Male Answer Syndrome

When my children were toddlers, Phil Donahue was a local talk show personality in Dayton, Ohio, and I watched him everyday. If my friends came over with their babies, we'd watch him together. One thing I noticed 40 years ago was that no matter how famous the guest or how well-known the celebrity, when it was time for questions, the women in the audience asked questions, and the men expounded their own theories and ideas instead of mining for new information from the expert. Every program. Every guest! Many years later when I used to watch Charlie Rose on public TV, I observed that when he interviewed women authors, his questions were really expository and overly long and boring, often leaving her with nothing to say except, "Yes," or "No," or "I agree, Charlie." With male guests, he allowed them free rein and didn't interrupt them.

Today I was reading an artist's newsletter about Male Answer Syndrome, which led the artist-author to comment on the differeces between male and female artists. Apparently, it has had a name since the early 90s and I missed it.