From: elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green)
Date: 26 Aug 92 22:59:49 CDT
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: differences between boys and girls?
Distribution: world
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home

From article <1992Aug26.160534.11416@ils.nwu.edu>, by wallis@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Mindy Wallis):
>> In article <1992Aug20.204612.12798@cco.caltech.edu>, hough@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Susan Hough) writes:
>> > >boys/girls developent.  Nature vs nurture and so on...
>> > >Any other opinions on the subject are welcome.  We have a 1 year
>
> I recommend a book called "Brain Sex" (sorry, can't remember the authors'
> names.)  They argue, quite persuasively I think, that men and women (boys
> and girls) are different because their brains are different.  The

My take on all this:

There is no denying that men and women are different. A single glance at
the naked body is enough to tell that much.

This is bound to have an impact upon behavior. No big deal there. What is a
deal, however, is the way that we as parents expect our children to be
certain ways. Even when we try to be "non-sexist", we unconciously cue our
kid to behave in a way that we expect, through what we notice and how we
respond.

For example, T. Barry Brazelton recounts a study of whether boy infants
were any more or less active than girl infants. Prior to the study, the
parents were quizzed. The parents of the boy infants were more likely to
say that they had an active baby. Then the actual behavior of the infants
was studied for quite some time by an impartial observer who did not know
the sex of the infant. No differences in behavior were observed.

In other words, even with the best of intentions we see what we are looking
for.

In other words, it's no surprise that girls and boys are different. What
*IS* surprising is that many of the differences are clearly socialized
differences. No girl is hardwired in the womb to wear dresses and pink
ribbons in her hair. No boy is hardwired in the womb to prefer trucks to
cooking utensils (and, in fact, I've always been fascinated by pots and
pans, and have discovered that many boys do seem to be fascinated by
cooking once they get past the "girl thing" stigma -- boys, after all, do
love to eat!). We seem to go to extremes to try to exaggerate the
differences between girls and boys in this society. I suspect this is
related to the northern clime that our society developed in -- when sex is
hidden under thick clothing, other things must be developed in order to
tell whether a given person is a suitable sexual partner. Then add in
Victorian repressive attitudes which are still common in this country,
which view nudity as obscenity and sex as dirty. Exaggerating differences
between male and female becomes even more important in that sort of
atmosphere, because you have to be able to clearly denote the two groups
you want to keep apart.

I suggest that focusing on the things we have in common, rather than the
differences, is a more productive attitude. Sure, there are differences.
There are always differences between two people, whatever their sex is. But
all of us are human beings.

--
 Eric Lee Green  elg@elgamy.sccsi.com         Dodson Elementary
 (713) 437-6908  uunet!nuchat!elgamy!elg      Houston, TX
                "Kids are kids, no matter what"
Newsgroups: misc.kids