I have tried to get hubby to pen an article in this column in vain. He asks for advance payment and quotes an exorbitant price before he can submit anything.
Even when I have offered to ghostwrite his side of the story, he shies off. Ironical, really, considering that he has been a subject matter here for many years.
One afternoon, shaking his head, after witnessing an argument between me and our teenage daughter, he said, “Women are intriguing.”
He probably meant to say that we are complicated but was wise enough to use a more diplomatic term. He, thereafter, denied that he had ever made such a comment when I probed him to expound.
In an attempt to unravel a man’s mind, I carried out rapid research, posing this question to the men in my circles. What is it that intrigues you about women? All the men opened their hearts and sang like Sauti Sol. Here are some of the things they said.
“Their inability to separate emotion and logic astounds me,” Kim said. “I have met brilliant women who solve the most complex of problems, lead organisations and so forth. But every now and then, they pull the most outlandish illogical move when emotions take over.”
Jesse said that he can never understand how a woman can change her physical appearance so drastically and still be comfortable in her skin.
“Even changing a haircut, if I ever do, is a very big deal for me. A woman can turn herself into any colour as you watch and not even blink.”
He gave the example of a dark-skinned woman bleaching herself to a deathly pale complexion and wondered how she can ever be okay with that.
Mark had this to say: “A woman has the ability to keep us confused. She can be confident, independent and smart in making big decisions but the next minute, she is completely helpless with the smaller problems.”
David is another man who said that he would need to write a book but summarised his thoughts thus, “A woman’s skin texture and her voice intrigue me and also tells me a lot about her.”
David said that these two features in a woman are the ultimate determinants of how far that relationship would go.
Andrew says that he is stunned by a woman’s ability to pretend that she is dead asleep when not interested in getting intimate, but how she will never miss hearing an incoming message on his phone.
In the same breath, Joseph said that he has never understood how a woman cannot hear a honking truck when she is sleeping but will hear the soft sounds from his phone when he is typing.
“Their memory is completely on another level,” Philip said, “It only remembers what suits them and it has the propensity to remember what it should not and forgets what it should remember.”
Still, on a woman’s memory, John said, “A woman has the ability to forget her passwords but will remember my entire log in credentials, even when I update.”
Leo is simply amazed by our ability to multi-task. “A woman can do everything all at once and not break a sweat.”
Benson said that he is always left helpless and speechless by how much women love to vent, yet get very angry if you offer a solution.
“If you happen to be nearby, she will vent everything but boy, try to offer a solution and the tongue lashing that follows leaves you totally confused.”
He says that he has since understood that when a woman vents, you are supposed to encourage and add fuel. “But men just don’t know how to do this.”
Gerald on the other hand had this to say, “My wife’s expectation of me; to just hold her while in bed, without progressing into anything else is impossible to understand.”
A good number of respondents focused on the specifics of the physical attributes of a woman. My editor will not publish details here but Ezekiel’s response summarises them all: “Whatever she offered Adam for him to disobey God; we are still helpless as men when it comes to that.”
Did I leave out something? Feel free to share. I posed the same question to the ladies. Gentlemen, be on the lookout for the stuff that truly fascinates us about you.
