Reclaiming (evolutionary) biology! (thinking about what Heather Brunskell Evans said)

In my hungover, exhausted, post-LAWS stupor, my immediate reaction to this is: Cordelia Fine.
Yes! I recently read her ‘Testosterone Rex’, which thoroughly debunks the whole idea of men being naturally inclined to be competitive, unfaithful in relationships, violent, etc. A really good read.

If boys can be taught to control their tears they can be taught to control their fists.

That needs to be made into a poster!

Biology hasn’t gone anywhere it is just that the people who study it aren’t as noisey as in some other disciplines.

I think there's a general problem in our 'two cultures' society that STEM types tend to be busy doing science, creating technology etc. And at university level they have a heavy learning workload. Facts, reality matter. Whereas in quite a lot of other fields, essentially all there is is words, and opinions matter.

What writers said!

Evolutionary biology and 'biological essentialism' often seem like dirty words in feminism because they are used as lazy justification for inequality and oppression I think that is usually evolutionary psychology not evolutionary biology. What bothers me about it is thesloppy, unscientific thinking these "just so" stories. Usually the archaeological or historical evidence doesn't support these theories but the men making the theory don't care because their assertion women are naturally inferior is so core to their belief system, they are suffering a huge confirmation bias and not actually testing their theory properly.

Also, properly getting ones head around evolution is really hard (I am aware I sound very pompous here.....). So.lots of people don't understand it.

Everything about the world of biological beings must be explainable by evolution through natural selection (unless we invoke "souls" etc...).
Yes biology is a limitation but humans have evolved to be adaptable. Our children are the product of culture just as much as biology. As a species we have invoked God's and souls or spirits almost universally. We are not just an animal but a tool making animal from spears or cooking pots to works of art - jewellery etc. We've developed laws and made treaties.
How we raise our children is the most important way to shape society. If boys can be taught to control their tears they can be taught to control their fists.

Your brain seems to be working just fine, ABitCrapper !

A few years ago, a bit before the trans agenda became apparent, and when I'd not long been thinking and reading about feminism myself, I went along with DH to a 'philosophy in pubs' meeting which was broadly discussing women's rights, equality.... lead by a nice bloke who'd fairly obviously not really thought much about the issues at all, and as far as I could tell neither had anyone else. Which was a bit odd, but it meant no-one was spouting Pomo gender theory. I cant remember the details of the discussion but roughly we ended up at, no, women don't yet have equality and that the reason underlying this was biology. I don't think anyone in that mixed group of adults who liked discussing ideas disagreed with that.

In my hungover, exhausted, post-LAWS stupor, my immediate reaction to this is: Cordelia Fine.

Biology hasn’t gone anywhere it is just that the people who study it aren’t as noisey as in some other disciplines.

I do genuinely think the truth will out.

It is an interesting one, since humans are such an amazingly adaptable species it is hard to even see what our actual 'nature' is through all the socialiation.

If you look to the animal world, closely related species can have very different ways of dealing with sex, parenthood and social order. One type of seal has enormous males fighting over sexual control of a harem, another type has more equally sized sexes and the mother raises the pup as a single mum. In birds you have the albatross sharing equal parenting but male capercaillies and peacocks strut their stuff and fight to win breeding rights with all the females.

In chimps there is a lot of cruelty and violence in their male-dominated groups, especially around females coming into oestrus where the dominant male tries to ensure they are the only one who mates with them, but in bonobos matriarchs rule, females permanently have the appearance of oestrus and have sex with all the males (apart from their own sons) whether they are fertile or not and they have a pretty tolerant, peaceful society. Males still can get a bit attention-seeking - showing off though.

My own opinion on nature/nurture in humans is that male humans do need specific socialisation to prepare them to be decent towards people who are smaller than them and they can easily overpower, to listen to people who have a higher, less powerful voice than them even though it is easy for a broken male voice to cut straight across. Also males need to be taught good impulse control and management and positive, creative ways to channel their sexual urges when it is all to easy to become a creepy perv (voyeur, pornsick, exhibitionist, sadist, etc).

I think boys need to be taught these things before becoming taller, stronger, louder and more sex obsessed than girls.

Acknowledging that men have a higher propensity for violence surely just means that they need to take special effort NOT to be knowing that they can inflict more damage. And that we as mothers and society need to take special care against giving permission for that violence. Be MORE nurturing and empathetic to male babies and children. Make doubly sure that male adolescents understand enthusiastic consent etc.
Well that's been my take on that anyway.

The belief that men cant help acting on their 'natural' urges to harm their companions and children lowers them to the status of animals.
Its a denial of civilisation.

It also holds them to a lower standard of behaviour than women, who are vilified for harming their children when in the grip of post puerperal psychosis.

I've always understood feminism as being about acknowledging that men and women are different but equal, and acting to maintain or achieve that equality - so positive discrimination to protect against discrimination that may arise as a result of our differences and biological functioning (maternity, childcare, breastfeeding, smaller stature, weaker strength etc)
I'm a bit too sleep deprived for my brain to work properly today (up all night with croupy child who just wanted mum and breastfeeding - biological function) but yes, how can you protect women as different but equal if you can't acknowledge the biological differences! The special protections and rights make no sense if there is no biological difference