Curious enough to want me to take a pill, eh? Lighten up, brucie. I'm sorry to have damaged your fragile ego. (There, now, I've apologized to you twice.) I prefaced my remark by saying that I think different men want different things. And I never said women don't like having their egos stroked too. As Cluin said, who wouldn't want their ego stroked?

Amos said: "...almost all of them want to be told they are exciting, socially or humorously, or emotionally, or intellectually, or sexually, or just in general."   (Stroke, stroke)

He also said: "They want to be assured they are creating good effects and are admirable."

This is what I'm talking about when I say that men seem to require having their ego stroked. Men seem to want to be admired. (Women, according to the other thread, would settle for being listened to.) (And Cluin, maybe, would settle for having something else beside his ego stroked...:0> )

Clearly, Amos put it better than me, or at least it was more palatable coming from him. If you find my version to be unflattering, sorry. (There - that's three apologies.)

I do actually think men and women are different, for reasons starting with nature and ending with nurture. And I think I'm fortunate to be in a relationship based on mutual love and respect and trust and tolerance, where both parties are mature and secure enough not to require constant ego-massaging. I am willing to provide a little ego-stroking now and then in exchange for all I get in return. My statement, that men seem to require having their ego stroked, (or as Amos put it, want to be told they're exciting and admirable) was an observation, not a value judgement.