The Friday Five

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

1. Why Are Women Scared To Call Themselves Feminists? by Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon.com says Katy Perry and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy proudly declare they’re not feminists at a time we need them more than ever.

2. Growing A Beard, Getting A Mortgage: When Do Men Become Grown-Ups? by Matt Gross, Theodore Ross, and Nathan Thornburgh of The Atlantic explores the trickiness of defining manhood in a culture without defined rituals.

3. New Love: A Short Shelf Life by Sonja Lyubomirsky of The New York Times says that contrary to popular belief, “Studies show that in long-term relationships, women are more likely than men to lose interest in sex, and to lose it sooner. Why? Because women’s idea of passionate sex depends far more centrally on novelty than does men’s.”

4. Why The Sexist Marriage Proposal Won’t Go Away by Amanda Marcotte of Slate.com says that researchers found, after interviewing a couple hundred college students, that when asked to imagine a hypothetical marriage proposal, the overwhelming preference was for men to propose to women. 

5. You Can Give A Boy A Doll, But You Can’t Make Him Play With It by Christina Hoff Sommers of The Atlantic explores the logistical and ethical problems with trying to make toys gender-neutral.

Related Links: