By Kennedy Werner

What do staying home, fixing dinner, and relying on a man have in common? They are all stereotypes of women’s roles in American society. What do being tough, having muscles, and carrying a briefcase have in common? They are all stereotypes of men’s roles in today’s society. But let’s get real here, which is the stronger sex? Male or female? Men or women? We all are quick to jump to a response, insisting we are correct, but what is the real answer?

Some say women are the stronger sex; they are the ones who go through labor, menstrual cycles, and men would not be here without them. They experience measures that no man can understand or imagine because they do not go through anything similar to it.

Yet, some say men are the stronger sex; they are the ones who fight wars, become president, and are most often the primary breadwinners. Sure, most commonly, men are physically stronger than women and have an easier time getting their way just because of their strength, but truly which is the stronger sex?

Dr. Mark Werner, OBGYN at Beaumont Hospital of Royal Oak, MI tells of his experiences delivering one of many babies and why he is convinced women are most definitely the stronger sex.

“Recently, as one of my patients were having a baby, I looked over to the husband of the child and he was whiter than a piece of paper, and next thing you know he is throwing  up nonstop, and I just thought to myself, you are not even going through this pain right now, yet you cannot stand to be in the room?”

It is rather interesting that even though a man is not on the table undergoing so much pain just to have their own child born safely, they are the ones who cannot handle being in the atmosphere. Weren’t they supposed to be the masculine, tough sex?

Dr. Werner goes onto telling another story like this one,

“A while back, I was drawing my patient’s blood, preparing her for a C section and all of a sudden I hear, ‘BOOM’ and the husband is on the floor, fainted and passed out. He actually hit his head on one of the monitors and was heavily bleeding as well. It just amazed me that even though he was not the one delivering the baby, he could not stand to watch even a simple needle being put into his wife’s arm.”

Then again, the man is the one who cannot handle the sight of something ONLY a woman can do. But isn’t the stereotype of a man supposed to be to stand tall and tough and be manly?

So you cast your own judgment upon this issue, is a man or a woman the stronger gender? The one who faints at the sight of a needle or the one who bares all kinds of pain to deliver a baby into this world? The next time someone says, “grow a pair!”, the better phrase would probably be, “grow some ovaries!”