So the other night my brother asked if I wanted to come out and smoke some pot with his friends. It was an 8 person crowd of kids in their late teens and early 20s. As I was being introduced I went around and shook hands with the men first, before then introducing myself to the women. One of the girls then asked me: "Can I ask why you shook hands with the men first?" To this question I answered: "I don't want you to think I did so for any sort of patriarchal or sexist reason. What I've come to learn in my 30s is that what society teaches you is the exact opposite of the truth. I've come to learn that men are emotional, erratic beings while women tend to be level headed and logical. As a man, you can treat another man with utmost respect and he'll still find a reason that he wants to kick your ass. So I shake hands with the most threatening sex first in order to gauge their emotional stability and assess the amount of threat they pose, while I know that if I treat a woman as a gentleman and with respect, she will, in turn, treat me the same." It was the truth, and she appreciated that answer.
