Mars vs. Venus, Donnie vs. Marie, blah blah blah…
The sex and brain differences debate has become pretty boring in my opinion. Most of what I've read—the watered and dumbed-down sort of information meant for the masses of non-sciencey people like me-- states something like "there are differences." Duh... really? What are we, idiots? Scientists: quit wasting paper, and our time with things we already know.
Well, I’m happy to report things have changed and for that I'd like to give a shout out to Larry Summers for bringing some drama to the topic, and to the Scientific American for publishing this very interesting article .
Okay, I’ll confess…at first it wasn’t the science that compelled me to read this article, it was the childish humor hiden here and there.
For instance:
" . . . male monkeys spent more time playing with the "masculine" toys than their female counterparts did, and female monkeys spent more time interacting with the playthings typically preferred by girls. Both sexes spent equal time monkeying with the picture books and other gender-neutral toys. "
And
"Male rats are more likely to navigate mazes using directional and positional information, whereas female rats are more likely to navigate the same mazes using available landmarks. (Investigators have yet to demonstrate, however, that male rats are less likely to ask for directions.) "
