I'm a straight INFJ male.
I have always gotten along exceptionally well with women in my life.
Be they friends, lovers, coworkers, or just acquaintances.
I seem to gain a higher level of trust and respect from them than do other males.
My wife says I am far more in tune with the female psyche than any other guy she has known.
"You get us" she says.
As a child, I always had one or two close friends that were female aside from the many male friends I ran with.
I think there is a lot of social conditioning of guys to be a certain way
Personally if i see something as empty or pointless then i will discard it even if it means not following the herd. For example: football.
Football is like the male lingua franca....it is the default which male conversations often fall back on when other subjects run dry.
I hate that moment when some guy asks me 'so what team do you support?' and i have to say 'i don't really follow sport'; i can almost watch the cogs turn in their little brain as they try and process this information which is conflicting with their basic programming
I'm sure the inner workings of their brain at this point run something like this: 'But he is a man', 'men like football', 'he does not like football, yet he is a man', 'how can this be?', 'there must be something wrong with him'......danger, danger......short circuit
Personally i think watching football is like watching paint dry. I have gravitated towards people who don't talk about football and have interesting things to say
Wow! another guy that feels exactly as I do about football? Sports in general?
I don't understand why I have to defend myself with other guys when I tell them I really couldn't give a shit about last nights game!
Getting looked at with suspicion, the puzzled looks. Being teased as being of another sexual orientation other than Heterosexual.
"Dale's gay! He doesn't like football!"
Which quite frankly I don't see as an insult at all. I just roll my eyes.
I often will have fun with it though.
Fellow male: "Did you see the Vikings game yesterday?"
Me: "Oh, did they play?" (even though I know they did.)
That sort of thing.
I can really get some guys all riled up and seemingly angry that I don't care.
But there are times when I feel the need to feign interest.
If I am in public and just want to conduct my business and get on with things, I will just answer in vague sports generalities.
Male cashier: What did you think of the Vikings game yesterday?"
Me: "Yeah! what the hell was up with that one play?"
(Because in every game there is always at least one play to which people will say WTF?")
Male cashier: "I know! to go long in the 2nd down of the 1st
half......blah,blah,defensive end,blah,blah,coach Childress,blah,blah,....."
(Insert voice of Charlie Brown's teacher here.)
I really find doing this distasteful, since I am not being true to myself.
Being who I am.
Now, I do have an interest which is thought of as a typical male interest, and that is cars. I can talk cars all day long if given the chance. I have an old Buick Riviera I am in the process of painting this year after having rebuilt the engine last year.
I love working by myself taking something apart, fixing it, and putting it all back together again and having it run.
But I find most guys these days aren't even sure of which end of a screwdriver to hold, so that often isn't a topic I can use for conversation.