Trip to Venus

It was Dr John Gray who first said that men are from Mars and women are from Venus and that they both speak different languages. Through his books on the subject, he acted as the interpreter helping each understand the other better thus saving many marriages.

When we say men are from Mars and women are from Venus, are we not oversimplifying complex traits and classifying them into two neat and mutually exclusive categories?

There are millions of differences between human beings. And there are differences between men and women—our bodies and brains and our hormones are so different. We’re different in how we react to stress. But we can still make generalisations and be very accurate. What is important is that these generalisations be expressed in a positive way so we have a better and positive understanding of each other rather than some stereotypical negative generalisations.

So men and women are different by design?

You are absolutely right. When you understand what these differences are, then it begins to make sense that we are a perfect fit together—we complement each other. We’re not in competition with each other. Women are capable of making babies and men are not, so it makes perfect sense that a woman’s brain be different from a man’s.