Introduction
Boys and girls have frequent misunderstandings. This is not just because of the difference in genetic set-ups but because of the variation in personalities, beliefs, likes, and dislikes, and even in the ways of handling things. Boys will always be boys as girls will always be girls. But however big the differences may be, however frequent the misunderstandings occur, it should not be forgotten that misunderstandings can always be resolved through one tested means and this is proper communication.
An example of misunderstanding
I, myself, can particularly cite an example where I had a misunderstanding with the opposite sex, and this is a misunderstanding that could have been easily prevented if just communicated well. This misunderstanding occurred one time when our group of friends decided to hang out together and have some fun at one of our friend’s houses. There we were given a choice of what to do – watch a movie, listen to the radio or play PlayStation. I asked them to watch a movie first since it was a very relaxing day and we could all eat popcorn while watching the movie. But this became a very complex choice because we could not agree on what type of movie to watch. Most of the girls wanted to watch either a feel-good movie or a love story movie. But the guys, I included, reacted vehemently with the idea as we kept on suggesting watching either suspense or an action-oriented movie.
The argument heated up and to pacify things, we decided not to watch any movie at all but to just play the PlayStation. Naturally, it became a battle of boys versus girls. We were playing perfectly well and when the girls started to win the game, of course, we did not want to admit that we were losers, hence we teased the girls about it. We challenged them and we even said that we were just giving them a chance to win because we know that this type of game is not in their league. This was a big blow to girls’ pride, they felt so angry that they just walked out on us.
The bottom line because we had such misunderstanding is because of the differences in our sets of choices. Boys like the boys’ stuff and girls like the girls’ stuff. We want to watch an entirely different type of movie from the girls.
I think that I did not handle the situation very well. I could have helped resolve the problem easily but I did not. Had I just proposed a compromise for the movie choice, things would have turned out differently. If we just focus on being positive, like challenging the girls to play the game more passionately to prove that they are not the ‘sissies’ that we were teasing them about, then a misunderstanding would have not occurred. Or if they did not just walk out and just told them straight to the point that they don’t like the way we were teasing them, they may be we would have stopped and we could have had a better day.
Conclusion
What I learned from this experience is the fact that girls are different from boys. We have different sets of likes, beliefs, and priorities. Also, boys and girls differ in the way we handle things. Boys are jokers and teasers, we tend to see things on a funny side, but the girls are sensitive. They take things too seriously even if it’s just a game. Lastly, I learned that communication is the very key to solving misunderstandings. Whatever the differences are, with proper communication, things will get solved easily.