What I Read for Love by Dianne Pearce
In high school I remember that the boys seemed interested in girls, but that what seemed important to them was that there was a girl, there, for them, but not so much which particular one, or the permanence of it. The girls I knew were certainly different from that. What mattered to my female friends, and to me too, was yes, there must be a boy, but it must be a specific one, and never changing. What often happened was that girls did things they weren’t very interested in doing, like watching college football, or waited around doing nothing, just in case the guy wanted to hang out. In that time and place, and under those differing expectations, I think that the boys were generally happier than the girls. And wasn't it the same in our homes? We all had what you would reasonably describe as good fathers, but, to a man, they went off on most weekends to do their men things with other men. Sons, of a certain age, could sometimes go too, but the daughters and wives were left at home. ...