Go watch a predominantly female staff somewhere and then come back speaking about competitiveness! Not speaking about insults.

The "less competitive nature" of women, their lower tolerance to or lower likelihood to inflict verbal abuse is pure propaganda.

Of course women are competitive - the differences aren't in the fact of competitiveness, but in the way we do it.

Being a woman working and often studying in a primarily male culture, I am acutely aware of the differences. For one, women don't tend to joke-via-insult the way men do. For men, mutual insults are often a way of establishing equality and collegiality: "you can't get one over me". For women, negative statements are often meant exactly as they are said. They are carefully worded to either provide constructive criticism or a genuine put-down. We're all human, so we can translate from one style of communication to the other (male to female), but it takes work.

For instance, the other day thezip(?) wrestled dhoss to the ground after riding him through hill and dale. I have two younger half-brothers who used to nearly kill each other wrestling - sometimes in anger, but sometimes also just for fun. Why two people would think almost killing each other is "fun" is beyond me. I got the impression that most people in the CB thought it great fun to watch dhoss and thezip go at it. For me to feel comfortable, I had to think back to my younger brothers and just accept that it is a view of the world I don't (and probably never will) "get".

Best, beth