Communication Between the Sexes

“In One Ear”
While reading the essays provided about the issues between opposite sex conversations, I began relating them back to my personal life. Surprisingly I found many similarities to the text and my experiences. Both essays, “Man to Man, Woman to Woman” by Mark A. Sherman and Adelaide Haas’s and “His Talk, Her Talk” by Joyce Maynard proved to be very useful in their own ways. Through both of these one see’s the issue with conversation is a common circumstance within relationships which is often overlooked. When it comes to arguments in relationships one tends to look mainly at the issue in a conversation, relating to who’s wrong or right, and not the conversation in general. This is where one sees the real issue with conversing with the opposite sex. It’s the different directions each sex takes to get to the point of the conversation. Women want distinctive detail while men just want facts. Even when men do get into detail it is a completely different meaning then what women describe as detailed.   We begin to see in each essay not only how both sexes go about conversing but just how much a conversation means to each sex. The meaning alone can create an issue for two people who have opposing opinions on the importance of conversation. With this topic it is easiest to understand when examples or experiences are shared. The first essay “His Talk, Her Talk” by Joyce Maynard is primarily experiences. It makes it easier to understand, to imagine and relate to her topic. Maynard elaborates on the everyday situations in life where we see men and woman separate for sake of conversation. One of the first examples she gives us is an experience she has at a social gathering. In her experience all the women happened to migrate to the kitchen for a conversation while the men gathered in living room. As Maynard puts it, “it is natural instinct”. Subconsciously we are more entertained and more comfortable with our same sex conversations. Another... [continues]

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