Letter to editor: Response to Point of View Column "What do women want?"
Dear Editor,
The article "What do women want? I don’t know" (Point of View column published Feb. 22, 2001) was very well written. Jeremy Taylor should be commended for his research and recognition of the importance of honesty and courtesy in relationships with women.
However, he is mistaken when he writes that women "have the same drives and urges" as men. Male and female do not have the same drives and urges because we do not have the same combination of the sex hormones.
Males (after puberty) produce large quantities of testosterone – the hormone of sexual arousal – which cause them to have a great interest in sex. The female body, however, produces only small amounts of testosterone, but large quantities of estrogen and progesterone. The purpose of these hormones is to prepare a woman physically and emotionally to want to conceive and bear children. They also produce a strong desire for intimacy.
Unfortunately, this desire for intimacy can mislead women to confuse the instant intimacy of sex with real intimacy. It takes time and maturity to realize that guys don’t have the same strong emotional need for solid committed relationships that our hormones produce in us.
Perhaps all this just points to the great need we have in our culture for character development. It would seem that honesty in words and in body language would be important character traits for both male and female to exhibit at all times. Likewise, a courteous person is much more pleasant to be around than a rude one. Even the article’s statement "Cut the macho" is a good reminder that a bit of humility is a much more attractive quality than an exaggerated and overbearing manner.
Patricia (Pat) Wagner
IVCC student and RN