Quote:
Originally posted by Newt
While you obviously can't rule out the possibility that that is the case, your statement is a gross oversimplification of neuronal structures. The media has unfortunately popularized a lot of concepts, such as the one you mention, without getting into the confounding factors and complications. Society likes to perpetuate as many sex differences as it can so it's no surprise that the media likes to leave these things out. It is fallacious to perpetuate the idea that because we can (sometimes) see sex differences in the brain (and, as such, biological differences). that they are inherent and innate in the sexes. The neuroscientists know that the story isn't so simple. The brain is highly(!!) plastic. It is very possible that these neuronal differences came about because of social gendering.
If you are placed on a pedestal as a man and are afforded the opportunities to engage and develop your spatial/conceptual skills, your neuronal structures will generally develop and reflect that pattern. It's the Chicken or the Egg conundrum. We shape society but it's easy to lose track of the fact that society shapes us in ways we may not realize.
Lady Gaga is horrible and I'm glad she wants to release Jazz albums for the rest of her basic life and fade away into nothingness.
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Late in responding on this but wanted to clarify...
I agree it would be an over-simplification to claim that innate propensity is the sole cause of any observed variation between males/females (on average) within a given field of cognition while paying no mind attention to the far-reaching implications of gendered social conditioning.
I conveyed in my original post that I was more or less in agreement with the perspective you and Lipton have on this subject and do believe the potential is usually there for the same level of proficiency to be attained by the best and brightest males/females (respectively) in a field.
But even still there are some distinctions between the male/female brain that have been observed on the anatomical level, and in certain instances it is not difficult to see how certain gendered behavior may have arisen as a natural consequence of innate characteristics.
OT? For being so horrible Our Lad of Gagz appears to have featured pretty heavily in your last.fm, but that's prolly none of my business so...
