From Her Perspective

By Kati Cawley
feedback@barstoolsports.com

Okay, so it’s true. Girls do spend a good amount of time ragging on men. What choice do we have? Face it, you always leave the seat up. It’s a liability – we could damage vital parts of ourselves if we fall in! But there are a lot of things that guys do that you just don’t get enough credit for. And it’s important that you know we appreciate it, lest you stop doing it and we lose out on things that really matter

Guys don’t notice the ten thousand dumb little things we’re constantly harping on that prevent us from being truly confident about the way we look. Over Labor Day weekend, I was driving home from a day at the beach, and stopped for gas, dressed in a terry-cloth cover-up from Target, my hair a mess from the salt, pulling sand out of my bathing suit bottom when this guy came up to me and told me I was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. Now, I was looking pretty much at my worst, and I could have shown him about 400 examples of why that definitely was not true, but he just didn’t notice all of the things I thought was wrong with me. Guys are less critical, and I think that’s great.

Guys fix things. Or at least you really, really try. That doggedness, that devotion to making the fuzzy picture on the television go away so we can watch The O.C. without incident, is more of a turn-on than any flower, shiny jewel or expensive present could ever be. Girls usually stop after a couple of tries. We just don’t want it as badly. But guys will spend hours toiling over a drippy faucet, loud fan or any number of boring projects and see it to fruition because it just doesn’t occur to you not to finish. Knowing that if the squeaky bedframe gets handed over to you, it’s going to get done. How well it gets done is up for discussion, but the way you try as hard as you can to wrap your brain around the problem and figure it out as best you can is great.

Guys don’t mind running out for stuff. Personally, if I don’t have any Mountain Dew in my fridge and it’s past eight o’clock, I am out of luck. I’m not going anywhere. But you have no problem running down to the store at any hour of the night, no matter how far away the store is, which is the best part of all. If you want it, you want it and you’re going to get it. You just don’t have as many rules as girls tend to make for themselves.

It is truly fascinating to watch guys eat. You have no inhibition. You’re never going to pick apart a sandwich with your fingers. You’re going to tear into it like nobody’s business, slurpy tomato seeds or rubbery steak be damned. You don’t care if food ends up all over your face. You don’t care if you’re a mess when you’re done. You’re enjoying yourself and it doesn’t even cross your minds to look refined and dainty. You don’t think that it is important to look like you don’t actually consume food – that you actually exist on air and compliments.

I think the best thing about guys that, to be honest, a lot of girls could benefit from taking notes on, is the way that you never quite give up on your dreams. You never fully give up hope that Theo is going to call one day and ask you what you think about extending Damon’s contract and giving him his four years or not because you have all the answers. Or that he’s going to call and ask you to get down to Fenway ASAP and start warming up – it’s for Game Six of the playoffs and the only one who can save the day is you. A lot of us girls get so wrapped up in other things that we tend to forget how important it is to keep passions alive and never to forget how important it is to believe in something.

Some people may read this and think I am being patronizing, pandering to the male ego. I’m definitely not. I could make a list about great things about girls, too. But it seems like guys get so much crap for the bonehead things they do and get such little credit for the things they do that matters most that it’s the least I, and any other girl, for that matter, can do to let you know that we do notice, and we do care. And for all of the complaining we do, of course we love it.

But don’t go getting any funny ideas. You still need to put the seat down.