Me Myself
Back to my username
Men and women are different. Sure some men act more feminine and some women act more masculine, but by and large we're different creatures. The only difficulty here is determining whether these differences have more to do with biology or with culture, but that's by the by. We're different.
A classic human reaction to something different is to view it as in some way flawed. This might manifest itself overtly (men are violent, shallow brutes and women are callous, manipulative swine) or it might manifest more subtly. It's when it manifests subtly that it creeps up on people, even the most tolerant person can have a moment where they damn the opposite sex for what they consider to be their flaws.
Furthermore people like a scapegoat for their disappointments. It's easier to target a different group than it is to target a group you belong to when looking to vent your frustrations. Everybody does this from time to time, but a lot of people catch themselves when they do (or am I being too optimistic here?). If you don't catch yourself you can spend years justifying your dislike of a group to yourself and heaping more and more of your grievances onto them until eventually you hate genuinely hate them.
We're really not tolerant of what we consider to be "other" no matter how much we might like to think otherwise.
I agree in genera, more on the last parts than on the first parts. The thing is that while we have different thins influencing us (society influences us in different ways, hormones tend to influence differently, etc) the most important part IMHO gets to be the individual differences from one man to another man can be way higher than that of the same man towards another woman, which is why I wouldnt put great token on the general differences of the genders.
But sure, biological and cultural factors affect differently to both, but just as they affect differently to each person. By majorities we are very different, but by person to person we can be so alike as in the example I put above.
It's similar to saying that an architect and a lawyer are two different creatures. Most of the times they will be even if both share the same gender. An artist is prone to think very differently than an accountant.
There are many things that divide us, but I think in core, most differences can be both strengths or weaknesses depending on application. I think with each generation the things that differentiate each gender become less and less so, and this IMHO is very good.