I didn't mean it to be condescending. The definition of "condescending" includes the term "superiority" which I do not think applies. IMHO there are statistical facts about humans that some people (especially in the West) try to ignore or erase or consider improper to acknowledge for PC reasons. One is that women care more about people and gossip about people, whereas men care more about things and that kind of talk isn't generally called "gossip". I think it is normal and healthy (and important) for people to gossip about other people.

There are many other forms of political correctness that I don't follow and that I find stifling. For example if I mock a Chinese person by making a squinched up face and say "ching wong chong," is that condescending or offensive? In the West people think of course yes it is. But in most non-Western cultures, they recognize it for what it is. I am showing the Chinese person how he presents to me... his face seems shaped differently, his words seem to sound differently. If he then makes strange sounds to show me how my English sounds to him, or tells me I sound like I have a hot potato in my mouth, I laugh about it. I take no offense. And then we both go get drunk or whatever.