Planets still not colliding, people still not getting each other

For a momentary space in time, things made sense.

Thirty years before the rise of ChatGPT, and years before the intellectual powerhouse of TikTok became so much a part of our everyday lives as it so deserves to be, we had one simple answer to explain all problems that men and women encounter when they co-exist.

They come from different planets.

The concept defined by the genius John Gray in 1992 was eagerly embraced before countless copies of the masterpiece, “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”, hit second-hand book shops and garage sales everywhere.

The question that remains all these years after is simple—given the gems in the book and the uptake by millions of avid learners born too early for social media, did the planets ever get closer to realigning?

We asked Dr Moodoom, our resident psychiatrist and columnist her thoughts,she was pretty precise, exclaiming “that book rocked!”

She also lamented that the demise of less and less couples resolving literally anything from talking therapy was due to the fact the messages have gone missing for new generations. She reflected fondly on conferences and symposiums that debated the Mars/Venus divide, literally explaining everything. She fondly compared it to the current DSM, the psychiatrists Bible, quoting off the record “that book has done so much damage, why have hundreds of scenarios when you could just have two?”

She wouldn’t hear about protestations that the book was entirely heteronormative and failed to elaborate on revelations that men go to caves when upset and women get all emotional over mess. She couldn’t explain how the book would help heteronormative husbands understand that their wives have gone crazy with perimenopause.

But she did say one thing,

“You know, life was easier when we opened our mouths and said words to each other rather than send memes or upload personal information about our circumstances to the cloud”.

She’s got a point there.