Friday, June 4

Sir? Do you get extra credit for this?

The way men ‘measure’, nix that - the way men ‘measure up’ has always been a rather contentious point to dwell upon. It seems the keys is in the inches; in measures, in defining a mathematic, quantifiable version of themselves. Less so for women. But then again keeping score was just never my thing. My foray into the numerical sphere halted at about the same time I rather decided I liked almost everything else instead.

Yet a rather curious thought occurred to me after reading a witty little book by Father Pat Connor – correct ‘Father’. Apologies to the non-religious who might take offence, well, you know, some people treat religion as a dirty word these days.

So we place a lot of time and over analysing energy into establishing how men measure up as boyfriends but exactly how much attention do we pay – or even think to pay when making the marital leap? It’s all nice they make the grade as boyfs, but how will they measure up as husbands?

Plenty of chivalrous, effort filled dating men, could, for all intents and purposes potentially live up to all our delicious fantasies. Leaving us to salivate over how simply wonderful they are. And yet rice thrown and promises made? Do they really stand up to the test or somehow have we been slyly developing characters no self respecting boyfriend-husband morph could ever actually live up to? And lord only knows what the score sheet looks like? I guess the boring Cosmopolitan magazine oldies just get trodden out.

Well – despite what the score card says and what conclusions you come to I guess it doesn’t change much in the end. 9 times out of 10 men measure by maths, and women by virtue. Spin it any way you want – multiple choice, essay, short answer or verbal exam – you end up with the same question. Is he the one? And quite frankly, no extra credit class on ligand-binding theory can help you with that little gem.