Has your relationship suffered from the flu yet? If so, who would you say complained the most when they were sick? Think about it long and hard before you answer, bcause you might be wrong.
When it comes to getting sick, men are notoriously known for being big babies. They need to be catered to and doted on as if they’ve been completely robbed of any ability to care for themselves. That’s what the word on the street has been, but a study kicks that stereotype to the curb. It turns out that it’s women who are the real complainers when they’re sick.
Yes, gentlemen, it’s up to you to step it up and save the day when your damsel in distress is surrounded by snot-filled tissues and is hacking up her left lung. It’s not easy for women to be sick because, as research shows, when ladies get the flu it lasts 20 percent longer than when you do. The flu wrecks such havoc on those delicate bodies that while 16 percent of men will go to bed on the first day of a flu to fight it, 21 percent of women do so, and yet women are still sicker longer.
On top of the duration of ‘female flu’, the symptoms are far worse than the ones men experience. This sheer awfulness literally demands that they be coddled and complaining should never, ever fall on deaf ears. Is it really too much for you to give your girlfriend a massage while wiping her nose and feeding her cough drops? She’s suffering!
However, the trials and tribulations of being a woman with the flu aside, the study also found that ladies are actually “twice as likely to use their symptoms as an excuse to get out of something they do not want to do. One in five women use their ailment as an excuse to avoid meeting up with someone, one in six avoid chores, and 6 percent use it for getting out of something their partner wants to do.”
But that’s sort of charming isn’t it? Trickery and slight exaggeration never hurt anyone. Besides, women have science on their side to prove that they suffer far more when sick, so why not cash on that fact?
Whether or not women are really milking it when they find themselves in bed feeling as if they’re on death’s doorstep, isn’t the point. What the real focus is, guys out there, is that your significant other puts up with you when you’re sick, and you don’t even get as sick as she does. So, by that logic, you don’t get to complain about our complaining, because she’s allowed; biology said so.
Now, do the woman with the flu in your life a favor, and make her some more tea before telling her that her Rudolph nose from all her sniffling makes her even more adorable than usual. You’ll reap the rewards later, if you do.
This article was written by Amanda Chatel from YourTango and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].
