Simple Minds of Simple Men

Ever wondered why your husband shuts your voice out of his head? Ever pondered over the fact that your children have functioning auditory organs which seem to mysteriously shut down whenever you open your oral cavity to admit waves in the form of compressed air, aka your voice?

Ever contemplate why anyone near-and-dear to you with a Y-chromosome in their genome, never listen to what you have to say?

The answer is simple. Rhetorically and literally.

It all boils down to simplicity. I don't know about you, but I think I speak for most, if not ALL, men.

Simplicity, in any form of verbal communication, is the most effective way of conveying any form of information or instruction. Scientific journals, advertisements, thesauruses, news articles. They all have something to say; and they say it with SIMPLICITY.

Now, simplicity is not equivalent to 'simply'. It does not, in any way or form, attest to being sloppy, deceitful or lacking in the process of communicating. All it does is to condense, corroborate and ratify complex instructions into concise vocabulary snippets. It is unbending, it is direct, it is accurate.

Guys are prone to simplicity, especially within instructional contexts. Orders must be given a direction and must be easily interpreted.

For example, many women like to use the phrase 'Do you want to..?'

'Do you want to wash my car for me?'

'Do you want to sweep the floor later?'

'Do you want to carry the groceries into the house?'

Primarily, these 'Do you want to' sentences are often associated with choice of action for the directed person, and involves a polar answer, indicating the person's inclination towards the task, for example.

However, the aforementioned sentences are disguised instructions. They are orders masked within the pretext of a selective question. They do not convey their messages appropriately, since their answers do not correlate with the jest or intention of the 'askee'.

Let's delve into it further. Take 'Do you want to carry the groceries into the house?'

Now, the directed person has two answers, either a yes or a no. Yes, I want to; or No, I don't want to.

But notice the use of the word 'WANT'. To want is to desire, to feel the need to perform (a duty). In actual fact, the person is being asked 'Do you feel it necessary to take the groceries into the house?'

Now, notice that the use of 'NECESSARY' is not within the context of free will for the questioned person. Instead, it is an extension of the ask-er's desire. Hence, in actual fact the question can be interpreted wholly as:

'Do you want to do as I desire, and take the groceries in?'

And, well. If you are a man, and the person asking was your wife/ mother/ aunt/ sister.

Do you have a choice?

Henceforth, from this small interpretation exercise, we can justify that polar questions involving the use of want in the context of another's extended will, does not equate to a choice of action. Rather, it is a direct order.

Which totally opposes the essence of Simplicity.

So we can see why some men tune out 'requests' for help. They cannot register. Such over-the-top psychological manipulation is either too fine for their bulky radar, or too beneath the conscious wavelength to be actively interpreted.

Simple men, with simple minds, need simple instructions.

Simple?