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You have just described the relationship between males and females. Two completely different species, completely unintelligible to each other, living side by side and thinking they're really the same. The fascinating thing is that the two species persist in marrying each other and having babies, sometimes of one species, sometimes of other, and the whole time they can't understand why they can't understand each other.

Orson Scott Card#739

RelationshipsCommunicationUnderstandingMarriageGenderDifference

About this quote

What does it mean?
Men and women are described as different species that don't understand each other but still marry and have children.
In plain terms
Men and women are like different species who don't understand each other but still have families.
What can you take from it?
Understanding between genders is often limited despite close relationships.

Where it applies

  • relationship conflict
  • marriage counseling
  • social observation

Putting it to work

  • improve communication
  • accept differences
  • build empathy

Questions to consider

  • Do you feel misunderstood by the opposite gender?
  • How do you bridge gaps in relationships?

Another view

It generalizes all men and women into fixed categories.

More from Orson Scott Card

  1. At last he was what he had always pretended to be. An ordinary, powerless man. He hated it.

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  2. It's all right to love him I know that I mean, it's all right to love him more than you love us. More than you love any of us. More than you love all of us

    Permalink to quote #740
  3. Once I thought [he] was god. Now I know he's much less powerful than that. He's merely fate. No. Don't say that. Not even fate. Just out guide through it. He s…

    Permalink to quote #737

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