Gender Bender

Persuasive Essay # 102977

Biology
Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Gender and Sexuality > Theories of Gender

Gender Bender

This paper looks at whether there are scientifically proven differences between the brains of men and women.

1,149 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer argues that there really are scientifically provable differences between the brains of men and women. Specifically, the paper explores how the brains of men and women atrophy over time. The writer then looks at how men and women have different intellectual competencies - differences which, broadly stated, suggest that men are better in the realm of mathematics and mathematical logic while women are better in the realm of language arts and visual memory. Lastly, the writer notes that evidence provided by Doreen Kimura suggests that boys and girls differ in their levels of aggression because they really do have minds shaped by widely divergent hormones. The writer concludes that it is simply not smart to suggest that men and women are exactly the same.

From the Paper:

"Simply put, the process by which the brain atrophies in men and women is quite pronounced, can be measured quantitatively, and suggests that men and women experience varying levels of mental acuity and efficacy at different points in their lives. As an addendum, this sort of thing clearly indicates that the differing behavior of men and women in, say, their middle to late 50s is not necessarily predicated upon sociological constructions but upon differential aging of the brain and the changes in behavior this creates.
"There are also cognitive differences between men and women that suggest different patterns of competencies - not necessarily, as ideologues on both sides of the gender debate might like to argue, different intellectual capacities. For instance, a host of studies conducted over many years proves that men perform better than women when it comes to spatial tasks such as those that involve object manipulation and/or envisioning an object moving through space."

Sample of Sources Used:

Hatazawa, J. "Sex difference in brain atrophy during aging: A quantitative study with computed tomography." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 30.4 (1982): 235-239.
Kimura, Doreen. "Sex differences in the brain." Scientific American (Special Edition), 12.1 (2002): 32-37.