High Maintenance

Why are the “high maintenance” and “low maintenance” tags always thrown at women and never at men?

See, honestly, I’m high maintenance. I won’t lie to you. [Well, I would lie to you if you'd let me ... yes, I'd be the worst kind: high maintenance, but pretends he's low maintenance.] I seek approval and affirmation. I can be manipulative. I’m self-aggrandizing and all those really horrible character traits that we associate with being high maintenance. It is not enough for me to know that I’m smart—I have to show you, and I need you to tell me!

Societally, though, we don’t lob the “high maintenance” pejorative at the male of the species. I wonder why…

This entry was written by Geof F. Morris, posted on 12/21/2005 at 3:38 pm, filed under Introspection, Musing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

5 Comments

  1. _steve
    Posted 12/21/2005 at 5:51 pm | Permalink

    Remnants of a more pervasive misogyny, likely.

    And YOU think YOU’RE high maintenance? Try being actually insane while in relationships.

  2. Geof F. Morris
    Posted 12/21/2005 at 6:00 pm | Permalink

    Remnants of a more pervasive misogyny, likely.

    Mayhaps.

    Try being actually insane while in relationships.

    Steve: 1
    Geof: 0

  3. jholland
    Posted 12/21/2005 at 8:49 pm | Permalink

    At least you recognize it… that’s a start I guess.

  4. Geof F. Morris
    Posted 12/21/2005 at 8:51 pm | Permalink

    I have a friend who is noted for saying, “Admitting [X] is the first step to accepting it. Accepting it is the first step to you not getting pissed off when I give you shit about it.”

  5. Noah
    Posted 12/23/2005 at 6:48 pm | Permalink

    Maybe it just doesn’t get applied to *straight* men… I’ve heard it said more by (and about) other gay men than I’ve ever heard it from women.

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