Sunday, June 18, 2006

Australians, Men and Sports

Well, it's Soccer Mania here in Australia. Usually it's Cricket, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Aussie Rules, Tennis, Swimming, the Commonwealth Games, Tour de France and the Olympics that Australians are crazy about. Soccer isn't the favourite sport in Australia until this year when we got in the Finals after 32 years. For that reason, my husband says, it's bigger than the Olympics!

For tonight's game against Brazil at 1.30am our opposition leader even went as far as saying employers should allow their employees a late morning to work. So what is it with Sports and Australians, and Men I wonder? If my husband wasn't so into sports, I wouldn't be writing this post today. In fact, I probably wouldn't be following the Soccer World Cup, Cricket or any sports for that matter except for Tennis which I enjoy playing.

Have you also noticed how in social settings, the men and women instantly break up into 2 separate groups - the men's group and the women's group? It's such a classic scenario here in Australia that I used to think the Australian men have serious social problems. Now I think it's
a universal problem!!! Is that true?

Well, now that I'm on the topic of men, may I also air my thoughts on how men are not generally good listeners and hate confrontations. Maybe that's got some correlation with the love for sports... any comments?

4 comments:

Richard said...

Yeah, people tend to break into gender groups when socializing - which is a problem for me since I am not the typical guy:

Guy: what kind of beer do you want?

Me: I don't drink.

Guy: Oh. So how about that game last night?

Me: Sorry, don't follow sports either.

Conversation usually ends at this point.

John14:6 said...

Richard, do you then shy away from social events? Or do you go anyway and be yourself. Women will find that refreshing if you mingle with them instead of the men.

For me, I'm not into trivia and in social settings, people hover around trivia and don't get into the real stuff of life. It's ok if that's just a way of breaking the ice but if that continues, I find that utterly boring. I suspect you're the same from the post you had on the list of books you've read! Having said that, my husband loves trivia and so my journey towards a more trivia existence! They say, your other half is to compliment you, right?

Richard said...

I would not say that I shy away from social events - it really depends on the event: some I am interested in, others I am not.

I would definitely like more of a social life than I have now, but that seems hard, since work drains me so completely that I cannot bear to interact with others.

I am lousy at small talk. Making idle, meaningless chit-chat about the weather or some other silly meaningless topics is not my forte.

I prefer to have substantive conversations (yep, that's me, dull and boring). I genuinely want to know people.

Personally, I find socializing with a single person at a time more satisfying that going out with a group. This is not to say that groups cannot be fun, but ... it is my preference.

John14:6 said...

I know what you mean. I like the one-on-ones but I also like the a gathering of likeminded people. Like in a homegroup setting or a support group type scene. Parties are nice but getting invited to too many of them is very draining coz I don't like the small talks either. So I prefer going to groups where we already know each other and we can get past the small talks, with the exception of newcomers who are always welcomed of course.