Still laughing at that when I turned to Alas a Blog, written by a guy ('ampersand') whom I find very endearing, although I know nothing about him except his web log. He's talking about the very same issue (well it is 'du jour' I guess).
Anyway, he quickly diverts onto the subject of gender roles. I love this post so much because it is a treat to read someone, anyone, somewhere in the world, who has the same opinions as me about this. And the fact that it is a man expressing those opinions somehow just confirms that the fashionable notion that men and women can have nothing in common, are Mars and Venus, is a load of bloody hogwash.
On 'teaching gender roles'
(as a child, bulled for not being butch enough...) I was unable to decide for myself what was valuable about me as a male. Instead, the people who think it's important to teach gender roles got to decide - they created a social context in which the punishment of gender role deviants was not only acceptable but encouraged. Boys will be boys. Girls will be girls. And those who don't fit into the binary will be taught/punished. Fuck that.
On 'men and women don't get along 'cos they like different things'
When I want to find friends in a strange town, I'm far better off dropping by the local science-fiction club - which is likely to be half female (despite the stereotype, fandom isn't male-only) - than I am trying to join the local all-male club.