I
absolutely cannot relate to this. Just
kidding, I may be female but I can connect to some of the points in this
post. You claim men are more pressured
to follow a Bro Code than they let on compared to women who admit they are
pressured by friends more easily. I
agree that men are more pressured to follow the code, however I believe that is
caused by the fact that women do not have a Girl Code the way men do. As children we hear “bros before ‘ho’s”; I
never recall hearing “chicks before dicks” (excuse my French please). Girls in that sense are ahead of men since
not only have we accepted following these social rules does not yield success,
but we’ve abandoned them all together.
Your description of the Bro Code as guidelines or a fallback reminds me
of the quote from the first Pirates of
the Caribbean movie when Barbossa says the pirates code is “more like
guidelines anyway”.
As a female
I must admit it would be nice to have that fallback when deciding what one should
do when dealing with friends. I noticed
our need for a Girl Code comes up mostly when dealing with the opposite sex, as
the Bro Code is used mostly to deal with female-involved situations. Before I began dating my boyfriend, four
friends had already claimed they “liked” him.
As a group of girls all liking the same young man we found ourselves
lost as to what we should do about the dilemma.
If he made a move toward one of us were we allowed to flirt back or
start dating him? Could we ask him out ourselves?
We had no clue as to what to do because there has never been an established set
of rules declaring what is appropriate behavior between girls.
The article
is correct that “positive consequences occur when a man acts authentically”. While lying does work for one night stands,
being honest and keeping open communication works to maintain a successful
relationship for both women and men.
When people act like themselves instead of trying to be what they think
others want from them then people can connect more on a truer level.
