What is really fun in all the nature vs. nurture debate going on is how recent discoveries in biology are causing… well… some academics to run naked into the woods screaming! I have to tell you that I just love it!
The debate is at the heart of many — excuse the expression – liberal fantasies. Some people like to believe men and women are exactly the same in all ways. I shouldn’t say this … but I have noticed a few wonderful differences. These same people will tell you that Johnny turned bad because of low self esteem, bad neighborhoods, abuse, neglect, and our evil American society. Well, ‘environment’ does affect ‘gene’ expression, but biology has a lot to do with who we are and the studies that are coming out are showing exactly that.
In an article by Peg Tyre and Julie Scelfo of NEWSWEEK entitled, “why girls will be girls” they – in part – review a new book by Louann Brizendine called “the Female Brain.” (By the way, you can pick it up on Abe Books.com very inexpensively… check it out!… here’s the direct link)
According to Tyre, Brizendine states “ “…And I have been torn for years between my politics and what science is telling us. But I believe that women actually perceive the world differently from men. If women attend to those differences, they can make better decisions about how to manage their lives.”
There are some yahoos like Psychologist Janet Hyde who was quoted as saying” There is no gender-difference phenomenon to explain.” Hmmmmm…. Another diehard feminist declared,”Whatever measurable differences exist in the brain,” says Nancy C. Andreasen, “Are used to oppress and suppress women.” It’s hard to say that the ‘emperor has no clothes’… but biology matters and it can’t be ignored.
For most people, we have observed for ourselves the great diversity between men and women that cannot be easily written off to societal expectations or the home environment. I preferred and married a woman with a logical, mathematical and analytical mind. This is who she is … and having known her since she was taller than me, I can tell you that environment had little to do with it. You are who you are virtually from the begining. Better recognizing the differences between men and women will no doubt help us all live, love and get along better together.
Roger Freberg