Culture + Politics

The Friday Five

November 23, 2012

This week's roundup of our favorites from across the interwebs to help you make sense of men and women.

1.‘Girls Love Math. We Never Stop Doing It.’ by Carina Chocano of The New York Times says nobody disputes the fact that age is more cruel to women than men. But why don’t we?

2. Blame Affairs On Evolution Of Sex Roles by Stephanie Coontz on CNN.com says sure, some of the men involved in modern day sex scandals are clearly pigs, and some of the women are opportunists. But most are otherwise decent people who have not yet been able to adjust 200 years of conditioned sexual responses to our evolving emotional and intellectual preferences.

3. Expert: Guys Don’t Want Casual Sex! by Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon.com says most men aren't sex-crazed Casanovas, a researcher argues. They're in search of relationships, not one-night stands.

4. Muscular Body Image Lures Boys Into Gym, and Obsession by Douglas Quenqua of The New York Times says it’s not just girls these days who are consumed by an unattainable body image. Many boys have begun to take unhealthy measures to reshape their bodies.

5. The Most Complicated Words in English: ‘He,’ ‘She,’ and ‘They’ by Lily Rothman of The Atlantic discusses how to reconcile the tension between grammatical correctness and gender inclusiveness.