Consider Before You Speak

There is a big difference between the things you can say to a man and the things you can say to a woman. There are a zillion examples.  You have likely learned this the hard way.  Whether the speaker, is man or woman he or she has to consider the gender of the listener. Consider the following:

Yesterday I got my hair cut at a salon, although I swore I was never going to a salon again in my Blog Entry dated June 25, 2009. Anyway, a lovely lady washed my hair, cut my hair, and rinsed my hair. I thought it looked pretty good. After the haircut I picked the Lovely Sharon up from the airport and went to dinner at Hidden Valley Country Club. As we walked in the Club restaruant we saw Chuck, his wife and several friends. The first thing Chuck said was that I ought to sue my barber because he had committed mal practice. The rest of Chuck’s table enjoyed Chuck’s quip and added their own comments. For me it was funny and I laughed at all of the comments. However, can you imagine telling your wife her hair dresser/stylist had committed mal practice. She would go hysterical on you, she would cry and her feelings would be seriously hurt. You would be out of the house. You would live a monk’s existence for months. If you don’t believe it guys, next time your wife gets her hair done, try telling her that she ought to sue her stylist. Rigggght, not one of you has the courage to do that even in jest. It would be like putting you hand inside a lion’s cage. If you do, you know you are going to lose something.

On sports talk radio, a bunch of the fellows call each other “Dog”. “How’s it going Dog? “Nice game Dog”. “Hey Dog lets go grab a brewski”. I think it sounds cool, it sounds manly, it shows your closeness to your pal. Just today I sent my buddy Gordon an email that read  "Hey Dog are you playing golf today?” However, under no circumstances should you use Dog as a term of endearment when talking to a woman. Do not tell your mom, “Great dinner Dog”. Don’t even think about telling your wife when she gets out of the shower, “Hey Dog, what are you doing today?” What do you think will be put in your food if you tell the waitress “Hey Dog I will have the prime rib”?

So there are things you can’t say to women. There are also things you can’t say to men. You cannot tell a man he has a nice outfit. I have discussed this with the Lovely Sharon and other women several times before, but I heard the same thing on the Dan Patrick radio show yesterday. Dan went further and correctly asserted you can’t tell a man you like his pants or ask him to turn around. You can tell a buddy “great hat” but you lose your man card if you say something like, “Really nice pants, where did you get them?”

My friends harass me and each other about being overweight. When you bend over to pick up your golf ball from the cup, you might hear “Hey you gotta couple of hams in there?” Try that with a woman and then laugh. See how that works out.

In conclusion, you must think through who your intended audience is before your pull the trigger on your statements.