Men And Women Essay, Research Paper

The men and the women in my family are quite different in their ways of looking at things. The men in my family place value on what something can do. The women place value on what something looks like. The men are interested in acquiring things that will serve a physical purpose. When shopping, men look for things like features, performance, durability, and remote controls. The women tend to look for things that are described with words like “cute,” “pretty,” and “matches the carpet.” Also, it seems that the more delicate an object is, the more valuable it is. An excellent example of this is our pencil sharpener. We have had it for as long as I can remember and it works better than any other pencil sharpener I have ever used. I tend to go through a lot of pencil points doing calculus and physics homework so I find this pencil sharpener very useful. My mother has deemed the pencil sharpener ugly and keeps it hidden under the coats in the laundry room. Every time I need to use it I have to walk into the laundry room, push all the coats back until I find the sharpener. It is mountedon the wall so there is no excuse for me to remove it from there and place it in a more visible (yet accessible) location. As a temporary fix to this problem, I simply sharpen about ten pencils all up front.

A more expensive item is also being under utilized because it doesn’t match the ambiance of the house. This item is the Dolby Surround Sound home theater system my dad bought a few years back. It is all setup fine except for a very critical part, the speaker locations. In order for the system to produce the full affect, the speakers must be placed in a pattern encircling the viewers, creating a “sweet spot”.” This allows the sounds to travel from one side of the viewer to the other and give the impression that a car has just raced by behind the viewer, or that an explosion to the front left has shot off debris that a viewer can hear land back behind him. Instead, the front speakers are placed adjacent to the television, but not centered, and the rear speakers are both next to each other at the far end of the room. The men can deal with this though because the rear speakers have been given extra long speaker wires so that they can be moved to better positions when the occasion arises and later placed back to their original spots. This setup seems just fine to the women in the family who aren’t impressed by the high quality sound as the men are. The Jones women tend to watch movies that don’t depend on big explosions and car chases. In the movies they watch, sound is only necessary so that one can hear the leading man telling the leading lady how pretty she is.

The women in the Jones family are now, and have always been, more concerned with their outward appearance than the Jones men. They have also been much better at preparing their outward appearance than the men. All my sisters learned at a young age how to do their hair nicely and wear matching clothes. They wake up hours before they need to leave for school just so that they can prepare their hair and make-up. My sisters spend more money on their clothes than they do on anything else. I wasn’t at all concerned with my clothes or hair until about sixth grade. I don’t buy shoes until there are holes in the pair that I own and my dad still sometimes wears clothes that he wore in high school. It can be said that the Jones men are concerned with their outward appearance, but our concern doesn’t stand in the way of an extra hours sleep every morning. If I have a bad hair day, a hat takes care of it and if I haven’t worn a certain shirt yet this week, then it is perfectly fine as long as it still smells alright. My mother and sisters are all very concerned with their figure. My mother, who has always looked at least ten years younger than her age, is always up on the latest diets. My sisters then follow it as well. For a while now, all the food in the house is non-fat or as low fat as it can come. My mother and sisters will not drink milk that has a percent in it. I drink a lot of milk yet I hate non-fat milk, so it is a real inconvenience for me when the low-fat milk runs out because then I have to go through all the non-fat before any more low-fat is bought. My dad and I, don’t put in as much effort to control our figure. I have actually tried to gain weight most of my life so I might look a little huskier. My dad seems to grow a little pot gut, but that has never kept him from enjoying great food like hambergers and pizza.

The latest craze in my house is changing any thing that has remained the same for too long. Our roof or shingles has been on our house for 29 years and has received some fading due to the long sunny days.. My dad and I both agree that the house needs a new roof. Inside, we are having the color changed to an even lighter white than it is now. I like the idea because it will brighten up the rooms and make them look even bigger. But the bedrooms are not being painted this color. My mom has just completed painting her bedroom and bathroom. It now looks much like a room she saw at some better homes and garden magazine. She put up wallpaper and added some new moldings. She also put in a whole new sink with a brand new vanity. Best of all, she even convinced my dad to help her do it. I think they did a great job and it looks really nice, but what is it good for? What does it do? I’m artistic and understand the value of something looking nice, but I would have killed two birds with one stone by lightening the color to help reflect light and brighten the room. I’d have spent the time and money installing a ceiling fan or track lights.

The Jones men and the Jones women all live together very happily. Even though our views on what is important may be different, we respect each others opinion. Us men are glad to have the women keeping us civilized. The men can build the house, but the women make it a home. The Jones men realize this and despite all of our complaining, we are very appreciative of the contributions the women bring into a home. I don’t think that they appreciate our contributions as quite as much.