What do women want?

That is all.





Okay.  Not really.

I started watching Mad Men today.  I figure, hey, it's a thing.  I should know about things. 

One of the questions asked by the very dapper Don Draper in episode two is "What do women want?"  Being a curious person, I asked my woman friend next to me the same question.  Instead of answering it (how like a woman, amiright?), she turned it on me.

"What do men want?"

I thought for about 10 seconds.  "To matter." 

Not bad for a 10 second response, I think. 

I look at myself and my friends and see a bunch of men striving to matter.  We want to change the world.  We want to be the world to someone.  We want to advance our fields.  We want to make a difference in the lives of those around us. 

Even on the dark side of modern "manhood", I think my answer holds some water.  Pornography lies to us by saying that we matter.  The mindless pursuit of stuff is only a symptom of assigning "matter"-ful significance to material possessions.  We get angry, prideful, jealous, and depressed when we think we don't matter as much as we want to. 

Mattering is not just a achievement, either.  I think we want to matter to someone.  Many men's drive toward intimacy (false or true) is a cry that we want someone to depend on us, to love us, to think that we are significant and important.

But my original question still stands.  What do women want?  Is it the same thing that men want, or a slight variation or twist?  Maybe something completely different? 

Anyone out there have any thoughts on men or women and what we want?  (Psst...  This is where you can comment and we can discuss things.)