To be a bit hmm about a person who said she couldn't get on with women?

[TheRunawayTrain]

Apparently female friendships are bitchy (implied/said but not in those words) and so on

I thought we were making friends too. Then I mention I'm friends with this woman who does x (she was talking about that subject so was relevant) and she starts.

AIBU? I asked her why she was writing off half the population (in politer ways) and the conversation carried on awkwardly as we both disagreed, but didn't get heated much. I can remember one woman at university saying something similar. I think dismissing being friends with people for their gender is especially as she's a woman herself!

My Dh is the loveliest man but has a very dry sense of humour. His favourite saying 'human existence has long given up its right to exist!' He also says when people have annoyed him ''I hate people".

I met this guy once who had a long ring finger and he was like that, so it MUST be true - and you can't prove me wrong so I'm obviously right! And all he talked about were beer and mud wrestling, like ALL men...

There ya go

lisylisylou - I say I hate people too! Maybe we should form a club. Except that I mostly hate people, so it would probably be pointless as it would involve, well, people...

Ah Ha. Now the other side of this debate is on the back foot.
That is the problem with this debate. Even if one knows 50 women who are bitchy or not bitchy, it doesnt probe the debate one side or the other.

Wow the patriarchy has done its job well. Divide and conquer....

I think its rather sad as she is saying she is not able to like or value herself.

'Why in reality shows, are women voted off first on the whole and in the main?'

Are they though? There have been lots of female winners of reality shows as far as I can recall.

In the case of my friends, the "more men than women" interests would include role playing games, martial arts, comics, medieval weaponry... Women are interested in those things to, but if you get a group of random people together who have those kids of interests, there are likely to be a lit more men than women, so women who like that kind of thing are a lot more likely to have predominantly male friends and find it harder to get chatting to random other women.

It's not even a debate, it's just daft

Categorising nasty traits by sex says feck all about male and female and more about the person doing the categorising

I'd tell her 'I just can't get on with people who make massive sweeping generalisations based on gender.'

I dont have any 'buts' in my life about friends. It seems strange to gender-differentiate. A friend is a friend, surely.

As a woman I mainly have female friends. I should think thats quite normal. I have 2 male friends Ive known for 20+ years. I dont feel oh wooooow theyre men Ive done so well. Theyre just my mates. I dont need to preen about being '1 of the lads' theyd probably burst out laughing if I tried all that. Im ok to be just me, we're comfortable with each other. Thats how it is between friends. Competitiveness based on ' Im a better woman than you because blokes like me more ' is just....cringe.

Men are men..if a woman wants to have or gather up male friends then there'll be PLENTY of men who will most certainly be her friends. its not rocket science

Women who say all women are bitchy and hard to get on with either have no concept of irony, or see something totally different when they look in the mirror (I dunno, some kind of elite alien hybrid species neither male or female, fish nor fowl...)

"Wow the patriarchy has done its job well. Divide and conquer...."

Not really, a quick look at any of the "my DH does no cleaning/cooking/shopping/childcare/is emotionally retarded or dating threads to see that the mumsnet matriarchy are not exactly adverse to some sweeping generalisations of their own when observing male behaviour through prism of anecdotal evidence.

You know, that sounds as if it could be a clever observation CuChullain but actually it's a pretty empty statement.

Sorry have not read all of the thread but can I just say that I used to be one of those women who preferred the company of men- I felt that I had ASD around other women when I was younger- I always seemed to be insulting them, pissing the off or weirding them out with not a clue as to what I was doing wrong and I felt much easier to get on with men- it just seemed simpler.

I now have some very good female friends but it has taken a good while. So don't be too harsh on someone who says that they don't get on with other women as it might not mean what you assume!

"You know, that sounds as if it could be a clever observation CuChullain but actually it's a pretty empty statement."

= I can't be bothered to actually challenge the assertion so instead I shall dismiss it with a glib statement!

Patriarchy = real and in power, matriarchy = doesn't exist, that's about the most simple way to challenge it. Unless suddenly over 50% of all government ministers, company directors and leaders of major organisations turned into women overnight and I never noticed.

I have yet to change the channel today so that could be the case...

If we are talking about the wider society in general than I absolutely agree with you. I made reference to the 'mumsnet matriarchy' which I believe is very real. This site was founded by women for women and moderated by women, its membership (I dont have the figures) I would guess would be about 85% female with most of the topics discussed on here relating to very female specific issues. I would say that as far as this site is concerned women are very much at the helm in terms of control, leadership and moral authority. So I dont think my use of the term matriarchy in this context is misplaced.

sqoosh, they most definitely are

*I'm now very wary of women who after sharing office space with them and naturally chatting over the days/months/years turn out to have absolutely NO close female friends. (No old school friends, no female Uni friends, no previous workplace female friends, no schoolmum type friends, not a single one)

I've worked with 3 such individuals over the years in a variety of workplaces and without exception they have all been, deep down, hard-nosed, selfish, unable to work in a team unless they are heading it up and given any opportunity likely to be quite deviously self-serving.

They seem to have the exterior of a woman but lack some traits common to women.*

So basically what you are saying is that unless a woman wants to join your clique of women at work they are hated by all other women and have something wrong with them deep down and some kind of inherent personality flaw.

Congratulations, you are the 65% I was talking about.

Mistress - ironic name A friend is a friend!

She's meeting the wrong women.

FavoriteThings I maintain that there have been lots of female winners of reality shows because it's a fact. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, that women vote other women off tv shows because women hate other women?

I'm not privy to who votes on these shows so I can't make any judgement as to who votes and why they vote.

SinisterSal. Sometimes people come to conclusions by looking around them and observing well.
Saying it says something about the person is generalizing, no?

There have been lots yes. But probably, and someone else may have to back me up factually, there have been at least double that number who have been male.