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Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps : How We're Different and What to Do About It

Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps : How We're Different and What to Do About It

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $10.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Light Hearted & witty
Review: Stepping close to my Fav 'Men from Mars, Women from Venus, this book projects insight to behavioral patterns among men and women. The book is hilarious and thoughtful at the same time to understand relationships. The book reveals the Interrogative 'why's' like Why women are too talkative than men or why men love erotic images and women aren't impressed! There is an endless list of why's of living different worlds and the authors Allan & Barbara Pease says 'It's all in the mind' with catchy illustrations and eye opener chapter, research of the male and female brain with a simple remarkable Test to show why brain behaves as it does. The Talking & Listening Chapter reveals the fact why women dominate in speech abilities and men remain good listeners. Italic quote revelations and dialogues say a lot in a glance as one read the book Every chapter begins with a unique illustration and humor quip that's brings a cheesy smile on the face. Allan & Barbara has explained about differences that wreck way to fulfilling relationships and understanding basic urge can lead to Self awareness and improved relationship between sexes. An easy read, no detail conclusions but mere research - 'Take it as you like it' because I think its personal choice of Reading why's and everyone's experience differs altogether, any ways! The reading is pretty cool & light hearted style. However, when it comes to reading maps, well, I guess lot of women now 'CAN' & 'DO' read Maps - Women are sure different, no wonder unpredictable. A good easy going pick to pick some examples to screw fun around!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Oh Dear
Review: This book is a confounded nuisance. My students read it and get the most idiotic, confused ideas into their heads as a result. How much time have I wasted having to explain to them that this kind of evolutionary reductionism counts for so little of human behaviour? However are we going to develop a sophisticated understanding of human behaviour when pseudo-science of this order is indulged in this way?

I can read maps. My mother can read maps. In fact, most of the time, I don't even need maps, because I have enough sense of direction to do without. What's more, my husband has an uncanny capacity not only to listen to what I say to him, but to regurgitate it with unfailing accuracy. Last time we looked, we had not changed sex.

Odds on, whoever you are, if somebody tells us you can't do something, you won't be able to do it. If you try to park a car watched by 7 cynical, critical individuals, you're not going to have the confidence to do it. If you're browbeaten by a domineering partner, you'll get flustered with the map. Men respond to denigration just the same as women, except that they're usually brought up to have more self-confidence. This is what sexual politics are all about - bullying the opposite sex, and wrecking their self-confidence, then you can have your own way. This book is just an extension of the denigration process.

Now it's time to do some proper research into what educational and social practices effect our abilities. Boys play a lot with construction toys (so did I). Does this develop spatial ability? If so, put it on the curriculum at school. Girls play a lot with dolls. Does this help communication? If so, promote a communicative toy for boys. That way we can have men who have the self-confidence to express themselves, and who can confidently understand their partners. And we'll have women who know they can get that Mark II Toyota into the parking space without further ado. And we'll all be much happier.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Essential Reading for the 21st Century
Review: This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks they "know" the opposite sex - an essential tool for understanding each other. Many members of each sex wander through life deploring the behavior of each other needlessly and, usually, quite ignorantly. This book does a wonderful job exploring the differences in the sexes in a funny, very entertaining manner.

Another reviewer is entirely correct about her/his comments regrading the book's being in contravention with so-called "Political Correctness." No doubt one of the goals of the authors was to analyze and explain the sexes from a behavoiral and biological perspective, rather than a political one.

Another reviewer evidently found the book "biased." This point is arguable, but of the many men and women I know who have read this book at my suggestion, none have agreed and niether do I. I suggest that one who finishes this book with such a conclusion does so only by possessing the belief prior to reading the first page.

All in all the book is very enjoyable, educational, and really leaves one with a sense of appreciation for the differences between the sexes. The 21st Century is an excellent time for a better understanding of one another, and this book is a wonderful point from which to start.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting book, but a little biased towards men
Review: This book is very interesting since it especially deals on biological differences between the two sexes. I appreciate the humourous writing style, but in my opinion, it is certainly biased against men.

The weaker points of men become more clear than the weaker points of women. When they start writing that men have a better spatial insight, they say that this can come over sexistical (it is 'politically incorrect'). Most jokes in the book are biased towards men, such as jokes as:

Most women prefer sex with the light out; they cannot bear seeing how a man is enjoying sex.
Most men prefer sex with the light on, so they later can know which woman it was.

or: Many men think that monogamy is something where furnish is made from.

If the jokes were evenly divided between women-unfriendly and man-unfriendly, I would give this book five stars. Now I give it only three stars. But I need to say that most books on gender issues are more or less biased towards men.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Nothing more than a satire...
Review: I've recently stumbled over this book. Since I'm doing psychological research I thought this might be interesting to read. It was interesting, but not in the way I thought it would be...

In the foreword the authors claim to have talked to countless researchers from all different kinds of areas like the Neurosciences, Psychology, Biology, Medicine, etc. and that their book summarized the latest results from these areas.

At first I was somewhat surprised at the unscientific way it was written. The used language was simple, there were jokes on the difference between the sexes and small anecdotes on possible conflict situation within a couple strewn between the paragraphs with more or less detailed information on the assumption of the authors.

Soon it turned out that the unscientific way the language was used to express the ideas of the authors also concerned the presented data on the difference between the sexes.

The authors made their theory a little too simple to be believable. Actually they have just one assumption that they wrap in different words chapter by chapter: The behavior, motoric and cognitive abilities of men and women differ because the evolution of mankind has made it this way.

Through genetic differences that have evolved over the last 200.000 years men - the hunters and protectors of their offspring - have genes for better spatial abilities, sense of direction (for hunting), distant and quick visual stimuli, dichotic listening and concentration for watching prey.

On the other hand women - homemaker, mother and educator of the offspring - have genes for better linguistic abilities, close range visual stimulation, improved hearing abilities (for dangerous sounds or noises by their children) and non-linguistic communication like (involuntary) gestures, etc.

You could have written this down with enough "scientific" proof in less than 50 pages, but Barbara and Allen Pease chose to make a book of roughly 400 pages out of it. So every chapter presents one small portion of their assumptions rolled out to almost insufferable length by adding the above mentioned stories about hypothetic situation that are supposed to happen every day to millions of couples worldwide, jokes on the sexes and other overwise statements.

The little research they try to present is simple and often plainly wrong. For example when they talk about linguistic abilities of the sexes they claim that the center for speech in the brain is solely located in the left inferior frontal lobe of the brain.
Research on the lateralisation of various functions in the brain has long ago demonstrated that the abilities to speak and to understand speech can be found in either the left or the right hemisphere. The so called Sodium Amytal Test is used to find out in which lobe a patient has his or her speech center before a crucial brain surgery is performed.

The authors accept the genetic predisposition as irrevocably given and don't even consider whether the environment, upbringing or education might make a difference on the behavior of men and women. A large body of research of the past two decades has shown that conscious influence can and does affect stereotypic and automatic responses and behaviors.

In my opinion Barbara and Allen Pease are presenting everything in terms of black and white. In this book they write about typical gender stereotypes and claim that all of these stereotypes are actually true due to the evolution of mankind.

Unfortunately they don't really provide the reader with a lot of help on how to improve the situation. Every now and then they have simple hints as in "If a woman asks you which dress you like best, ask her which one she likes best and advise her to buy it". Most of the time their take home message is: That's the way it is, accept it or leave it. For somebody who claims to be a communication trainer I think this is just too little.

My take home message for you is: If you are looking for a satire on the sexes, this is the book for you. It presents gender stereotypes in the purest meaning, it has some nice anecdotes and jokes on this matter.

If you are looking for a serious self help book on how to deal with your partner, you'd better avoid this. It doesn't present you with much help and reading all the stuff on how men and women are different might even worsen your situation.

I wish Barbara and Allen Pease would have stayed in their genetically predisposed roles (she guards the cave and takes care of the children and he hunts for food and keeps silent) instead of writing this unnecessary pseudo-scientific book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Evolutionary theory as written by 5th graders
Review: ...

The book is very shortsighted in its thinking that biology is the cause of every gender difference. It doesn't take into account culture and societal attitudes. It doesn't attempt to explain why there are exceptions to "the rules". If so many exceptions exist (we all know men who listen and women who can read maps), then shouldn't the theory be refuted? They never address why these exceptions exist, or how humans have evolved over the years. They just seem to think we're exactly the same as our forebears who hunted mastodons and guarded the cave. We do share some of the same traits, but we have grown so much more complex since then.

The book is a good start if you want to get a background on the "caveman" theory on gender differences. But remember to take it with a big old grain of salt and realize this is only part of the story. The book is far too simplistic considering its subject matter, and should be handled by real scientists. ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The BEST of its kind.....
Review: Of all of the books in this "genre" which have been published in the last decade beginning with "Brain Sex: The Real Differences Between Men and Women" (also very good), this is the one that I consider best and most comprehensive. Funny thing about it is that it tells nothing that we don't already innately "know", but simply that most of us have become confused about (Well, my now long deceased grandparents weren't confused about any of this). If you are really interested in knowing what makes men and women 'tick'.... differently... and what YOU can do about that which can make life between the sexes more harmonious instead of just the proverbial 'battle of the sexes", then you won't go wrong on getting this book. Not only that, but you'll get some great laughs as well as insights out of it along the way, especially if you share it as a heterosexual couple, and often find you are laughing at yourselves from time-to-time. :-)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant!!!
Review: If you never read another book for the rest of your life read this. We all see the world through our own eyes and don't even notice it. Examples relevant to this book are the amount of men who think that there are hundreds of females out there just waiting to grab them and participate in mad orgies! Also, the amount of women who have a casual one night stand and think that they had something special with that man!

This book covers everything and really opens up your mind to the differences in which men and women view the world.

Also, for further reading from a more biological perspective try 'The Mating Game' by John Gribbbin and Jeremy Cherfas.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Insulting,Disgusting Rubbish!
Review: I can read a freaking map!So can my female friends,mom,grandmother,great grandmother!Don't bother reading this sensationistic,sexist misinforming garbage!It's insulting to women and sterotypes men as always being the more "able" sex
therefore,it boxes both men and women into narrow boxes in which
individuality is lost and limits are placed.
I excell at spatial reasoning,infact I find it to be a breeze!
It IS my gift!To be told I can't do something by a shortsighted,
idiotic book is just plain repulsive!
What's behind all this brain obsesion? MONEY is course!
Your hard earned dollar is better spent on books which debunk
this nonsense,which open all people's minds to endless
possibilities!
I have noticed in college that foreign women particularly from
Asian and Mid Eastern countries are more prevailent in high math,engineering and anything requiring sounnd logic and spatial
ability.The reason behind it possibly being,these women came from a country in which these books are NOT the rage!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Extremely Poor Research
Review: This book has been billed as using scientific fact, which makes it all the more disappointing. The book would quote scientific research but then draw conclusions that can only be described as far fetched. I have to agree with several other reviewers that the males behavior is not just explained but denigrated and men are encouraged to try to emulate the behavior of the clearly supperior female. If humor was being used equally to explain male and female behavior there wouldn't be 3 times as many male oriented cartoons. Overall this is probably the worst book I have ever read. Definitely not worth the price even if it is given to you.


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