Brian
Well-known member
Is it entirely one sided?
I ask my girlfriend to get me things now and then, or quite frequently ask her to stop and get me a coffee if she's coming to visit. I also tend to decide on almost all our dates, and if we're having dinner and I want something specific that she makes, I ask her for that. If that's all someone saw they'd have a similar reaction to yours, I imagine.
What they don't see though is that I give her unfathomable numbers of surprise backrubs and cook lots of nice meals. If I ask her to surprise me with dinner, she insists I decide on what I want. and every time I ask her what she wants to do she tells me to decide because I'm the spontaneous one between the two of us. It's give and take. Certainly there is a point where favors become unreasonable and turn in to demands...but I think in a comfortable relationship, gender wars take a back seat to just doing things for each other. Rhonda's a very independent and capable girl, not to mention quite outspoken, but we don't sit on every decision checking the Codex of Gender Equality to make sure something isn't sexist.
I also have a female co-worker...she's an incredibly good Paramedic. But her dream is to have four kids with her boyfriend and be a homemaker, maybe work part time. She's that woman who asks to see everybody's baby and just loves kids. Some people just have different priorities and/or fall on varying ranges of the Scale between masculine or feminine. As long as they're happy with what they have and are aware of the alternatives, isn't that a good thing?
I'm not criticizing you, I'm just saying make sure you have the full story. If you do see it all and he doesn't reciprocate in any way, then yeah, that's kind of messed up.
I ask my girlfriend to get me things now and then, or quite frequently ask her to stop and get me a coffee if she's coming to visit. I also tend to decide on almost all our dates, and if we're having dinner and I want something specific that she makes, I ask her for that. If that's all someone saw they'd have a similar reaction to yours, I imagine.
What they don't see though is that I give her unfathomable numbers of surprise backrubs and cook lots of nice meals. If I ask her to surprise me with dinner, she insists I decide on what I want. and every time I ask her what she wants to do she tells me to decide because I'm the spontaneous one between the two of us. It's give and take. Certainly there is a point where favors become unreasonable and turn in to demands...but I think in a comfortable relationship, gender wars take a back seat to just doing things for each other. Rhonda's a very independent and capable girl, not to mention quite outspoken, but we don't sit on every decision checking the Codex of Gender Equality to make sure something isn't sexist.
I also have a female co-worker...she's an incredibly good Paramedic. But her dream is to have four kids with her boyfriend and be a homemaker, maybe work part time. She's that woman who asks to see everybody's baby and just loves kids. Some people just have different priorities and/or fall on varying ranges of the Scale between masculine or feminine. As long as they're happy with what they have and are aware of the alternatives, isn't that a good thing?
I'm not criticizing you, I'm just saying make sure you have the full story. If you do see it all and he doesn't reciprocate in any way, then yeah, that's kind of messed up.