Men Versus Women - Essay Example

The article Men versus Women argued that men and women are fundamentally different due to the differing brain makeup and that we should learn to livewith it. A number of biological differences were outlined as well as other empirical evidence that supposedly support the argument. The flaw in this line of reasoning is that gender classification based on the biological composition of the brain is not enough to say that men are different from women and that they excel in specific areas and fields. The fact is that individual differences can be attributed to a web of other factors besides the characteristics that allegedly differentiate the male and female brain. The main thesis of the article is the scientific finding that men and women use their brains differently. This was credited to be behind why men have better orientation and planning capabilities while women excel in the communication field. The paper cited, for instance: “Generally, you will be more able to find a woman as a language teacher than a man, and you normally find a male navigator than a female one.” This analogy is, of course, preposterous for several reasons. First, human behavior and man’s capacity for things is not exclusively governed by the size and shape of the brain or how its parts are arranged. Genetics, human experience, socio-cultural environment, economic conditions, and a number of other factors – each of these play their part and have bearings on the way people see the world. Secondly, it appears that the evidences cited are purely based on conjectures. I have not seen any evidence such a diagram, a number, a formula or a numerical equation – something that would quantify the degree of relationship between the brain and its capabilities to influence human behavior in the context of gender. The article, for instance, stated that in a study, if a teddy bear is given to a four year old boy and a girl, generally the following happens: The girl will adopt the bear and make it her best friend, the boy, however, will start to take the bear apart and see how things work. This analogy is quite narrow. I mean, how could one make a toy bear work? In addition, it would be quite disturbing to find a kid who immediately tears a new toy bear apart just so he could figure how to make it walk, for instance? It would have been better to use the example of girls picking dolls and boys preferring toy cars. The article posited another proposition: men are not emotional while women are. This is based on the brain research that allegedly identified the area where recognition of feelings in the brain happens. The point is somewhat akin to the analogy that women have more brain neurons that trigger emotions than men. There maybe studies and theories that demonstrate the right and left parts of the brain and their functions and that this argument about emotion taking root from such scheme of brain parts may be legitimate. But how can this theory explain the case about men being averse to crying. Is shedding a tear or showing emotion a mere biological or literal brain processing matter? Everybody knows about the concept of machismo and how showing emotion is not a manly thing to do. Where is this concept coming from then? If we take the article’s point of view, such behavior would be caused by the amount of brain neurons present on specific part of the brain of a man or a woman or how they are situated or something to that effect. The process would most probably be involuntary or independent of consciousness or will. Here, it is easy to see the mistake. From the article’s standpoint, how can it explain the incidence of homosexual brains? Were they female brains in male bodies? And what of those of those men who excel in language or women who could read maps better than men? Were they an aberration to this theory? In a study examining the leadership style and management effectiveness in organizations, DuBrin (2009) stressed that the sexes were perceived the same in terms of style and effectiveness and that there are apparently few, if any, personality or behavioral differences between men and women managers. (p. 123) The fact is that women’s and men’s roles today is not an offshoot of how much cells the brain have or how they are organized in the human head. If one examines history, the environment and society are pivotal in development of human behavior and gender roles – which the article is clearly implying with its discourse on brain anatomy. Would it be reasonable to say that a young girl would have feminine toys because her parents bought it for her? The acquisition of pink dress, ribbons and flowing laces are not decided upon by the children but those of the parents. As a child grows up, the tendency in him or her to pursue hobbies and interests is imposed upon the child by his or her parents, the community and other children. Each of these impositions are encouraged and reinforced by norms, values, religion and so forth. I would believe a study about brains and gender if the human subjects of the research are confined in capsules since birth and studied and observed without any socialization and the acquisition of experiences acquired from living in the world. Finally, the discussion on male and female differences based on brain structure is quite exaggerated and to a point offensive. It reinforces the gender stereotyping of people positing the idea that men and women are so different they belong to different social and psychological worlds. This theory is polarizing and so primitive. According to Canary, Emmers-Sommer and Faulkner (1998), understanding sex/gender differences is more than the affirmation of sex stereotypes that portray women as communal or primarily concerned with relational welfare and men as instrumental or primarily concerned with task-related resources. (p. 3) They added that social interaction and norms and mores play big roles, too. I believe that whatever differences that men and women have in the context of gender are more prophetic than brain-related. People have a tendency to create bipolar constructs and thereby essentialize the female and male qualities. (Canary, Emmers-Sommers & Faulkner, p. 2) In other words, the biological brain and its functioning should not be credited as the exclusive progenitor of the “gender differences,” if there are. The stereotypes about men and women, in a sense, becomes prophetic by becoming the human standards for behavior. References Canary, D., Emmers-Sommers, T and Faulkner, S. (2009). Sex and gender differences in personal relationships. Guilford Press. DuBrin, A. (1998). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Cengage Learning. Read More