On Men and Women

Since the day man and woman came into this world, countless assertions, debates, and - with the advent of modern technology – research have tried to reinforce the stark differences between a man and a woman. From the physiological aspect of “classifying” sex – such as basing it on the prominence of breasts, Adam’s apple, and who’s got the corresponding organ – to the more sophisticated indicators of sex like having sperm or egg cells or who’s got the more estrogen/testosterone hormones and the like, scientists never fail to dig deeper into what was once a plain, face-valued concept of sex.

Looking at the social science spectrum of the subject, many believe that a person’s masculinity or femininity predetermines what one is capable of doing, what one should or should not do, and how one should behave. These practices, and I don’t need to mention them as everyone’s pretty much aware of them, have become normative and deeply ingrained in all cultures of the world; the gravity and intensity of these practices vary depending on geography, but nonetheless ubiquitous throughout nations.

For social scientists, however, it is the self and the social surroundings – the environment a person is subjected to, the family a person is raised into, the upbringing, a person’s interests, and the like –, not sex, that determines what one wants and what one is capable of.

A new research begs to differ.

A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Ragini Verma and her team asserted that the brains of men and women are “wired differently”, explaining the sex’s capabilities over the other. (irishtimes.com, 2013). This leads us to theorize that it attempts to debunk the idea of social scientists’ claim of the self and the social surroundings as the precursor to certain actions and abilities.

Photograph issued by National Academy of Sciences of brain networks showing significantly increased within hemispheres in males (upper) and between hemispheres in females (lower). Intra-hemispheric connections are shown in blue, and inter- hemispheric connections are shown in orange. Photograph: PA. Retrieved from http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/it-s-true-male-and-female-brains-are-wired-differently-1.1615484

Given the image above, Verma explains how men’s brains are more wired for the faculties of coordination and perception, while that of women’s are more geared for multitasking, social skills, and memory. This can be mapped through the circuitry of connections which tend to be more concentrated on specific lobes and hemispheres, with females being connected more to the left and right, while men being more connected to the front and back. (irishtimes.com, 2013)

So, given all these information, how do we synthesize our knowledge of both past, present, and immediate present? A more interesting question would be which school of thought is closer to the truth? The objectivist or the normative school? You decide. But for me, I think it’s best if more research be conducted to further support the said claims.

References:

Irishtimes.com (2013). It’s true: male and female brains are wired differently. Retrieved 4 Dec. 2013 from http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/it-s-true-male-and-female-brains-are-wired-differently-1.1615484