Why it's time for brain science to ditch the 'Venus and Mars' cliche | Science | The Observer. As hardy perennials go, there is little to beat that science hacks' favourite: the hard-wiring of male and female brains. For more than 30 years, I have seen a stream of tales about gender differences in brain structure under headlines that assure me that from birth men are innately more rational and better at map-reading than women, who are emotional, empathetic multi-taskers, useless at telling jokes.
I am from Mars, apparently, while the ladies in my life are from Venus. And there are no signs that this flow is drying up, with last week witnessing publication of a particularly lurid example of the genre. Writing in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia revealed they had used a technique called diffusion tensor imaging to show that the neurons in men's brains are connected to each other in a very different way from neurons in women's brains. The response of the press was predictable. We don't have to "wire" our children's brains to reinforce gender stereotypes.
The first time I encountered the modern-day version of the wandering womb I was on a walk with my partner’s family. As we traipsed through the forest, my partner’s father commented that it would be easier for me to spot any berries “since women have evolved from the gatherers”. I found this bizarre so asked him to explain. In the conversation that followed I learned that not only was I an expert berry-spotter, but I was also “better at repetitive household tasks because gathering didn’t require as much mental engagement as hunting”. On a hunch I asked about low-paid jobs. Later that day my partner took me to one side and asked whether I was upset about the “argument” I had had with his father.
“He’s really into those books - Men are from Mars, Why Men Don’t Iron, The Essential Difference, The Female Brain, that sort of thing.” “Those books that dare to say what no one, apart from everyone, dares say about gender?” “Those are the ones.” Ah yes, those books. My children are four and six. Gender differences in brain connectivity (if any) aren't hard-wired. The Truth About “Pink” and “Blue” Brains. Cross-posted at Ms. and the Huffington Post. I loathe to weigh in on the “war on men” conversation, but… alas. While one can use both logic and data to poke gaping holes in Suzanne Venker’s argument that women need to surrender to their femininity and let men think that they’re in charge if they ever want to get married, I just want to point out one thing — one endlessly repeated thing — that she gets very, very wrong.
Venker claims that there has “been an explosion of brain research” that proves that men and women have different brains. This research, she claims, shows that men are loners who like to hunt and build things and women are nurturers who like to talk and take care of people. This false on two fronts. First, she’s wrong about the brain research.
What does the research say? It’s true that scientists have documented a number of small, average sex differences in brain anatomy, composition, and function, as well as differences in size and tissue ratios. TEDxParis 2011 - Catherine Vidal - Le cerveau a-t-il un sexe. Un cerveau unisexe | Médium large. Catherine Vidal : “Pas de différence entre femmes et hommes dans la façon d’utiliser le cerveau !” Cerveau de mec, cerveau de fille? Soyons bien d'accord : il n'y a aucune différence entre un cerveau d'homme et un cerveau de femme. Sauf qu'apparemment, c'est une idée reçue tenace. Très très très tenace. Et utilisée pour justifier pas mal de choses. Lu, entendu, vu : des images « humoristiques » vraiment pas drôles, les explications extraterrestres, des « témoignages » et « intuitions », aux explications scientifiques plus ou moins poussées (par des psychanalystes, des bloggueurs, des dossiers de magazines en lignes divers, des associations dont la scientificité ne saute pas aux yeux, des études vénérables datant de 1996) une simple recherche google (ou mieux, duck duck go) vous prouve la large diversité des tenants de la différenciation de nos petites cellules grises.
Le plus drôle (citation que l'on retrouve partout, véritable hoax de neurogénétique)? En fait, nous appartenons à deux « espèces » différentes ! Bon. Tout d'abord, la personne. Ensuite, le livre. Mais pourquoi? En conclusion? Lara Neutron. The Myth of the “Girl Brain” Has your local public school opened up a new all-girls classroom? Are you tempted to enroll your daughter in it? After all, the principal may have offered up impressive evidence that girls learn in very different ways from boys, and this segregated classroom seems to be a great boon to girls. The idea that the brains of girls and boys are so different that they should be parented and educated in different ways and steered towards very different careers is one of the most successfully promoted media narratives of the decade.
A small group of advocates have pushed this notion so hard that it’s become the conventional wisdom. They write best-selling books, speak to large groups of teachers, parents and school administrators, and are quoted—endlessly and usually uncritically–by the news media. They claim that due to vast differences between boys and girls, the single sex classroom will improve children’s academic achievement. They’ve been very successful. But don’t drink the Kool Aid.