Neuroscience
I must point out an excellent series of posts at Language Log that closely examines a few of the shaky claims made in the new book by Louann Brizendine, The Female Brain. Oh, you've read about the book in the popular press and in Neurobloggy Land. Sandra at Omni Brain has the best description of a different Female Brain assumption:
In a thoroughly researched series of posts, Mark Liberman explains that there's no evidence at all for the claim that
Read all about it at the links below.
Neuroscience in the service of sexual stereotypes
Sex-linked lexical budgets
Sex and speaking rate
- Pornography Use Correlates With Pro-feminist Attitudes, According To Us Survey
Radical feminism conceives of pornography as fundamentally harmful to women; it is, in the words of anti-pornography activist Gail Dines, “the most succinct and crisp deliverer of a woman-hating ideology.” But past research on how porn influences...
- Men Are Map Readers And Women Are Intuitive, But Bloggers Are Fast
Connection-wise analysis for males and females (Ingalhalikar et al., 2013). Blink and you've missed it! Is the news cycle over already? I've been too busy real-working under my rock. The hardwired difference between male and female brains could...
- The Female Macaque Brain
Or: male macaques are from Mars, female macaques are from Venus... Monkey gossip hints at social origins of language 19 November 2008 by David Robson WOMEN may be fed up with being stereotyped as the chattier sex, but the cliche turns...
- He Thought, She Thought She'd Backpedal
A short interview with Dr. Louann Brizendine in today's New York Times Magazine. He Thought, She Thought By DEBORAH SOLOMON Published: December 10, 2006 . . . [skipping the part about oxytocin and dopamine in sixth grade girls...] Your book cites...
- Encephalon Seven
Encephalon 7th Edition now available at Omni Brain! [or should I say Ensexalon?] I figured we should start with the usual topics of the Omni Brain blog - sex, drugs, and rock and roll! The Neurocritic's fictitious rendition of the stimuli from the...
Neuroscience
Men Are From Chicago, Women Are From Peotone
I must point out an excellent series of posts at Language Log that closely examines a few of the shaky claims made in the new book by Louann Brizendine, The Female Brain. Oh, you've read about the book in the popular press and in Neurobloggy Land. Sandra at Omni Brain has the best description of a different Female Brain assumption:I could maybe buy into the Lear jet theory [analogy to a small airfield for women's thoughts about sex, but to O'Hare for men's] if she wasn't also making assumptions about air traffic controllers. "Thoughts about sex enter women's brains once every couple of days; for men, thoughts about sex occur every minute."
Has she not seen Sex and the City?
In a thoroughly researched series of posts, Mark Liberman explains that there's no evidence at all for the claim that
A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000.Mark says,
I looked through the book to try to find the research behind the 20,000-vs.-7,000-words-per-day claim, and I looked on the web as well, but I haven't been able to find it yet. Brizendine also claims that women speak twice as fast as men (250 words per minute vs. 125 words per minute). These are striking assertions from an eminent scientist, with big quantitative differences confirming the standard stereotype about those gabby women and us laconic guys. The only trouble is, I'm pretty sure that both claims are false.
Read all about it at the links below.
Neuroscience in the service of sexual stereotypes
Sex-linked lexical budgets
Sex and speaking rate
- Pornography Use Correlates With Pro-feminist Attitudes, According To Us Survey
Radical feminism conceives of pornography as fundamentally harmful to women; it is, in the words of anti-pornography activist Gail Dines, “the most succinct and crisp deliverer of a woman-hating ideology.” But past research on how porn influences...
- Men Are Map Readers And Women Are Intuitive, But Bloggers Are Fast
Connection-wise analysis for males and females (Ingalhalikar et al., 2013). Blink and you've missed it! Is the news cycle over already? I've been too busy real-working under my rock. The hardwired difference between male and female brains could...
- The Female Macaque Brain
Or: male macaques are from Mars, female macaques are from Venus... Monkey gossip hints at social origins of language 19 November 2008 by David Robson WOMEN may be fed up with being stereotyped as the chattier sex, but the cliche turns...
- He Thought, She Thought She'd Backpedal
A short interview with Dr. Louann Brizendine in today's New York Times Magazine. He Thought, She Thought By DEBORAH SOLOMON Published: December 10, 2006 . . . [skipping the part about oxytocin and dopamine in sixth grade girls...] Your book cites...
- Encephalon Seven
Encephalon 7th Edition now available at Omni Brain! [or should I say Ensexalon?] I figured we should start with the usual topics of the Omni Brain blog - sex, drugs, and rock and roll! The Neurocritic's fictitious rendition of the stimuli from the...