Healthy Story: Do men's conversations gravitate to health too?

Recently I was at a women's networking dinner. Due to the impending holiday it was going to be a smaller group than usual, so one of the members of the groups hosted it at her home. There were about a dozen of us.

As we went around the room, introducing ourselves, making recommendations and also offering one "ask" (something we could use advice, help or assistance with) I began to notice how often our conversations turned to health issues...

Sure, part of that was diet and fitness-oriented. I brought up that I recently started using SparkPeople, which turned out to be a bit of a faux pas given that the founder of NutriHand was in the room :)

But we also talked about more serious health issues, and the state of health care, and about looking down the road and seeing our parents facing health issues. And the burdens associated with all of the above. There was a lot of uncertainty and apprehensiveness.

And my thought was to wonder whether a bunch of men sitting around would gravitate towards these issues? And if so, would it be spun a different way?

If I could be a fly on the wall I'd love to know...any guys out there wanna open the kimono and tell us whether guys are haunted by these same issues, or whether women somehow have been socialized to think more like "caregivers"?

Inquiring Minds and all that.

Comments

[Denise]

Sparkpeople is better than Nutrihand, good choice.

I hope you get some guys in here to give feedback on this topic. It's something I've wondered about and struggled with for YEARS.

[Elisa Camahort]

Thanks for the comment (and weighing in on SparkPeople vs. Nutrihand) Denise.

I hope some of you guys give feedbac to.

Hank...how about you start?

[hgstern]

Do men's conversations gravitate to health too?

No.

(Unless it's about about the status of a quarterback/pitcher/center)

That help? ;-)

[Elisa Camahort]

Much as I suspected, yes. :)

[hgstern]

I figured, given your current health, that you could use a smile.

The more serious answer is somewhat more complicated (what, from me you expected simple?):

In groups, men tend not to discuss personal matters much, if at all. One on one, though, the dynamic changes, and we're more comfortable discussing such personal subjects as health. And we're also okay discussing the health of others, in almost any circumstance.

We do not discuss "relationships."

Ever.

;-)