When It Comes to Guys, What's Normal? - Softcover

Kanner, Bernice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312348169 ISBN 13: 9780312348168

Verlag: St. Martin's Griffin, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

As in her hugely selling previous book, ARE YOU NORMAL? and follow-up ARE YOU NORMAL ABOUT SEX, LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS? Bernice Kanner investigates patterns of behavior--this time about men.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Bernice Kanner is a marketing expert and author of several books, including Are You Normal About Sex, Love and Relationships? For thirteen years, she wrote the "On Madison Avenue" column for New York magazine. Since 1994 she has been associated with Bloomberg News as a columnist, marketing advisor and new product developer. She lives in New York City.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Praise for the series:

"Enlightening, sometimes appalling...and almost always interesting."
-USA Today

"Reading this book is far more satisfying than getting a high powered telescope and pointing it at our neighbors' house." Grade: "A"
-Entertainment Weekly

"As irresistible as salted peanuts."
-Esquire

"A wonderfully entertaining book that tells you what you've always wanted to know - how you compare to other people."
-Ladies' Home Journal

"As Bernice Kanner's book remarkably reveals we're the most confounding, most fascinating creatures on earth (or 78% of us are anyway). A statistical delight."
-Reader's Digest

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

When It Comes to Guys, What's Normal?

By Bernice Kanner

St. Martin's Griffin

Copyright © 2005 Bernice Kanner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312348168

When It Comes to Guys, What's Normal?

1

Who You Are

There are 102.2 million of you (men, 18 and older) in America. Some 19.56 million of you are 25 to 34, just a shade less than the 19.68 million women that age. In a recent year 85 percent of all men held a job, accounting for 53 percent of the workforce. You earned on average a weekly salary of $732 ($164 more than what the average woman earned).

The average American man measures five feet nine inches (about a quarter of an inch taller at night than in the daytime) and weighs 180 pounds. He has a 41-inch chest, a 35-inch waist, and a 40.5-inch hip. His waist and hips will thicken with age and when he gains weight it will most likely be in the center of his body, particularly around his stomach. His penis is six inches long while standing at attention. He is circumcised (some 78 percent of American men are). He'll live to be 73.

Four in 10 expect to make it to 100, but few want to. The average age they want to live to is 91. Four times as many men fear ending up in Shady Acres as they do passing quickly from a sudden disease. Men die from accidents, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver, and homicide at a rate at least twice as high as women do, and they're even more likely than women to die due to floods:driving around barricades in low-lying flood zones and drowning in high water.

Two out of three feel a lot younger than their chronological years and 63 percent figure they've got more energy than most other guys their age. They also have more confidence. Seventy-six percent feel more self-assured than most of their friends. Only three percent concede that they generally need several attempts to get the car parked.

At age 45 the typical American male has a one in 3,333 chance of developing prostate cancer. By age 75, the chance drops to one in nine. The average American man over 45 has a nine percent chance of dying from lung cancer, a 5.6 percent chance of being taken out by a stroke, a 3.7 percent chance of succumbing to pneumonia, and a 2.8 percent chance of giving it up to diabetes. As he ages, the average guy loses 12 to 20 pounds of muscle, 15 percent of his bone density, and two inches of height. His counts of oxygen-carrying red blood cells also drop along with his sexual vigor and testosterone levels.

The typical man has 100,000 hairs on his head (the diameter of those strands is twice that of women's hair) and he loses 20 to 100 of them a day. By age 50, the typical man has lost 12.1 teeth. If offered a Groundhog Day invitation to return to any age, the mean age men chose is 39.

The typical American man is neither a John Wayne tough guy nor a "New Man" metrosexual. (In fact, only three percent of men consider themselves metrosexuals. Another 16 percent claim to share some characteristics but abhor the label. Thirty-eight percent have never heard the term and 45 percent describe themselves as old-fashioned, dyed-in-the-wool normal.) Rather than embracing "mancipation," rejecting traditional male roles, Mr. Joe Average sees himself as a provider, progenitor, protector. But he spurns the notion that biology is as important as culture in creating masculine and feminine attributes. He accepts the truth to the stereotype that he's a slob. Nonetheless, he's mystified by the avalanche of misandry, hatred of men, he sees in TV commercials.

Men are far more likely to profess that they admire an easygoing regular guy who's honest, dependable, and smart than a money-grubbing power broker. They rank honesty and dependability as the most important fiber in a man's character followed by his willingness to help. Less significant, but by no means unimportant, are a sense of humor and authenticity.

The typical American man laughs 15 times a day and cries 1.4 times a month. While 63 percent of men in their 50s have never seen their father well up, only 44 percent of those 18 to 29 can say the same. Almost 90 percent of men classify themselves as shy.

The average guy spends 7.5 hours a night or 220,000 hours in his life sleeping. Chances are it's in a chilly room and on a firm mattress rather than a soft one with two pillows. (Most of the time, though, he keeps the thermostat at 72 degrees--room temperature.) And if he's getting on in years, he's probably disturbing the peace with his raucous snores. (More than 60 percent of older guys are guilty.) Three out of four accuse their partners of hogging the covers. He has over 1,460 dreams a year.

Almost all American men (84 percent) have graduated from high school but just 28 percent have a college degree. The typical American man with a bachelor's degree makes $66,810. Those with only a high school diploma make an average of $30,414. The typical man's vocabulary consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.

The typical man has 14.3 sex partners in his life--he has not paid money for any of them. He was 16.2 years old when he lost his virginity and found his sweet spot, and 27.1 when he married. (Fifty-five percent are currently married and 8.3 percent are currently divorced.) Typically he does not admit to having had an outside affair. He enjoys sex 135 times a year (okay, has it), releasing 120 million to 600 million sperm into the world with each orgasm. (Only about 400 of them will get anywhere near the egg.) Two out of three uncommitted men store condoms within three feet of their beds.

The average guy received his first credit card when he was 25years and three months old, and bought his first stock, bond, or mutual fund at around age 27. That's two to three years before the average woman does. The typical man who owns a house spent $175,400 to buy it. More than half (53 percent) feel a cut in the capital gains tax would stimulate the economy.

Women may control the purse strings but the typical man still thinks that when it comes to power, it's his world. You know the old Chinese proverb that men have their say but women have their way? They're not buying it. They feel that while women resolve the day-to-day issues, it's men who settle the life-changing disputes. More men say that they decide where the family lives rather than their partner and that they have much more sway in how money is spent. The typical man still identifies with Luca Brasi's sentiment in The Godfather: "May your first child be a masculine child."

The average working stiff spends about half as much time as his gender counterpart on taking care of the house and kids. But he spends a lot more time at his job and on enjoying life. The average guy has a tad more than five hours of leisure time a day: he spends over half of it watching TV, 20 minutes at sports, and another 20 minutes relaxing and "thinking." The average guy spends just 50 minutes a day caring for his family and less than 45 minutes on household chores. (In contrast, the average working woman spends an hour and a half and one hour 20 minutes on those tasks respectively.) Only 19 percent of men do housework daily and 34 percent claim they help with meals or cleanup.

Most likely he works full time (88 percent do v. 67 percent of women). The average man has 16 years of work experience and been on the job on average 2,147 hours in the past year: women worked an average of 1,675. His median household income is $42,228. The average guy spends 3.7 hours a week at work doing personal chores online and 5.9 hours a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: St. Martin's Griffin
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312348169
• ISBN 13: 9780312348168
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland