Are we different than men?

Do we need to be spoken to differently because we're just that different?

Inspired from a comment I read in the men's issues forum...

 

from a reasonable lad's perspective

generally, women and men do think very differently
but I see this more of caused by cultural differences than anything
we are shaped in part by our environment
girls that hang out with boys more, tend to think more rationally and logically, oppossed to the typical girl letting her emotion control her thought (not to sound liek a dick or anything =/)

 

i sound more like a guy generally, it's kind of a in your face bluntness...
but i do sometimes talk over guys heads, cause i don't think "simple" enough for em...
guys and girls are different, and finding a middle ground for communicating ideas is sometimes required...

 

i gotta wonder..whos qiote that was..lol
i dunno i think people think like people..that is to say each one thinks independently and differently
as for whover u quoted..i question his ability to think at all

 

Right now I'm reading a book called "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker, which I highly recommend, which is on the denial in 20th century psychology of human nature, basically the popular belief that the human mind has no inherent properties and that any mind can be molded in any way. This has been a popular belief as of late because many people believe that if we do acknowledge that people have intrinsic things that set them apart, that'll justify the Holocaust and general discrimination. There are also fears that self-improvement may be impossible if our actions etc are predetermined by our genes.
Science and common sense will tell us otherwise. People do have genetic predispositions, and they are also very influenced by their environments. But, for example, if you raise identical twins (who share the same DNA) completely seperately, there will be differences between them, yes, but there will be many, many freaky similarities.
One note the book makes, by the way, is that there may in fact be slight behavioural differences between races/cultural groups, but they are infinitely smaller than any interpersonal differences, between people of the same race or not.
About gender though. Yes, males and females do act and feel differently by nature, but to varying degrees, and then there are the environmental factors (who you hang out with more, upbringing, etc) which do a lot to you too. There is a bigger difference between the genders than between any races, definitely, but there are, again, bigger differences between people of the same gender than there are between the genders as a whole.
So there you have it... I personally am very effeminate. It's what makes me comfortable. I have mostly associated with girls, but that was more by choice, and because I get along better with them. Even before I really knew many people, growing up in the woods (where I never learned any classically masculine traits) I was quite "girly", I'm told by my parents. I've only recently gotten comfortable with the fact that I am, in fact, a boy.

 

exactly lemongate, thats very interesting in fact..just look at how different..each and every woman..and man for that matter who posted so far in this thread..then look at the weirdo in the original quote...the differences in each 1 of is, as people..is far greatter then the differences between the genders and races that make us up...so tothe original quote..its not never listen to the advice of women.. but to a particular person...and the advice id advize ignoring is your own


lil stoned hope that made sence

 

I firmly believe we are shaped differently in almost every aspect. It's not a black and white, every person sort of thing. Of course, there are woman and men that are exceptions to the rules. And not every person is amazingly feminine or completely masculine, but women, in general, are much more "feminine" than men, who are much more "masculine".

I do find myself (even before the baby) being very maternal towards everyone around me. I was a mother hen type person, wanting to make sure my friends were healthy, fed, and always cared for. All seemingly "feminine" qualities for a person to have.

My brother on the other hand has always been more into his physical strength, strutting his tail feathers, competition, all very "masculine".

 

While Lemongait was raised in the woods and not taught the "masculine traits", I was raised at a hockey rink and never really picked up the "female traits". Well, thats not entirely true.. I can bake bread, can fruit, sew, knit, and feed 40 people with an hours' notice... but ask me to pick out a dress for a dance and you've lost me. I can do all the stuff my Grandma, a farm wife, taught me.. but I didn't learn because of my gender, I learnt because my Grandma was a kick ass person and fun to hang around with.

I also have a wicked slap shot, and can out skate most men I know. I am good in the corners, and have great stick control. (that all relates to hockey, those who aren't familar with the game) I learnt this because I spent 50% of my childhood winters at the rink. The boys and men played hockey, my Grandpa watched them... and since I was the only girl, I played too.

I think I probably am more female in regards to sex now that I am older. As a teen I was definetly geared more towards the male school of thought. Do I need to be talked to differently than men? No... I would see through his bs in a heartbeat because I spewed the same line of bs 10 years ago.

 

Females and males have brains which are wired differentely. That is no reason to treat them, in a legal sense any differently (as you will see a small number of men who want to screw anything they want, and still have a dedicated "wife" at home will claim it is their brains which say this is "OK.")

Duck, men are not "more logical" than womyn. It is just that in some cases there are womyn who refuse to disallow emotion AND reason from an argument. Not that they don't use reason at all. I can argue about any man under the table, and no one would accuse me of not being logical or of not being emotional.

Different races and people from different parts of the world also have brains which are wired differently, but it is no reason to make laws or other things separate, as was justified by racists for so many years.

 

I never said they don't use logic or reasoning at all
but when it comes down to it, they are a lot more likely to put their emotions above these things

example: most girls will always back up their friends in arguments, even when their friends are clearly wrong
a guy is more like "dude, shut up, you're being an idiot"

 

that last statement of your, duck, is so far off base it verges on the hilarious.

 

it's really not
think back to when you are younger
women tend to become more rational and better at handling their emotions as they get older

then again, you could just have been raised differently

 

Hmm...there are men willing to say that men are more logical than women--in this thread--in this forum.

Well, not even logic is an all-the-time thing.

 

um...how many teenaged boys do you know who have always behaved with perfect rationality and perfect control over their emotions? i'll just bet you've known plenty of boys who backed their friends up in a fight without even really knowing what the fight was about. that's not a male/female difference, that's a mature/immature difference.

 

But they can accuse you of being so emotional that people miss the "logic" in your argument.

 

I think each person is a bit different & when some one feels very strongly about an argument, he/she tends to feel very emotional about it, whether some one expresses that in his/her argument is another matter entirely.

 

How is backing up your friend be emotional? it is loyalty, which can be very different from maturity/immaturity issue or male/female issue. Some people join the army and go to iraq because their country needs them, they do not care whether it is a just war or not, they are just happy with the fact that they are serving their country. That is loyalty.

 

loyalty isn't everything. my husband had a friend who got caught embezzling money, dave certainly didn't back him up in a fight. he turned him in. that's maturity.

 

When I was in upper kindergarden, there were a few boys who would lift up the girl's skirts to tease them, I went to my teacher and told her what the boys were doing to these girls. I gues you would term that "mature" as well.

 

soaringeagle - "i dunno i think people think like people" LOL great response, you've learnt alot in ur 39 years life.
The topic quote is my quote. Most if not all responses are given by elder women, 30-40 years old, and it is not teens or beggining adults. Because with time, you women learn, have expirience, and slowly but still learn and tend to think more and more in right , more smart way, applyign basic logic, but never at the same level which can be with 40 year old man. And the topic is related to teenagers, univercity time, becuase girls go to univ, study just like guys do but outside the class, room its complete difference in brain function and it is easily seen if you pay attantion and you have some kind of brain and inttelect and willign to apply logic and thinking, this is about men.