Firstly, while I understand that a very large part of this misunderstanding comes -in large part -from feminists, I was just browsing through my feed here, and I saw a post where a woman said, "I spent two hours talking to this man in a bar, when I said I had to get ready to go, he just nodded. I went out into the parking lot, got angry, stormed back inside, and demanded to know why he hadn't asked for my number. We're married now'. (Paraphrasing, I can't remember the exact wording).

But I was thinking about this. There are so many things that are literally just misunderstandings between the genders; nobody being cruel, nobody trying to put anybody down, or anything. Just... misunderstandings.

Like the whole thing where a lot of women want guys to pursue them, and show that they're actually interested, and the guy just moves on, because he feels the woman isn't putting enough effort in. It's not wrong for a woman to want to feel like a man's willing to put in the effort, to show that she's important. But it's not wrong a man to assume the woman isn't interested, and move on either.

And this applies to millions of things, not even just trying to attract a partner. Most women can't grasp why men sit with their legs spread, because we don't have balls. Most men can't understand how uncomfortable bras -or hell, breasts in general -are.

Or the old one that's made thousands of rounds, where a woman is talking to her male SO about problems, and he starts offering solutions; women are just venting, but men tend to be more solution oriented.

Obviously these are broad generalities; it doesn't apply to every woman or every man, but I'd like to think that, for the most part, it's a lack of understanding that drives the growing divide between men and women, rather than misandry or misogyny.

Much like politics, I want to believe that, on a personal level... Most men and women aren't on either side of the hatred spectrum. But our lack of understanding (of the opposite gender), in the current climate, leads us to believe that it's all hatred, rather than just that our brains work differently, and we can't understand each other.

Obviously, feminism hasn't helped the situation; many men are afraid to even blink wrong in the general direction of women, but I just find it hard to believe that the extremists are the majority, rather than the age old 'Men are from Mars, women are from Jupiter'.