BY Lux Alptraum
June 12, 2008
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It’s not Gay Week yet, but that’s not going to stop us from highlighting this piece on what same-sex relationships teach us about gender.

Apparently, without the expectation of gendered roles and responsibilities (no husbands or wives), same-sex couples are more egalitarian:

In heterosexual couples, women did far more of the housework; men were more likely to have the financial responsibility; and men were more likely to initiate sex, while women were more likely to refuse it or to start a conversation about problems in the relationship. With same-sex couples, of course, none of these dichotomies were possible, and the partners tended to share the burdens far more equally.

And, perhaps as a result of this, the more egalitarian same-sex couples were better able to communicate and resolve conflict than their heterosexual counterparts. All of which has some researchers thinking that maybe problems in heterosexual relationships aren’t due to inborn differences — maybe they’re more about how we’re taught to act in relationships.

We wouldn’t be surprised if those researchers were correct.

[Photo by cpj79]