their teeth when smiling. Men do not. In a man, showing one’s teeth is considered a weakness.

Women can recall the spoken word exactly. They have a better blood supply to that part of the brain. Men remember the “gist” of the conversation.

Women have a stronger sense of smell, and the chocolate cravings are natural for they also taste sugar better. Men have a better sense of taste for salty and bitter foods/drinks.

Women are physically and neurologically mature at 17; men not until age 22-24.

Women have better finger dexterity than a man, but he has better eye-hand coordination.

What do you think? Do these assumptions play true or not?