The only sensible thing I’d ever heard from “Sex and the City” is this line from Carrie’s narration: “That’s the thing about needs. Once they’re met, you don’t need them anymore.”

If only men knew that as long as they’re willing to meet some need from us, that oftentimes, their willingness is all we really need. Make the offer. Reach out the hand. You’d be surprised how reasonable we (at least the sane ones of us) are, and if it’s a burden to you, we will find an alternative, but you’ll get all the brownie points in the world for offering.

Some men draw some invisible hard line, petrified that if they appear to bend just a little, that their very masculinity will be threatened and a woman will walk all over him. You don’t have to roll the red carpet out in front of a woman, but if you picked a reasonable, loving woman, she will meet your kindness with like kindness, fairness with like fairness. On the other hand, if you “put your foot down” (I hate that phrase, it’s such a laughable attempt at overcompensating and he may as well stamp his foot and insist that he has a large penis) and refuse to work with us just “on principle,” you may find that we’re hurt and will fight back “on principle.”

Real men aren’t the ones who refuse to compromise or even talk about our concerns. Real men don’t say “it’s my way or the highway, I’m the man.” Real men aren’t scared to deal with things face-forward, and they address problems on the problem’s own merit, and dispel issues by resolving them in the real world. Real men understand that sometimes to win the war, you must lose the battle. And that if you lose this battle, we’ll give you the next one, and suddenly, there are a lot less battles to fight.