TresSugar

Power Couples of Mad Men

TresSugar — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:00:00 -0700

The show may be titled Mad Men, but every season the female characters become more prominent, more successful, and way more interesting. But if there's a woman behind every moderately successful man then the writers of Mad Men are trying to tell us something. Let's look at the couples and find out!

Source: AMC

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Dear Poll: Are You More Like the Girl or the Guy?

DearSugar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:00:00 -0700

When I asked if your significant other shows his emotion well, the results were pretty evenly split, although very extreme - the men were either completely closed off or very in touch with their feelings. Hearing stories of guys who are not ashamed to cry got me thinking about the roles we play in our relationships. Sometimes, we take on the stereotypical traits our gender dictates, but that's not always the case. So tell me, are you more of the girl or the guy in your relationship?

Source

Do Tell: What Double Standard Drives You Nuts?

DearSugar — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:00:00 -0700

Is it just me or does it seem like there’s a big gender divide when it comes to expectations about marriage? A middle-aged, unwed man is considered to have made a choice to remain a bachelor, while an unmarried woman of the same age is assumed to be desperately waiting for a man to rescue her! Though we’re lucky enough to live in a society that values women’s rights, it’s still inevitable to encounter double standards. I’ve shared mine, so what about you? We know men and women are different, but do tell: Which double standard drives you nuts?

Source

Dear Poll: Do You Prefer Working With Men or Women?

DearSugar — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:00:00 -0800

In this day and age, office buildings are full of both male and female employees. While it's great to see so many hard working women in the work place, it's easy to get a reputation of being a b*tch vs. a hard working, powerful businesswoman.

Sherri Shepard from The View, who works with four other women was quoted in Entertainment Weekly saying, "I used to think women couldn't work together. Because some b*tches will work your nerves." Sure, women can have their off days, but let's face it, so can men. Since I've mainly worked with women throughout my career, let me ask you this - do you prefer working mainly with men or women?

Source

News to Me: Gender Roles Exist

DearSugar — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:00:00 -0800

Do you wear the pants in your relationship, or does your partner? A recent study proves that silence is golden but only for women. Jennifer Sellers, an assistant professor of psychology at Green Mountain College in Vermont, gathered 95 participants of equal parts men and women to view four videos of couples in conflict, some with a more dominate female, and some with a more dominate male. Both the female and male viewers were more critical of the relationships where the female partner was verbally assertive. They viewed the submissive men as less competent than their female counterparts, but when the man stepped up to the plate, the viewers changed their tune and ended up liking the couple.

According to Sellers, as much as we hate to admit it, we take heed of gender stereotypes. We've grown accustom to the man being the dominant and assertive partner in the relationship, and if they come short of that stereotype, they are considered less manly by both men and women, a characteristic guys don't take lightly.

I'm not one to stay silent in relationships, but I do agree that these predisposed gender roles exist. So what do you think? Do you think silence is key for women in a relationship or do you like to be the more dominant partner? Do you find yourself more attracted to men that like to wear the pants or are you indifferent?

Source

Gender Roles - How Do You Feel?

DearSugar — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:00:00 -0700

I have a friend who is a vegetarian and when she recently got engaged, she told me that her grandmother asked, "Are you going to cook your fiance meat now?" We both agreed that that was totally absurd. Just because you are getting married or in a relationship, doesn't mean you would give up your values, right?

Her grandmother was just seeing her as a "wife," and back then, wives took care of their husbands, had children, and took care of them too. That was their sole job in life, and they were "happy" doing it. Even my mother's generation still has beliefs like these, although my mom and dad live the typical gender roles that irk some people to no end, I've realized that they are sharing the responsibility of taking care of their family, their home, and each other, which is so important in marriage and relationships.

So what do you think about gender roles in a relationship? Do you agree with them? Have you had experience with people (or darling relatives) trying to force them on you? How do you deal and cope with the pressures of wearing the female/caregiver hat all the time?

Source

Gender Roles - Love 'Em Or Leave 'Em?

OnSugar Blog — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:10:00 -0800

Here's a poll from OnSugar blog Rantings of a Single Girl.

Let's go back to the 1940s for a minute. My grandmother was married, raised a kid, ran a farm, taught school, and kept a clean house. All while my grandfather was away at war. After my grandfather came back from the war and had recovered from his wounds, they went back into their traditional roles. He ran the farm and did all the "manly" things. My grandmother raised my aunt, taught school, and still had dinner on the table by 5:30 PM every night. All while pregnant with my dad.

I'm exhausted just talking about it.

I bring all this up because I've been thinking about gender roles lately. I look at my parents. Granted, my dad still does majority of the "manly'" things around the house and my mom does the household things, neither one is afraid to help out the other. My dad does housework. My mom can swing a hammer when needed.

And that's what I like.

I'll never be able to date a guy who believes in traditional gender roles. As much as I like cooking and being in the kitchen, I don't like being expected to be there. If we have kids, I'm not going to be the one who raises them. I certainly expect their father to help out. At the same time, I don't expect him the only one who takes out the trash or fixes things when they break. I think 50/50 is a good blend.

So could you be with someone who firmly believes in traditional gender roles? Or would you rather share the load?

Want to see more? Start following Rantings of a Single Girl or start your own OnSugar Blog. Maybe your stories will be posted here on TrèsSugar!

A Generation of Male Commitmentphobes?

TresSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:30:00 -0800

A recent Marie Claire trend piece takes on a certain species of man: the commitment-phobe. Lest you think this is but one unavoidable type of man, the writer suggests that there's a whole generation of 30-something men having early midlife crises:

These guys are part of a cause-less generation. They didn't grow up burning their draft cards or fighting the Nazis. They weren't part of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, or any other movement. They were spoiled as kids and now they want to spoil themselves as adults. The old cliché was that a man would wake up one morning and realize that he wanted his youth back. The new version is that he never reached adulthood in the first place.

This type tends to be drawn to Type-A women who can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let him forget he's a man . . . but the writer wonders if part of what the male commitmentphobe is thinking is that this type of woman doesn't need him at all. (Hmmm. So it's her fault?)

I don't think many would argue for a return to old-school gender roles and the suffocation that went with them, but do you think there's a whole generation of young-ish men who don't know how to commit?

Behind the Iron Curtain: Was Sex Better Before the Wall's Fall?

TresSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:13:52 -0800

Life may be better since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but is sex? It was at first. Prostitutes came in vans, porn was everywhere, and sex shops opened like wine bars in a gentrifying neighborhood. Yet interest waned throughout the '90s, and nostalgia set in for "love as it was before."

Before, men and women didn't need porn to get excited or toys to orgasm. What did they need? Imagination, says former relationship columnist Jutta Resch-Treuwerth, and they had it. Poll after poll shows there was lots of "imagination" behind the iron curtain. On average, East Germans lost their virginity earlier, had twice as much sex, and had more orgasms than their Western counterparts.

So what made sex so "gut"? Find out after the jump

Say What? Sarah Haskins Rages Against the Machine

TresSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

“As the Internet and TV and movies all become one scary machine in your living room, it’s important that we all have some level of media literacy."

- Sarah Haskins, who sends up ads directed at women in her amazing Target Women clips on Current TV. She thinks advertisers show how clueless they are about women by doing two incompatible things at once: "trying to still use some of the traditional gender roles, while also trying to match the changes . . . in the past 40 to 50 years."