Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti.

This idea apparently comes from a book by Pam & Bill Farrel. I haven’t even read the book, but I understand that the basic concept is this:

Men compartmentalize well. Like waffles, with their little squares. We concentrate well on one thing at a time. We can discuss issues with less emotion. We divide and organize the world in our minds.*

For women, everything is tied together, like a plate of spaghetti noodles. Every issue is connected to other issues. (I’m told women actually have more right-left brain connections than men do.) Women are less able to divorce issues from emotion, but are better able to see the big picture, and to make connections that men may miss.

This might account for “women’s intuition”, and for why women seem to be better (on average) at relationships and communication, and men at math/science/spatial stuff.
Waffles are great for building bridges. Not always so good for negotiating, mentoring, etc.

This is why when guys watch sports on TV, they’re not anxious to begin a conversation about something else. We’re focused. It’s Hockey Time. We should be able to discuss your sister later, during Talking Time, right?

I think this is also why women become bored with their mates, and wish they’d mix things up once in a while – try something new, something exciting, some new way to be romantic. But guys spend all their lives figuring things out and trying to tame/control/direct them. Once we figure out what you like, it confuses us when that changes. Things should stay in their proper waffle compartments and not be sliding around all the time.


Side note: It’s absolutely critical that we be able to compartmentalize, or everything we did would be about sex. The space shuttle would look like a giant penis; every swimming pool we designed would be shaped like a big set of breasts.