Re: Yes Molly

I agree and....

It's hard for them because it is not at all in their own experience. Even my own sweet love doesn't have a clue. He really really tries and he gets better and better at it all the time and so I give him a whole lot of credit, but even after ten years I still sense that it is hard for him to take me all that seriously. For instance if I lay some of my glorious wisdom on him he will often barely hear it or even seem to disdain it. Then if one of his male friends or some author he admires or blogger or whatever says the same thing he will be so impressed. This has actually happened a bunch of times. It's kind of like he has been trained not to take women seriously. So of course I make him hear it - and so he then gets it and slowly he is learning to be more open to seeing me as his intellectual equal....HAHAHAHAHA! I try not to take it too personally because I know he was conditioned in the 50's for heavens sake. But I have to point it out to him whenever it comes up. It is so exasperating to me. Additionally we are both pretty intelligent but we have different kinds of intelligence. Keeps life interesting though.

I have noticed this tendency in men to marginalize women to a certain extent since I was in my 20's. I was a kind of pretty girlygirl type I guess and it is hard to get men to take you seriously - they are so focused on you as a sex object. They would always be symbolically patting me on the head it seemed. Plus I was not college educated so I lacked a certain amount of confidence in my own intellectual capacity and felt inferior to those who were better educated so I probably attracted that type of attitude as well.

As far as he is concerned I do admire how hard he really tries and how seriously he makes the effort. He is a real gem - the best I have ever found and I do love him mightily.

Tweet