| Women: 1. Extra weight. | Men: 1. Small penis. |
| Mass media has done its black deed. Not absence of a good family, not career aspirations, not even success with men tops the list of women's worst phobias. Extra weight - that is what women fear most. Psychologists note that with many ladies this fear is so strong, that it crosses the line between reasonable corresponding to existing norms of beauty, and psychosomatic changes of the body. In which case not the result, but the process of becoming a nymphet comes to the forefront. The problem is that this has provoked an unseen outburst of anorexia and bulimia suffered mostly by young women and teenagers. | On the contrary, this is the case lost by mass media to common wisdom, society stereotypes and other forms of popular obscurantism. The fact that every magazine - from glossies to specialized medical ones - insists on calling micropenis an organ less than 2 sm. in a non-erected state does not lessen the number of those willing to enlarge their genitalia. Proving to men that size in sex is not important is just as meaningless as proving to women how appetizingly sexy plumpness can be. |
| Men: 2. Low social status. | Women: 2. Cellulite. |
| This is men's analogue of cellulite. The second place in the rating doesn't mean that absolute majority of men are homeless people or janitors. Boys' chorus, singing "I'm a looser, baby" consists of clerks, white collars, middle-level managers, etc. Those who know - theoretically - that to be a well-to-do member of society one has to have a platinum credit card, a covergirl for a girlfriend and a small castle with turrets for a home. And who start singing when reality hits them: covergirls and castles belong to their former D-grade classmate, now an oil magnate, while all the ambitious "black coats" have is annual financial reports and long-time perspective to move out of 2-bedroom apartment into a larger one. | Unlike men, who are being constantly convinced that mind - not centimeters - is of greater importance, women firmly know that even the highest IQ will not make the "orange peel" skin more attractive. Hundreds of books have been written on the problem, including the ones suggesting how to fight it, although no scientist has yet clearly explained where it comes from. The most popular version shows cellulite as a consequence of too much estrogen in the body. What a paradox - "orange peel" is an inseparable companion of femininity. And an inexhaustible source of income for beauty parlors and psychoanalysts. |
| Women: 3. Fear of age. | Men: 3. Fear of impotence. |
| Beauty industry applying revolutionary know-hows, cosmetic surgeons working wonders with faces and bodies, 70-year old movie stars looking younger than their granddaughters - none of this eliminates women's fear of becoming old and faded. Mostly these are women aged 30 to 50, used to taking care of their appearance. Specialists say age dictatorship has to be defeated on a psychological level. Probably when job offers are not limited by "age of 30 and less" or when stating date of birth in passport is outlawed. | Fear of non-performance in bed - that is fear of being humiliated in front of a woman - is even worse than a good dressing down from the boss. Fiasco in bed is especially dangerous because it can ruin men's self-esteem even faster than a brick coming down from a skyscraper. Searching for the origins of the problem should start in the past. In most cases the reason is one of the very first unlucky sexual experiences, which pops up in the head at a most inappropriate moment. The fear of loosing one's masculine power is subconscious - the nature must once have decided that only extremely self-assured species with nerves of rope are worthy of leaving their genes in posterity. |
| Men: 4. Insufficient material well-being. | Women: 4. Absence of success with men. |
| Money at present period of time has become the main symbol of one's virility, having ruled out even such values as intelligence and physical strength. Unfortunately, women are mostly very tactless in this matter, proving by their behavior that "rich can never be small". And although sociologists note constant growth of families where wife earns more than husband, this does not mean that all those husbands easily accept it. Men nowadays can afford living at the expense of their women, but to great detriment of their self-esteem. | Flirting, love affairs and sex are the greatest entertainment presented to humankind by Providence. Being left out of this never-ending holiday is painful, hurting and humiliating. When lack of adoring fans reaches its critical level, woman's organism turns on every "defensive mechanism" existing in it: extreme diffidence, anguish and disgust for life finally turn into desire to change something. That means going to a boutique, beauty parlor or plastic surgeon for a different nose. The most advanced ones get rid of the "bluestocking" complex in a psychoanalyst's chair, also not unsuccessfully. |
| Women: 5. Frigidity. | Men: 5. Fears about one's health. |
| Feminists have declared women's right to enjoy such creature comforts as suffrage, ability to be elected member of Parliament and cunnilingus. And sexologists proclaimed that women not only can, but must derive real pleasure from sexual games. Those who can't they call frigid, thus introducing into women's souls permanent disarray. In reality, cases of true frigidity are very rare. More often inability to derive pleasure from sex is just auto-suggestion or result of incongruity with one's partner. | Who always suffers migraines, gets crazy about whitening one's teeth and spends every spare minute in a SPA-center? That's right. And who never ever goes to any doctor, but in one's heart of hearts constantly fears falling ill with something terrifying like St. Vitus's dance or stomatitis? Such fears are rather frequent visitors of the most healthy and reasonable males. Men are far less tolerant to pain. It might be connected with their much more fertile imagination |
| Men: 6. Getting bald. | Women: 6. Fear of being "worse than others". |
| Although of course getting bald cannot compare with women's pangs about "follicular insufficiency" of cellulite, they still can gloat over this misfortune. How pleasant it must be to think about pathetic line of bald men in the hair transplant clinic, waiting to transplant hair from undue places! And television doesn't express its usual delicate approach - "baldness is so attractively aesthetic". Hair transplantation lobby must be much more influential than one could presume. | Men are more interested in real achievements and victories, while women are more inclined to "seem" rather than "be". Women are more prone to suggestion, so they are more often guided by "public opinion". It can be stated that a woman's success is only seen in comparison. Even if her family life is a total mess, she will still dye gray hair every week and accept guests as a model mother and wife. |
| Women: 7. Fear of being alone. | Men: 7. Impossibility of self-realization. |
| A megalopolis civilization - that is the actual name for the ugliness most of us are forced to live in - cultivates individuality and dissociation. Loneliness in a big city has long been declared a neurosis, subject to treatment. And women suffer of it much more frequently then men, and more painfully. For women - even if they are quite successful in business - can fully realize their potential only in the family, while men have other ways of realization. Lack of people a woman can care about, lack of family can provoke not only a neurotic dissonance, but consequences of a more harmful nature. | As a rule hits a man at the age of about 40-45 and called "middle-age crisis". Women are more lucky - by this time most of them have already had one or more children. And men start soul-searching, and not only that. All achievements in life are scrupulously counted up and discounted as unsatisfactory. It seems that none of them correspond to the grandeur of starting possibilities. These calculations have nothing to do with real life. The most typical result of such "self-inventory" is desire to have a younger woman for a partner. |
| Men: 8. Femininity in behavior. | Women: 8. Inability to reach orgasm. |
| Psychologists proclaim existence of double standard in social treatment of men and women. Men's behavioral model is considered to be a priori positive, that is why to be masculine for a woman is acceptable, while to be feminine for a man is disgraceful. Men conform to the situation and dread any display of femininity, the worst of them being tears (the supreme manifestation of womanhood) and habit of living at someone other's expense. | According to statistical research, about 30% of women do not ever reach orgasm, which came to be considered a disease. In reality such data seems doubtful as research doesn't reveal the reasons for anorgasmic sex. The nature of the recently discovered phenomenon of women's orgasm is not so thoroughly explored as to be able to say why some women cannot reach it. So it is just as unclear why this phobia is at all in the rating of women's fears. It must again be the fault of the patriarchal society with its habit of accusing women of all vices.
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| Women: 9. Low intellect. | Men: 9. Being short. |
| "I know only that I don't know anything" is the phrase once said by Socrates, still considered one of the brightest intellects of all times. So the ladies who think that their IQ level is not very high are not in the worst company in the world. | It is common knowledge that being a short man has always been a most powerful stimulus for historical progress and life achievements. But it is also true that the height of most losers does not exceed 1,6 meters. So it must be the lack of brain, not centimeters ...
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| Men: 10. No sense of humor. | Women: 10. Unsuccessful career. |
| Men are funny creatures. To suffer from not being able to make a good joke is almost as unreasonable as to suffer from not being able to reach orgasm. But only funnier. | Women are interested in home, family and "what neighbors will say". Successful career is only a newcomer in the list of the successful woman's phobias - fear of not achieving anything career-wise in only about a decade old. |
