Rel said:
Not surprising though (IMHO). Women have been a moderating and civilizing influence on men since the dawn of the species.
No, in reality its that whenever men are in social activity with only other men they feel free to act more naturally and "fraternally"; the closest group of guy friends will instantly change their entire behaviour the second a woman comes into the room.
Why? Because, if at nothing other than a biological level, they want to have sex with her. They realize that every other man in that room is potentially competition for that sex. As such, they will restrain much of their behaviour and put on a mask of attractiveness, trying to downplay anything they think that might make them look worse in front of the woman, and play up anything that will make them think they look better.
This is why there is a totally different dynamic in all-male groups compared to mixed-gender groups.
Likewise, women will behave very differently in an all-male group compared to a group which is all-female, for the exact same reason. Anyone who really believes the "women as civilizing influence" nonsense have probably never had a good chance to experience or be informed about female behaviours in the absence of men, female-female relations, etc.
As someone on here said, women aren't any more civilized, they're just better at hiding their acts of barbarism.
In fact even many schools of feminist thought today tend to support the theory that "civilization" was the main cause for the oppression of women, as civilization (and the creation of private property) was what nescessitated the clear establishment of male possession of women (ie. marriage), for the purpose of being more able to assure the legitimacy of a male's heir to his private property.
Nisarg
