On the Range: Mars vs Venus

AShooting Journal ^ | 6/24/2015 | Tatiana Whitlock

[w1n1]

When it comes to who is the better shooter and why, men or women, the iconic Irving Berlin duet from Annie Get Your Gun immediately springs to mind. “Anything you can do I can do better! I can do anything better than you” is sung while Annie Oakley and Frank Butler prepare for the climactic sharpshooting contest in the classic Broadway musical. For an object as functionally gender-neutral as a gun, why is it that each of the sexes assumes they are better adept at mastering it? Any quality instructor will tell you the real weapon is not the gun. The educated mind that controls the gun possesses the real power. Therefore, do men and women learn and process information differently especially with a gun in hand?

“Men are Quick to Act and Apply Aggression in a Dynamic Self-Defense Scenario”

There is still much uncharted territory when it comes to the human mind. The scientific community offers studies of both children and adults that prove more similarities between the sexes than there are differences at the biological level. Painting with a wide brush can lead dangerously down a path that reinforces gender-specific stereotypes and hinders learning down range. That being said, touching on some of the salient points that make men and women unique is worth investigating.

From an instructor’s perspective, new male shooters tend to learn better when introduced to a concept or technique by presenting the mechanics of the skill first and then putting that activity into context. Women tend to learn the same skill best when introduced to the context of when and why that particular skill is important and then taught the mechanics of putting it to use. The result is the same: the student learns both the action and the application, though from opposite perspectives. Both are fully capable of executing the skill set with precise fine and gross motor skills, regardless of gender, and put it to use when and where appropriate in the real world.

"Women Often Need to be Taught How to Tap into that Aggressive and Competitive Part of Themselves"

Processing Information

Male and female brains have a number of well-documented structural differences that illustrate how men and women process information. One major difference is in the grey and white matter of the brain and how the sexes use it all to process information. The female brain utilizes more white matter (the connective network that links the information and action processing centers of the brain) by a multiple of 10, and that may be why women are considered better at making social connections, observational connections and are better at multi-tasking than men. By contrast, men utilize seven times more gray matter (the information and action centers that are localized in different regions of the brain), which is largely why men are attributed with being good at task-focused activities, having tunnel vision or a “one-track mind.” Read the rest of the story here.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well as “they” say, do not get between a grizzly bear cub and its mother (not its father).

[Uversabound]

I love this subject. Men are not women and women are not men BY DESIGN (by guess who).

The two will never fully understand each other but work beautifully together.

I know the NRA safety course I took, we were instructed first then went to the firing range. I did well passed with a 100.

Nother subject Feminists think they can be men and that is their big flaw. God made us different and it works.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Surely on a topic like this, they would need to be asking “WHY” is the person (man or woman, girl or boy) shooting. This never happens in an impersonal context, any more than any other human activity does.

[jmacusa]

About three years ago here in NJ The New Jersey State Police offered self-defense courses to young women in a number of colleges throughout the state. The one over-riding factor all of the instructors, who, admittedly were all male, found was convincing these young women that it was not only important ,legal but absolutely necessary to their own safety and survival to inflict pain on another human being, even death if need be in order to save their lives. They had a very hard time convincing these young women of that. This article to me seems largely well researched but there's a certain amount of bs in it.

[Sergio]

My experience has been that women, in general, are more hesitant to fire a weapon, so they pay more attention to classroom part of training. It's almost as if they are thinking, “I don't want to shoot until I absolutely have too.”

Meanwhile, men, in general, can't wait to put some rounds downrange, which makes the classroom part of training a little more difficult.

Again, this is just personal experience, your mileage may vary.

[rlmorel]

I don’t think there is any ingrained thing that would prevent a woman from becoming an excellent shooter, vis-a-vis a mental task with a smaller physical component, vs. a physical task such as running as fast as one can for 100 yards with a sixty pound pack and then firing a weapon might be a different thing.

[rlmorel]

Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to spacial tasks and physical tasks.

I could see how that would make a large difference in the teaching and progression of skill.

[rlmorel]

LOL..spatial...SPATIAL!