I recently read (a phrase I repeat too often perhaps) an interesting note.  Like all things written on paper, it can be bent to form whichever shape we please.  Synopsis:  men relate to tangible, women to intangible.  To elaborate:  men tend to consider their physical resources (ie. money, muscle, movement, etc.), women tend to consider emotional resources (ie. family feelings, friends/enemies relations, child-rearing, etc.).

I know I'm not saying this as well as I would like, to avoid insulting myself and everyone on the planet.  I've always been a fence sitter in regards to the "war" between the sexes.  Even in my dreams I jump from gender to gender (does anyone else?).  

However, there is something in what I read that bears noting.  A grain of a truth that, when I consider it, proves itself not absolute, but drifting toward a general placement on a line graph.  When it comes to what makes the strong attraction, it is chemistry - positrons to electrons.  Where one gender(person) lacks, the other gender(person) picks up the slack.  It is not always an exact puzzle piece to puzzle piece, but we're flexible people, others around us (friends, relatives, and enemies) attempt to fill in the holes.  An absent filler usually causes distress, and so we seek, knowingly or unknowingly, the "filler-upper."  Plot material.

When it comes to male and female relations, "the two made one," is not said casually.  The best is for the two to match, the more intriguing the one, the more oddly shapped the matching piece.  And people are more than 2D so we often don't even see how two match.  If you're looking for the attraction factor, observe, other singles and pairs, how you yourself react, parents, brothers and sisters.  And like all research and previously stated above, ask people questions.  Try reading the histories of men and women and how they reacted.  Does it agree or disagree with the above "synopsis?"  And what discrepancies are there with the "synopsis?"  These answers make the character and the attraction factor.  

Then again, I could be blowing nothing but smoke.

Words and Time my life's Obsessions.