Elle Beau ❇︎
3 min readMar 4, 2024

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Nope, there is no reputable neuroscience that finds any discernible difference in human brains as relates to behavior or aptitudes that can be attributed to gender. First off, we don't know nearly enough about the brain and how it works to remotely make such assertions about what any differences mean, and secondly, gender indoctrination begins at birth. Thirdly, if you want to ascribe gender to certain aptitudes, how exactly does it turn out that the more women are allowed into "male arenas" we find more and more women who are way better than a lot of men at "male brain" activities such as engineering, physics, etc.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1509654112

"Documented sex/gender differences in the brain are often taken as support of a sexually dimorphic view of human brains (“female brain” or “male brain”). However, such a distinction would be possible only if sex/gender differences in brain features were highly dimorphic (i.e., little overlap between the forms of these features in males and females) and internally consistent (i.e., a brain has only “male” or only “female” features). Here, analysis of MRIs of more than 1,400 human brains from four datasets reveals extensive overlap between the distributions of females and males for all gray matter, white matter, and connections assessed. Moreover, analyses of internal consistency reveal that brains with features that are consistently at one end of the “maleness-femaleness” continuum are rare. Rather, most brains are comprised of unique “mosaics” of features, some more common in females compared with males, some more common in males compared with females, and some common in both females and males. Our findings are robust across sample, age, type of MRI, and method of analysis. These findings are corroborated by a similar analysis of personality traits, attitudes, interests, and behaviors of more than 5,500 individuals, which reveals that internal consistency is extremely rare. Our study demonstrates that, although there are sex/gender differences in the brain, human brains do not belong to one of two distinct categories: male brain/female brain." (emphasis mine).

If you honestly don't understand what the concept of "men as providers" means in the context that the author used it and that is commonly employed, I recommend you take some entry level sociology courses. If the author believed that women are also "hardwired to provide" she would have said something that made that clear and didn't make it necessary to assert that this was a fundamental attribute of being male -which is what she did.

If you also do not have a clear and thorough understanding of your own gender socialization as part of a patriarchal culture, I've got about 20 or 30 research-based articles for you to read. Here are a couple to get you started.

In most forager cultures (what humans were for 97% of our history) gender roles may exist but are not adhered to in any meaningful way because personal autonomy is a lot more highly valued. Many experts believe that gender roles evolved as a way to ensure that all bases got covered and all work got done, but also that in these forager cultures, people do what they want to as long as they are contributing to the well-being of the group. New research indicates a rich heritage of women hunters which continues in many places even today, and since gathering provides most of the daily calories most of the time, most everyone gathers. Foragers also tend to spend a lot of time playing with and caring for children — including fathers, but also non-related men.

With the rise of plowed agriculture and patriarchal dominance hierarchies, women get relegated more and more to the inside of the home and begin to lose status, rights, and freedom of movement. Certain roles become “for women” and others “for men” — in part because this helps to justify discrimination and subjugation of women.

I’d say you’ve got some reading (and educating yourself) to do …

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Elle Beau ❇︎
Elle Beau ❇︎

Written by Elle Beau ❇︎

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint. I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between.

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