Brain sex does not exist « Sex matters. Neuroscience is methodologically flawed.
Even when an effect is objectively measurable, small sample sizes and poor statistical significance plague brain imaging studies. Most results are not replicable and, often, the alleged “findings” are not even based on human research. Extrapolating functional or behavior qualities from these studies is logically tenuous at best. Click on pictures for source documents/web references. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14, 365-376 (May 2013) | doi:10.1038/nrn3475 A study with low statistical power has a reduced chance of detecting a true effect, but it is less well appreciated that low power also reduces the likelihood that a statistically significant result reflects a true effect.
Dr. A Critique of the Brain-Sex Theory of Transsexualism article by Anne A. The brain-sex theory was never helpful in explaining clinical observations; now it has become irrelevant to explaining neuroanatomical observations. Bold not in original. …Prof. Marketing by Masculinizing the Feminine. Elliott J. sent in a comic by Kris Straub, who posts at chainsawsuit, making fun of the way that marketers often try to masculinize products that are associated with women, making them safe for men to consume: After reading the comic, I thought it would be fun to have a round-up of examples of masculinizing the feminine—that is, attempting to sell items to men through repackaging and renaming, drawing on ridiculous stereotypes of masculinity to assure men that they can use these products without becoming girly.
To start off, how might you sell nail polish to men? Call the brand Alphanail and associate the product with sex and warfare, of course, with, as submitter Gabriella says, “women as props and men as warriors”: Clémentine C. noticed that Canova, a British company that sells candles, has a line of candles specifically for men, identifiable by the manly images and scents. What makes these colors masculine? Now we’ve got the house painted; it’s time for some chores! The Truth about Boys and Girls. Parents anticipate sex differences from the first prenatal ultrasound but then seem amazed when their son goes gaga over trucks or their daughter will wear nothing but pink.
Boys and girls are obviously different, and in many cases the gaps between them seem stark. But stereotypes do not always hold up to scientific scrutiny. Are boys really more aggressive and girls really more empathetic—or do we just see what we expect in them? Where true sex differences exist, are those gaps inborn, as our current Mars-Venus obsession implies, or shaped by environment—that is, by us? A natural place to look for answers is in the brain. Select an option below: Customer Sign In *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content. The Science of Political Correctness : Oscillator. In the recent articles, blog posts, and comment threads about possible biological reasons for the continued gender disparity in tenured math and science faculty positions, the discussion seems to be divided between two groups: those who emphasize the social and cultural aspects involved in gender and intelligence, and those who emphasize the scientific evidence of standardized test performance.
The science team rails against “political correctness,” claiming that by questioning the merits and motives of scientific hypotheses of differences in innate intelligence between different groups of people, that we are letting politics cloud our scientific judgment, preventing the truth–however unappealing it may be in the end–from being found. This concept is called stereotype threat and has been discussed here on ScienceBlogs over the years too many times for me to cite individually, but it seems like it’s time to mention it again. The results are similar when gender stereotypes are studied. Cordelia Fine: Delusions of Gender. Bio Cordelia Fine Dr.
Cordelia Fine is an academic psychologist and writer. Cordelia Fine, Conference. La Ciudad de las Ideas 2009. Re-evolution. Delusions of Gender - Dr. Cordelia Fine, The Freedomain Radio Interview How different are male and female brains? The danger of assuming that men and women are different. Barbara & Shannon Kelley: Women Perform Better at Spacial Tasks When More Confident, Study Shows. Two new studies out last week show that the brain is mightier than the baggage -- especially when it comes to those stereotypes we women carry around in our backpacks.
Parallel parking: Good at it? And speaking of driving: Get lost much? Stereotypes tell us that if you're a woman, your answer to the first question is probably a "nope. " And to the second, often a "yes. " But guess what? Psychologists Zach Estes from the University of Warwick and Sydney Felker from the University of Georgia found that when you boost women's confidence, they do much better at the kinds of things at which they are presumed to suck. "Men tend to outperform women on spatial tasks, but this difference is at least partially due to women's lack of confidence on such tasks," Estes told us.
Pretty amazing, right? Back to Estes: "There is some really good research by social psychologists showing that if you reject stereotypes, performance by the stereotyped group typically improves," he says.