There's a vas deferens between us...

From Mil Millington, author/social commentator/funny guy, on the difference between men and women:

I've got this friend. For the sake of discretion, let's call her Emma, and her partner can be Juan. And let's say they live in, oh - Penzance; rather than where they actually live - which is North London. So, my friend tells a story of the moment when, after five years together, she finally knew that it was over. Juan's formerly near-constant sexual desire for her was now far less frequent, and far more moderated by the television schedules. It was almost as though their sex life had to be vetted by TV Choice.
So, she secretly does a striptease course. She trains herself in the Art of the Thong, gets an outfit, and then glides into the room one evening while he's sitting there watching BBC 2.
She begins.
He glances at her absently. At last - when she's wearing nothing but an exasperated expression and a couple of tassels - she says, "Well?"
"What?" he asks.
"What do you mean, 'What?'? I'm here. You're in, mate. I can't really make it more obvious than this."
"Oh, right... Can't you wait a bit? I'm watching Star Trek."
"What the f-... I... Hold on ­ you've seen this episode anyway! It's a repeat, for God's sake!"
"Well... yeah. But it's one of my favourites," Juan replies.
And she's left standing there: embarrassingly bestripped.

An illuminating snapshot of many a relationship five years in. But that's not my point. My point is that I've heard her tell that story many times.
If a woman is listening, then that woman will immediately say, "God ­ that's awful. How terrible for you," or, "Oh, Emma. Your self-esteem must have been destroyed. You poor thing."
But, if it's a man there, what is his instant, instinctive reply? Well (for the women reading this ­ the men have the words fidgeting in their heads already), it's always the same thing:
"Hmmm... so - what episode was it?"

That is the difference between men and women.

So, since this is about gender issues, I have to add my two dollars' worth:

POINT #1: There you see male compartmentalization in action. Total focus. Right now is time for Star Trek, not other stuff. Not even a token nod in the direction of the Big Picture. Feelings not a factor, logic rules supreme: if she waited, we could have both Star Trek AND sex, whereas this way, it has to be one or the other...

POINT #2: It must be conceded that the guy is a moron. I cannot state this strongly enough. And I myself have been exactly that moronic. We were on vacation one time, my wife came out of the bedroom in sexy lingerie, and I asked her to just wait a sec till the end of the football game. What was I thinking? The 49ers were playing for the NFC championship, and I was totally focused, yes. But that's no excuse. It's one of the stupidest things I've ever done, and I'm still paying for it today.

POINT #3: Why are the rules so disparate on the issue of proposition/refusal? How many men have propositioned their partner while she's in the middle of something else, and been turned down hard? I think all of us. In fact, we're quickly made to understand that she wants time to get in the right frame of mind, that romantic talk and all that has to come first, you can't just spring it on her and expect an enthusiastic yes.
So anyway, when a guy gets told "Not now, but later," he's happy. Later is infinity times better than no.
When a woman's ready to go, she expects to hear "Okay, I'll just put the patient's heart here on the tray and come back later to finish up."

POINT #4: The guy was still an idiot.