I dunno what guys you are hanging out but there is plenty of snarky bitching by the guys in my circle, especially in regards to who pulled what strings to win which award. Mathematicians are gossipy little bitches and people's mannerisms and social lives are not above comment

My experience is that guys will voluntarily appoint (implicitly or explicitly) someone to be the leader. A group with a clear leader is superior to a random mob, even if the leader is not perfect. Men invented uniforms and you can still count on them at times like a funeral to be dressed almost identically.
I almost never see gossip among the guys I know (mainly scientists, engineers, IT, technical). They want to talk about hunting or sports or current events. The competition between them is right out in the open--who is right about the price of a new car or last year's inflation rate. You get points for being right, and respect. Among women, arguing about such things will break up the party, in my experience.

I work with mostly men, and while some of them gossip, it's nowhere near the level of what the women I know will. I prefer working with men because they're pretty straightforward people, and when you tell them something they take it at face value.

A bit off topic, but I've long found it interesting people prefer false gossip to true picadillos. And this extends from the personal to the profession and the political.

The recent political one is people's preference for 'secret Muslim' for Obama while completely ignoring the racist christian church he attended in Chicago. A few years back people were always complaining about false things about Bush while ignoring even more damning but true things he did.

On the personal I know a lady with all kinds of crazy rumors floating around her. People claim she is a secret satanist and married a man because his name was similar to devil (it is Deville and not why she married him). The somewhat mystifying thing is the people most in love with the secret satanist rumors are all atheists. In reality the woman is a mess, both financially and morally (complaining about cheaters while dating married men?). But none of the rumors are real or even close to true.

I guess people prefer fiction to truth on some level.

Ben some has to do with somewhat avoiding being hypocrites by pointing out flaws that they don't have. i.e. with that lady who cheats and her with finances in a mess wont be condemned about that because they also have bad finances and may be cheating, though to a lesser degree than her.

Likewise can't go after Rev Wright, because he's black and any accusation will make you racist no matter how true it is. And unlike cheating or bad finances, racism isn't an all or nothing thing.

It just hits me with the cognitive dissonance Joe. Like the with secret satanist thing, the only response I could give was "You'r and Atheist Dan. What do you care if she is a Satanist or a Buddhist?" I feel like I'm talking with chemtrail Jeffe. The only thing I can be sure of is 100% of what people are saying is wrong.

There are enough funny, weird, and otherwise stories out there I just don't feel the need for madeup gossip.

This might not be real, but it hits the spot.

Loved that one Crid.

Ben, that's like the thing that went on with the Proctor and Gamble "moon and stars" logo supposedly being a symbol of devil worship. There's plenty to criticize about P&G, but everyone focused on that damn logo. For decades. And some of what was written and said about it was absolutely hysterical, in both senses of that word.

Back to the topic: I heard a report on one of the morning shows this morning about a study showing that, on average, women require more sleep than men. The news reader reporting it immediately jumped from there to "if this study is confirmed, then employers may have to start making accommodations for their female employees' greater need for sleep" (not the exact words; I don't recall exactly what was said). I thought to myself, "What if that script was flipped? What if the study showed that men need more sleep?"

I already know how that will go. If there is something a woman can do better than a man, then it is proof of women's inherent superiority, and the "fact" that society needs to move those stupid men out of the way so the smarter and more capable women can take over and do a better job of running things. But if there is something a man can do better than a woman, it's inherently unfair. Society must accommodate the woman's limitations; to not do so is partriarchical and sexist.

My experience is that both men and women form cliques, but they are always separate because each sex prefer to talk about topics that bore the other to tears. Women's topics are shopping, clothes, children's behavior, and long stories in which they go through their daily routine of chores. Men's are sports, hobbies, and sometimes politics, though there are whole topic areas one dares not mention since the so-called sexual harassment law gave SJWs the power to punish office conversation and thus to control office politics.

I am a loner at work because I find the whole mess stifling, and men's topics almost as boring as women's.

"What are your thoughts on and experiences with how this plays out in the workplace?"

The approach is blatant madness. Let us not forget that there is a significant social movement to make things "safe" - as if the term could be demonstrated in reality - and feminizing boys and men can be seen as the means to do that.

As it is, there is argument about the actual capability of modern youngsters to cope - to figure anything out without their parents hovering nearby to intervene on their behalf, as if that had any merit whatsoever. Feminizing people - men and women alike - teaches them that they are incapable.

We already buy our own fear from a dozen news outlets, and many of us mindlessly agree with them that our neighbors are child molesting adulterers who want guns to kill us; we demanded The Dukes Of Hazzard be taken off the air because they had a Confederate flag! Horror! on their car.

The helicopters don't have to stop with protecting the young. American politics built its fortune on promises to protect adults, and there is now a new generation used to that protection.