The article here talks about what "most men" are like, and what "most men" want in a partner. If the author is speaking for himself and his guy friends, then fair enough. But I cringe when I read something like this: "For the longest time, men seemed to come equipped with only a handful of emotions. Things like anger, aggression, rage — you get the point — oftentimes characterized typical male behavior and responses to any and all stimuli, especially when said stimuli are negative. "

Really? According to whom? Men, like women, have been expressing their varied emotions through music, art, poetry, dance, film and theatre for centuries. If men were really incapable of expressing emotions, I doubt that we would know names like Tolstoy, Chagall, St. Paul, Tchaikovsky, E.E. Cummings, or any other famous men who expressed themselves.

But we are told, over and over again, that women are "higher beings" and are naturally emotional, and men are "neanderthals". This is the basic idea, rammed down our throats, of the "battle of the sexes" paradigm of gender relationships, best exemplified by "Dr." John Gray's fake science bestseller, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" (his fake doctorate from a mail-order university was eventually revealed). There are two problems with this concept: First of all, it is unscientific, and secondly, it's based on American ideas of masculinity and femininity that are by no means universal.

Our ideas of male and female attributes are highly influenced by our cultural attitudes. Every culture has its way of expressing itself. In some cultures (like Italy), people are very expressive, and in others (like Sweden), people are more reserved. I wonder why we never seem to question the sexist/feminist narrative that men are unemotional, and that women are "naturally" more emotional. After traveling to other countries and encountering other cultures, I've come to the conclusion that we may need to re-think what we see as "cultural universals" and start to see these assumptions as VERY culturally biased.

Joe Henrich, Steve Heine and Ara Norenzayan wrote a paper on our assumptions in the social sciences, noting: "Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic societies." The acronym they use is WEIRD. It turns out that for many years, most social science literature leaned heavily on American researchers, and much of this work was heavily biased.

In truth, neuroscience has recently made great strides in uncovering real perceptual and cognitive differences between the genders, but biased stereotypes will impede scientific progress. Let's stop seeing the world though American eyes, then assuming that (white) American cultural values are some kind of universal Truth. And let's stop allowing unscientific ideas about gender differences influence our thinking. Instead, let's learn the real truth, through scientific enquiry.