What a perfect day to revisit this topic! Harriet Tubman won a poll as the most deserving woman to grace the $20 bill. Not sure how this started or why, but it led me back to my initial and ultra important case study: Which sex sucks more, or less, whichever way you want to put it.
Categories to Include-
Destruction: Men are responsible for nearly all of the destruction in the history of the world, both World Wars (ouch) as well as genocide (Nazi Germany, Africa, etc.), a history of enslaving our fellow man (c’mon dude), and later the A-Bomb.
Women (+1)
Inventions/Contributions to Hu(man/woman)kind: Men also dominate this category, although possibly unjustly as women were rarely in the position to be educated throughout time. Nearly all of the major inventions I could find were by men: These being flight, electricity, the internet, and the telephone. Women contributed the medical syringe, the dishwasher (irony) and most surprisingly beer (thank God).
Men (+1)
Roles in family and society at large: Men have historically been the breadwinner although that is changing; women have run the household and acted as caretaker when someone is sick, provide emotional support.
Draw (-)
Dating: This is obviously the most noteworthy topic and will be weighted most heavily. It used to be that you could simply find a woman on the street or at the local deli counter, tell her you have a means for providing for her, and marry her. Not so simple now, as my grandpa recently asked my brother and I why we don’t have girlfriends. To this my brother responded “Grandpa women have rights now.” They are now mean and unruly, caring very little about finding a nice guy who is funny and more about finding “Ryan Gosling with a horse dick who shits money”. This comes from an unnamed source who actually isn’t too far off the mark. Men may do terrible things in dating too, (expecting/pressuring for sex too early, cheating, etc.) but the ladies’ insistence of perfection takes the cake.
Men (+1)
A real barn-burner here. With a few topics left the men lead 2-1.
Adaptability: This one may be the hardest to explain, so I’ll do my best. It refers to which sex has made the best strides from generation to generation. And in general denotes who has been more tolerant and improved on previous generations’ mistakes.
Men have absolutely no shot in this one. We are a stubborn bunch and as a gender are still working on racism, respecting the opposite sex, and homophobia. Women can also be racist and homophobic but I think are more tolerant and willing to think independently even before it was encouraged (now).
Women (+1)
Entertainment: Seems like a sure lock right? Men have dominated the entertainment scene throughout time. Virtually all of pop culture was written, directed, and starred men as the main characters. Even today it’s clear advertising is male-dominated with how often beer companies objectify women. In sports there is no argument as even leading back to the Gladiators men have always provided the entertainment when it comes to feats of strength and athletic ability. Or in their case pure gore.
The only argument that can be made for the winner is not who is doing all of the entertaining but who is being entertained. Men love sports and therefore have always been able to entertain ourselves. Women? Not nearly as interested.
What should not be lost in this topic is that women have been able to entertain us visually to no end. This now comes in the form of advertising, stripping and pornography, but it’s always been there. Putting this in the discussion makes it difficult to surmise who actually entertains the other more.
Other areas would include comedy and TV, movies, which men win handily. To be fair to the rest of history and the Native Americans (before TV, radio) storytelling was always a major component of entertainment. And in an era where women were gatherers and men hunted, it seems fair to say they would have more to share.
Men (+1)
Baby creation and nurturing:
Damn it, how’d that one get in there?
Women (+1)
And just like that we are knotted at 3-3. Like all good events, this too will end in a game 7.