Disproving Myths About The Differences Between Men And Women

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Have a minute? Good, go read this. The author, an anthropologist, tells us that while gender is an important factor in people’s lives, it’s not as hardwired or innate as we tend to think it is: “It is the strength of the societal myths about sex that fool us into thinking that men and women are so different by nature.” (I practically whooped out loud when I read this, because it is SO TRUE)

Male and female brains aren’t as different as we’re led to believe; differences in sexual desire and hormones aren’t that extreme either. If we can’t fall back on static old beliefs, how then do people justify treating men and women so differently?

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About Jeana

Jeana

Jeana Jorgensen, PhD recently completed her doctoral degree in folklore and gender studies at Indiana University. She studies fairy tales and other narratives, dance, body art, feminist theory, digital humanities, and gender identity.

  • BossMare

    I think the primary reason people have trouble regarding sexuality is that it reminds us that we are ANIMALS. If we dress it up in gender roles, we pretend that we are separate and superior to the rest of creation. And it’s been a great way for male humans to pretend they are above such baseness (I know, totally illogical) and to regard human females, males of other ethnicities, etc, as the ones who are animals while they are lofty and rational. The worst sort of religion has a lot to do with this nonsense.

  • http://twitter.com/foxyfolklorist Jeana Jorgensen

     That’s an interesting theory. I agree that in a lot of cultures, people tend to distance themselves from animals and nature (I mean, it’s right there in Genesis) as a way to justify our dominance and destruction of the earth. And since hierarchies and dualisms tend to get linked, gender got caught up in the man/nature thing (with male/female being the linked dichotomy).