ladies should be sensitive too!

I recently had a conversation that reminded me that as much as men can be ridiculously insensitive and horribly condescending to women, women should try to be sensitive to the needs of men too.

There are genuine guys out there who want to treat their partner well and as equals. There are genuine guys who want to be in a real relationship. The hard part is simply getting to that point. In the process, they may try a few times, and will probably fail most of those times. The worst result for guys, however, isn't the failure, it's that halfway point that is commonly known as "the Friend Zone."

The Friend Zone is that part in the relationship where a lot of trust has been built between the guy and the girl, but the spark needed to go into something that is more than friendship only goes one way. What makes it worse is that while one person has feelings for the other, the other, knowingly or unknowingly, continues to talk to that person about their relationship problems.

Case in point: Boy meets Girl, they talk, go out a few times, but Girl doesn't have feelings for Boy. Boy still does. Girl ends up with another guy, but Boy and Girl stay friends. Unfortunately for Boy, Girl goes to him about problems that she has with the other guy. Boy sits through hours of tortuous conversation about how Girl can resolve issues with the other guy, when Boy doesn't really want to be a part of that conversation.

Some guys will be sensitive enough to the situation to be the girls' counselor, for a little while anyway. Some may even be as caring as to do it through the entire length of the relationship. However, I guarantee that a VAST MAJORITY of those guys hate it.

At this point, I'd like to interject that sexual orientation doesn't affect these circumstances. It could be Guy A and Guy B, or Girl A and Girl B, or whatever preferences may exist. The point of it all is this: Being in the friend zone sucks. Being the relationship counselor for that friend sucks more, but some guys are willing to deal with it.

So ladies, or guys, errr...in fact, EVERYBODY, please be sensitive to this. You may want to ask first if it's okay to have that kind of conversation, instead of automatically assuming that it's okay.