All snarky comments about men 'linking' aside, this is a serious theory.

We have seen up to now that there are some common misconceptions regarding the Power that are often dispelled if people do a little extra research e.g. Healing of severing, unravelling a weave, forced circles.

What if men can link with each other?

In my opinion this lack of ability is due to psychosocial circumstances and the resultant mental block, and is possibly not a quality of saidin. Mental blocks are very powerful with the Power, and this is not only limited to women like Nynaeve, but channelers like Fedwin who have a bar with saidin, or Aes Sedai who need gestures.

In my opinion, the loss of ability to link may have originated ages previously when people discovered the Power. One needs to look at the social construct of the two sexes. Women tend to work in groups - they congregate, work in numbers, and tend to have a broader view of their environment. In short, women used to be 'gatherers' in ancient times - gathering foodstuffs, children etc. Men, on the other hand, have always been loners and tend to work well as individuals. Men have also been more focused on singular tasks due to their nature as 'hunters'. It is this nature which might have predetermined the formation of circles. Women share a common camaraderie in most cultures whereas men are often seen in their own independence.

If one looks at the above, one can see why women have evolved like they have with saidar. They inherently work in groups and reach out to others. This allows them to project a portion of their energy (Pevara describes this in the AMOL chapter 2 where she says she senses no energy while trying to link with Androl as she would with a woman). This allows a woman to firstly, link, and secondly to sense another woman's strength in the Power. I also believe that this is why men feel goosebumps when women channel whereas women feel nothing when males channel - because women project a portion of their ability at all times whereas men keep it to themselves.

Men are unlikely to reach out to other males in such a way - it's socially incompatible with their sex. However, if a man could override this inbred conformance issue, it's possible that a male channeler would have the same abilities as a female. He would be able to project a portion of his energy, sense the strength of another male and link with another male.

The most likely scenarios for this would be...
1. A highly emotionally attuned male who can overturn his mental barriers i.e. advanced meditation etc.
2. brothers/twins
3. longterm, close male friends (we've already seen that female channelers who are friends for a prolonged time tend to become attuned with saidar).
4. pillowfriends etc.

I doubt RJ thought of this, but philosophically saidin tends to follow masculine trends i.e. chaos and aggression, fire/earth, individuality, isolation whereas saidar is the opposite. It's possible that this quality of saidin i.e. linking, sensing strength, is not a quality or limitation of saidin, but of the male channeler and his psychosocial behaviour.

We already know that men can link with women. It may not be a quality of saidar aiding the male to do this, but the male lowering his mental barriers and reaching out as he would to the opposite sex - we already saw how Androl reached out and grabbed Pevara. A male must lead if he's linked to a woman, once again following social expectations and inbred mental instincts, but when another woman is added, he suddenly feels like they are now his equal, he submits and a woman can lead. It may be that primal, sexist, chauvinist factors play a large role in all forms of channeling, from linking, to men having the destructive flows, to woman have a gentle, passive half of the Power.

Thoughts?