A Question

[pecunium]

I have seen, as I travel to and fro in the net I keep seeing something I don't understand.

Women telling men they really don't want to look behind the curtain at TMI posts about menstruation.

Now, I understand warning people about TMI posts. Descriptions of the details of surgeries, accidents and all manner of gruesome goings on are not for everyone.

What I don't understand is why that single topic gets that warning.

Are men, as a class, that easily squicked?

Comments

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Some guys don't seem to like it, sure, but I also think that women play into the idea by assuming that guys will be squicked out by it and behaving accordingly (e.g. warning men specifically to not look behind the cut). Not all men are bothered by it. I think if women have the starting point that men will be squicked, then some men will behave squicked (even if they aren't) just to maintain some communal, non-verbally-decided comfort level.

Sometimes I think the assumption that men will be squicked is more a reflection of how women feel about it themselves, than how men feel about it. I know that when I put something TMI behind a cut (not very often, admittedly) I'm aware of feeling vaguely embarrassed about the TMI stuff, along with the wish to give readers a choice about whether they want to read it or not.