Reader question: “In the end, it becomes a case of he said, she said...” What does this mean? My comments: This means we have no way of knowing exactly what has happened between the two, since we cannot verify what they say. “He said, she said” is a description in a nutshell of a situation where you have one man’s word against that of another but nothing else (as evidence to support or refute either person’s statements or allegations). Male (he said) and female (she said) because apparently this happens a lot in male-female relationships. You know, something happened between the two and he says something. She says something else, something entirely different. There’s no third party there to speak as witness. And if they go to the court, they’ll face a judge who finds it difficult to tell who’s right or wrong. She says he hit her, for instance. He says he didn’t do it. Maybe he is telling the truth; maybe he’s lying. Maybe she is telling the truth, or maybe she is lying. Without her giving evidence of any injury to her body, and without her producing a witness saying that she, for example, saw him beating her up, it will understandably be difficult for anyone to judge what’s really happened. In “Makin’ Whoopee”, the great Louis Armstrong sings about a newly wed couple coming to court to settle a dispute – after the man is caught “making whoopee” on the side. “He says he’s busy,” Armstrong coos. “She says: “Is he?” |