Category Archives: gender
Men, Welcome to the Sisterhood of Womankind
Would you experience yourself differently if our gendered language flipped?
Let’s try talking about humans and the human experience as woman, womankind, sisters and sisterhood? Not man, mankind…
Welcome all, women and men alike, to the sisterhood of womankind. Read the rest of this entry
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Men, Women Are Not From Mars, Venus
Men and women aren’t so different, after all.
They have similar levels of interest in sex with multiple partners, willingness to have sex outside of a relationship, closeness with a best friend and interest in science, for instance. Read the rest of this entry
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Where Are The Girls? The Small Children? The Babies?
Tough Guise
Donald Trump’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents after crossing into the United States has left people worried about the health and well-being of those kids.
We have now seen pictures of older boys. But where are the girls? Where are the tender-aged children? Where are the babies?
One journalist’s visit to a boys’ compound may offer a clue as to why everyone but older boys are kept out of sight. Read the rest of this entry
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Guys, Girls Swap Roles at a Bar
Men ordering Raspberry Kamikazes at a bar as women make passes — and get shut down? This bit of videoed role swapping went viral.
The reel holds stereotypes but even they can contain kernels of truth. And anything that moves us out of our taken-for-granted ways sheds light. Read the rest of this entry
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Girls = Boys in Math
In the US boys outperform girls in math. But we’re an outlier. As a Slate article describes it:
The only countries with a wider gap favoring boys are Colombia and Liechtenstein. Many Middle Eastern countries—notably Qatar, Jordan, and the U.A.E.—report a significant gender gap in favor of girls (though lower math scores overall). In Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea, the gender gap is miniscule, and the math scores are high. Shanghai registers no gender gap between boys and girls—together, they’re outperforming other teenagers across the globe.
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Bullied For Not Being Tough
What is gender, anyway?
By G. Gayton
I am a man. And a feminist.
In fact, I was a feminist before I’d ever heard the word.
That’s partly because as a kid I didn’t stick to “boy things.” And caught hell for it. Read the rest of this entry
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Testosterone Means Boys Will Be Boys?
Men and women are from Earth, it turns out.
Goodbye, beliefs in sex differences disguised as evolutionary facts. Welcome the dragon slayer.
So declares Uta Frith, professor of cognitive development at University College London.
That dragon slayer emerges in the form of Cordelia Fine, a University of Melbourne associate professor specializing in the sociology of science.
Prof. Fine uses iconoclastic wit to examine the widespread belief that testosterone means boys will be boys, while the lack of it means girls will be girls in her new book, Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society.
A taste: Read the rest of this entry
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Male Monkeys May Be More Nurturing
Nurturing monkey.
Women are more nurturing?
They may be. But culture—not biology — may well be the cause.
Might our primate cousins shed some light on this nature-nurture debate?
When it comes to primates, which sex is more nurturing depends on culture, not hormones says University of Toronto anthropologist Frances Burton: hormones are the same throughout the species yet there is no universal pattern to how different tasks are divided, including infant care.
Males may intimately nurture infants. Or they may be hands-off, doing little to no parenting. It depends on the troop. Read the rest of this entry
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My Son Wants to Be Snow White for Halloween
Defying gender norms for Halloween
One day early last fall, I returned from work and discovered my son in a dress. And not just any dress. A Snow White dress. I can’t say it was a complete shock. Luke had been telling my wife and me for more than a week that he wanted to be Snow White for Halloween. Whenever Melanie or I gently suggested an alternate costume, he would calmly respond, “No, I think I have to be Snow White. I dropped my bag and made what I hoped was a suitable fuss over the costume. My face still taut with manufactured glee.
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Language Can Make Women Disappear
- Europeans play football
- Americans play baseball
- Australians are bear-drinking surfies
A few years ago (when both language and culture were more sexist than today) Dale Spender asked some teens to play a game. She made statements like those above and asked if they could guess the rule behind the game. Girls were quicker to catch on:
You pretend you’re talking about everybody but you don’t. It’s only men.
Basically, they were using language to make women disappear. The boys had a lot of fun with this game.
Until she changed the rule. Read the rest of this entry
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