Comments on: If the Battle of the Sexes Were a Math Bowl, It’d Be a Tie http://www.emandlo.com/2009/01/948/ Your daily dose of advice, news, and stories about sex, love, and other important stuff. No yoga mat required. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:00:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Paradox http://www.emandlo.com/2009/01/948/comment-page-1/#comment-346 Paradox Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:27:14 +0000 http://www.emandlo.com/?p=948#comment-346 Three cheers for this. I think it says so much about how culture DOES actually affect our abilities and differences. You can try and study things scientifically all you want, and of course that's a valuable contribution to knowledge, but it's no more so than attempting an understanding of culture. Ultimately men and women all exist in an extremely-overlapping bell curve. Thanks for pointing it out! Three cheers for this. I think it says so much about how culture DOES actually affect our abilities and differences. You can try and study things scientifically all you want, and of course that’s a valuable contribution to knowledge, but it’s no more so than attempting an understanding of culture.

Ultimately men and women all exist in an extremely-overlapping bell curve. Thanks for pointing it out!

]]> By: Matt http://www.emandlo.com/2009/01/948/comment-page-1/#comment-341 Matt Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:34:12 +0000 http://www.emandlo.com/?p=948#comment-341 Yeah, I've heard the same thing from friends who tried to go totally gender-neutral with toys. Their son started bashing the Tonka trucks around, and their daughter was much more particular with her toys, and had no interest in the trucks. They were actually a little bummed, as they hoped for no gender differences to crop up. But beyond anecdotal evidence, there are plenty of studies showing that, while men & women don't necessarily do certain things *better* than one another, they do them *differently*. Everything from field dependence/independence to how we process stress neurochemically... there are pretty significant differences. These differences are something to celebrate, not something we should downplay or pretend like they don't exist. People get all moist about the airy-fairy "we're really just the same!" stuff, too... and it just ain't reality. (Thankfully!) Yeah, I’ve heard the same thing from friends who tried to go totally gender-neutral with toys. Their son started bashing the Tonka trucks around, and their daughter was much more particular with her toys, and had no interest in the trucks. They were actually a little bummed, as they hoped for no gender differences to crop up.

But beyond anecdotal evidence, there are plenty of studies showing that, while men & women don’t necessarily do certain things *better* than one another, they do them *differently*. Everything from field dependence/independence to how we process stress neurochemically… there are pretty significant differences.

These differences are something to celebrate, not something we should downplay or pretend like they don’t exist. People get all moist about the airy-fairy “we’re really just the same!” stuff, too… and it just ain’t reality. (Thankfully!)

]]> By: AlanK http://www.emandlo.com/2009/01/948/comment-page-1/#comment-338 AlanK Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:13:11 +0000 http://www.emandlo.com/?p=948#comment-338 Boys and girls are different. You should watch my grandson playing with manic enthusiasm with the trucks I tried desperately to entice my daughter to play with to appreciate that. My daughter is too busy studying linear algebra to notice. Some differences are real; some are not. Boys and girls are different. You should watch my grandson playing with manic enthusiasm with the trucks I tried desperately to entice my daughter to play with to appreciate that. My daughter is too busy studying linear algebra to notice. Some differences are real; some are not.

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