{"id":1208,"date":"2011-04-01T08:01:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2011-04-01T08:02:50","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:02:50","slug":"manfaq-friday-rubbing-his-nose-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/?p=1208","title":{"rendered":"ManFAQ Friday:  Selective Attention for Self-Preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Friday, and that means answer time! For those of you who have commented with questions from previous ManFAQs, thank you. I&#8217;m adding yours to the list of questions women have asked about men over the years, and I will answer them all in turn &#8211; to continue to demystify the more malodorous gender for those of the gentler.\u00a0 Actual questions, posed by real women, and answered by a REAL man. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<em>Why is it that my husband always notices if someone&#8217;s video game toon has reached a new level or gotten new gear &#8211; but getting him to notice a new thing in the house or a new hair cut is a bit like pulling teeth?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is actually a corollary to the well-known issue of <a title=\"the advantages of obliviousness and selective hearing\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/?p=49\" target=\"_self\">selective hearing<\/a>.\u00a0 The first thing you have to know is that Change Is Bad.\u00a0 Well, not <strong>bad<\/strong> per se, but fraught with danger &#8211; because we don&#8217;t know how to react.\u00a0 You&#8217;re describing changes that took place without our knowing about them beforehand &#8211;\u00a0we weren&#8217;t there when it happened and we don&#8217;t know what your reaction was at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Do you have any idea how much trouble we think we&#8217;ll be in if we come home and say, &#8220;Wow, great haircut!&#8221; only to find that you are firmly of the opinion that this has been the worst hair day of your life to date, and you&#8217;re contemplating shaving your head, and you&#8217;ve been crying since you got home?\u00a0 What if it turns out that new vase is from your great aunt Mollie, whom you loathe, and you&#8217;re pissed that you have to display it at least until the holidays because what if she comes over with\u00a0Mom unannounced?\u00a0\u00a0We don&#8217;t know if YOU like it yet.\u00a0 Aversion to that kind of danger is literally built into our DNA &#8211; because guys who routinely step on those domestic landmines don&#8217;t procreate as often.\u00a0 For obvious reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Video games aren&#8217;t more interesting.\u00a0 They&#8217;re just\u00a0safer, by which we mean &#8220;less likely to impact our chances of Hey Hey later.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Now you know.\u00a0 Please, feel free to comment!\u00a0 Also, forward\u00a0any questions <strong>you&#8217;d<\/strong> like answered to BUMD &#8211; at &#8211; biguglymandoll.com!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is it that my husband always notices if someone&#8217;s video game character has reached a new level or gotten new gear &#8211; but getting him to notice a new thing in the house or a new hair cut is a bit like pulling teeth?  Actual questions, posed by real women, and answered by a REAL man. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biguglymandoll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}