Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is a book written by American author, and relationship counselor, John Gray. The book has sold more than 7 million copies and according to CNN it was the “highest ranked work of nonfiction” of the 1990s^[1] and spent 121 weeks on the bestseller list. The book and its central metaphor have become a part of popular culture and the foundation for the author’s subsequent books, recordings, seminars, theme vacations, one-man Broadway show and TV sitcom.

Most of common relationship problems between men and women are a result of fundamental differences between the genders, which the author exemplifies by means of the book’s eponymous metaphor: that men and women are from distinct planets, – men from Mars and women from Venus – and that each gender is acclimated to its own planet’s society and customs, but not those of the other. One example from this paradigm is the book’s assertion that men complain that if they try to offer solutions to problems that women want to talk about, women do not necessarily want to find solutions but only want to talk about these problems. The book asserts that each gender can be understood in terms of distinct ways they respond to stress and stressful situations.