The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Thursday, March 06, 2008

Women's Brains and Hillary

Suzanne sent me a couple of links dealing with male and female brains...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=his-brain-her-brain

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-women-really-better-with-language

This is important for several reasons. One is a "positive" for Hillary. To the degree that male and females brains are different, without one being 'superior" to the other, then men will build social structures that are advantageous to men--that it, they will fit the way men think. The average woman will do the same. Therefore, a woman who can negotiate the territory of a game designed by men will, on average, be at a disadvantage. If she can compete effectively, there is a good chance that she is actually more competent than the average man negotiating the same territory. So...go Hillary!
She is in essence running an "emulation program" to allow her to play a male game with a female mind. That would mean, to me, that in a real-world scenario, she would out-perform a man who "tested" at her level in regard to male traits--because she has her female traits in addition. "SoftPC" on a Mac running at the same speed as a PC implies a BLISTERINGLY faster Mac running at native speeds. The real world is not the game imposed upon it. There are always more possibilities than any single perspective allows.

It's the old "a woman has to do twice as much to get half as far..." while an overstatement, has some truth to it. Of course, a man trying to survive a structure designed by women would have a similar problem.

And there is another interesting thing: if women think a bit differently, it would make sense that they would have different values and perceptions. Which would lead them to different goals. This would screw up the statistics about male and female salaries and presence at different levels of power...simply because the average woman doesn't want the exact same things in life as the average man. I have no idea how to sort that out, but I think its a reasonable possibility.

And BTW--that "a woman has to do twice as much to get half as far" is also a standard belief system in the black community...concerning race. And as always, I refuse to take a position on that one. So I similarly think that a black person who performs a given set of tasks devised and designed by white people at level "A" is actually capable of performing at level "A+X" because of the "emulation program" thing. Hillary speaks "fluent male," just like I've often said I speak "fluent Caucasian." Can't blame her for playing a rough game rough...that's the way " the boys" laid it out. I may not find it evolved, but it is certainly impressive.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"if women think a bit differently, it would make sense that they would have different values and perceptions."

A bit, yeah. Likewise, it would make sense that we would have mostly-similar values if we think a bit differently. Look at all the organisms out there that think *more* than a bit differently from each other but still have similar goals because they have similar survival instincts (get food, avoid pain, do what it takes to achieve those...).

Anonymous said...

"Of course, a man trying to survive a structure designed by women would have a similar problem."

That reminds me, I have a question about Insh'Allah. Will we see what happens to Australia? My first guess was, would Aborigines be treated just as badly as IRL because they're not ruling the world, or treated better than IRL because they're black?

Steven Barnes said...

No idea about Australia. It would probably depend on the group that colonized. As to whether it would be better or worse...no opinion at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Do you ever work on something so long, and so hard, that you begin to forget why you were interested in the first place? What was it, and when it was all over...was it worth it?

Patriotism. Funny how if one is young and malleable enough (and who young enough isn't?) an abstract definition such as patriotic behavior and virtues can be most convincing allowing one is in an environment that doesn't easily accept, encourage nor promote alternative viewpoint. Not forcibly, socially and very subtle. I was once in such an environment, and for no short period of Time.

Then, Maturity and personal Philosophy reared their ugly heads.

What was once the exclusive domain of the abstract became the purview and residence of my own thoughts on the subject of Patriotism, and I simply traded one philosophical flag for another while still serving the same master.

Was it worth it? More often than not. It sure beat trying to navigate the slippery slopes of Mount Neurosis on fragile skis.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure this belongs on the current post, but I just got a wake up call on how hard it is to get rid of racism. My son and some company were discussing the presidential race when my nine year old grandson piped in that he didn't want Obama for president. My son asked him why and he replied Obama is black and if he gives more rights to black people then white people will have less rights." We don't know whether this is something he picked up in a discussion at school or is just something he came up with. It is not anything he picked up at home and my son was really shocked.

Marty S

Steven Barnes said...

Of course that's appropriate here. Anything related to the subjects we're discussing is appropriate, as long as it is polite.

Steve Perry said...

Prejudice works in all directions. I'm a white guy, so I dont' get much, butt when I was in nursing school, on of my teachers didn't think men could do pediatric nursing. I was an A student. I got C. I deserved an A ...