Unisex brain a feminist myth

The Australian ^ | September 27, 2006 | Janet Albrechtsen

[nickcarraway]

ONLY a girl could write The Female Brain and walk away with life and reputation intact. This new book may be contentious, but in fact modern science is merely playing catch-up with what we know intuitively. Girls are different from boys.

Mind-blowing news, huh?

But here's the really brave bit: the unisex brain is a feminist fabrication. Louann Brizendine, an American neuropsychiatrist, has written a book debunking stubborn notions that girls are different only because society makes them so. It's much more to do with the brain, she says. The female brain, to be more precise.

Here's a snap brain quiz. Which sex uses, on average, about 20,000 words a day, in contrast to the 7000 uttered by the other sex? Who has two-and-a-half times the amount of brain space devoted to sexual drive, meaning they think about sex, on average, every 52 seconds? When their feelings are hurt by someone they love, which sex reacts by assuming the relationship is over? Who has larger sections of the brain for action and aggression? If you answered, in order, women, men, women, men, you've been watching too many Woody Allen movies. Now, science is confirming that Woody was right all along.

While more than 99 per cent of male and female genetic coding is the same, it's the less than 1 per cent of difference that packs a punch in marking out women from men. Drawing upon advances in gene technology and brain-imaging techniques that have revolutionised neuroscientific research, Brizendine presents a heady cocktail of structural, chemical, genetic, hormonal and functional differences between women and men.

These biological differences explain the most basic female behaviour. For instance, why do teenage girls endlessly talk? Science suggests that connecting through conversation triggers the pleasure centres in the brain. Talking activates what Brizendine describes as

[verum ago]

A biologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology walked out, later saying leaving was the only option, otherwise "I would've either blacked out or thrown up". Another quick test: was the tetchy academic a woman or a man?

knockout blow

[Blowtorch]

I'm sure my wife would have say a lot about this article. She would talk and talk about this aspect or that aspect, ironically proving the whole premise this article describes. Me? I just think the findings are interesting and consistent with what most men already know.

[MediaMole]

Do they explain why women must describe every detail of their last restaurant meal?

[martin_fierro]

Girls are different from boys.

The fashion industry is always the last to catch on.

[LongElegantLegs]

I want to know why men feel the need to describe their favorite bowel movements at family dinners. :-P

[familyop]

That's just wrong!

[Gorzaloon]

I once has a friend who was a Greenpeace Superior Organization of Women (SOW) Feminist etc..etc. (I know, I know...it's a hard thing to do..)

I knew her for decades.

She had a son.

Then she had a daughter.

Finally, one day, she sheepishly admitted, "Yes, they really ARE different! Totally different! Here is the same DNA, but...." {baffled}

[RogerFGay]

It’s really amazing how extremist groups (like feminazi types) have been so successful at pushing society back into the dark ages. We have the infrastructure of modern societies — like universities — but they’re forced to hire professors of myth and call them scientists. We might as well start weighing ducks on wood and rope scales to identify witches.

[IrishCatholic]

It's OK by me but she can never be president of Harvard.

[Dustbunny]

Unisex brain a feminist myth

Anyone who has children of both sexes knows this fact.

[norton]

""...they’re forced to hire professors of myth and call them scientists."

Sadly, no one is forcing universities to teach myths rather than science.
It's entirely voluntary within the elites who dominate academia (and politics, media, entertainment, etcetera).

[RogerFGay]

Sadly, no one is forcing universities to teach myths rather than science. It's entirely voluntary within the elites who dominate academia (and politics, media, entertainment, etcetera).

Universities are driven largely by federal funding.

[RogerFGay]

Do they explain why women must describe every detail of their last restaurant meal?

When I talk about a meal, I like to talk about the how good the food (and drink) was. Amazing how that works out so well when a woman makes the meal. Life has a way of finding a natural balance.

[RogerFGay]

Universities are driven largely by federal funding.

Now, imagine the upside down backwards world that would be created with Hillary as president.