A few weeks ago Jolene asked if I knew how to get to a location. I pulled out this electronic thingamabob, typed in the address, and pulled up the location. Out came step by step directions to my requested location. You know what? I actually followed them and too my surprise I actually arrived at the correct location. Who knew men could read directions?
I know people love to pass memes on Facebook. Stereotyping used to be done in fun humor. After a while it gets old, and people actually believe this stuff as truth. Today I saw a post that said this: “Men say that women should come with instructions. What’s the point? Have you ever seen a man actually read them?” Out of all the people I know personally, I would say that almost all men read instructions. I do know however, many women in my family that do not read directions let alone follow instructions given by a man. Last night Jolene actually followed my instructions on her sewing project. You know what, she finally followed my advice and it actually worked. Mark one up for husband!
I personally believe this lie about men not following directions was perpetrated by women as a joke. I’m not knocking women with this statement. However, there is a branch that tends to push men down in many ways. They want to label men sexist because men don’t read directions. Do a search on this topic, and that’s all you will see in google. Men don’t read directions because you guessed it, sexism! This has been an age old lie about men not reading directions that I don’t understand where it came from. So I went on to search it’s origin.
I looked to see if a study was ever done that asked the question: do men read directions less than women? All studies done are in regards to the reasons why men don’t ask for directions. None of the studies actually ask if in good consensus men don’t ask for directions. I have yet to find a study that asks the question if men ask for directions less than women. For example it’s like saying an apple’s seeds are pink. Then creating a study of why the apple seeds are pink. All the while never actually confirming the apple seeds are pink in the first place. As most know, apple seeds are not pink. If you can find one a study on comparison of men to women let me know. I did find a study that relates to the workplace of a man taking criticism and direction from a boss. That is not the same as reading an instruction manual or finding coordinates to a location.
Even if a study did come out stating that men are less likely than a women to ask for directions, that still doesn’t mean a man will not ask for directions. Not only that, the bias nature of Google would suppress any study done that would skew a view different than their bias. If you do a quick search, all the main searches are propolgated by HuffPo, Dailymail, and more. None of these ever fall out of lock step from their bias. So they wouldn’t dare push something that would stop this lie. Also, if a study does state that men are less likely to ask for directions than women, that doesn’t mean we should generalize for all men. Generalizing is why stereotyping is bad. We are told to not stereotype every other group of populous, so why do we still stereotype men? Personally I believe it’s a way for all growing men to follow suite as it’s already an assumption made of them. I know I will teach my boy to read directions. So should everyone else who raises a boy.
In conclusion, men read directions, just like anyone else. Very few posts ever mention that men already have a better sense of direction than women. There is a study for that. In my own personal study my family showed that no woman knew where north was. If I had to concede that men don’t read directions, maybe that’s why men are less likely to ask for directions? Maybe they already know where their going. I know that I probably disagree with many readers. That’s okay, I like to spark a thoughtful conversation.
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