I think the division here is deeper than it appears,
and not strictly a gender thing.

Because I know of such people in real life, it is easy to believe
that such people are amongst the Mudcat membership:
people whose conversations are not limited to
debate or discussion,
but who also commiserate with each other.
This is not a gender question, is what I am trying to say.
Men are among us who need, as much as some women need,
to have people to talk to amongst whom
they can be vulnerable and open up.
By the same token,
people who are rational, intellectual, and impatient with
the empathy of others
can also be women, and Mudcat members.

Do I sympathize with Helen? Well, naturally!
But I respectfully suggest that this isn't so simple.