The way I see it is that men and women are not really very (or at all) different, a priori. We are all shaped (our personalities and behaviours) by our experiences, and the culture we are part of plays a central role because it differentiates hugely between men and women (and gays and straights, and whites and blacks, etc. etc.). But when it comes right down to it, I think saying I prefer men to women (not sexually, but as a group) is like saying I prefer a personality shaped by these challenges and opportunities compared to one shaped by some different set.

Some (many) men, under whatever pressures and privileges they have been subject to, have grown into people I like, admire, respect. The same with some (many) women. Do I admire them because they conform to socially defined gender roles? No. Do I only admire women if they somehow manage to emulate male gender norms? No. There is a whole list of desirable (likeable) personality traits: courage, honesty, compassion, humour, self awareness, humility, self confidence, discipline, spontaneity, and on and on. No one has (or needs, or could have) all of them. Some of them are a little bit contradictory (humility/self confidence, discipline/spontaneity, …). Neither gender has a monopoly (or even a real predominance) on any of them. The way these traits are manifested can be ever so different: it takes courage for a woman to stand up to sexual harassment; it takes courage for a blind man to take the subway to work. Its their courage I applaud, not the circumstances that led them to develop and display it. So, to me, it never made sense for one to claim to prefer one gender over the other. Or that one could like or dislike an entire gender (or race, or sexual orientation).