to think the 'F' word is one we should be proud of......

[PosieComeHereMyPreciousParker]

Thanks to MN, especially dittany, Lenin, BoF and Anyfucker, I have been made aware of my casual attitude to misogyny. This short journey in my reclaiming my old values recently lead me to the London Feminist Network Conference on Saturday. And Oh my God it is one of the most inspirational things I've ever done.

Having money and being relatively attractive in my younger days I was mislead into thinking that being a feminist was irrelevant, after all we had a female PM and then 'girl power' where we were fooled into thinking with the right body shape and a little wit the world was our oyster (farm).

My husband's and friends' response to my recent activities have ranged from being mystified to mockery, from resentment to full on stereotypical prejudice. I am alarmed that barely any of my friends think feminism is relevant.

Am I being unreasonable to reclaim the word feminist to mean a person that wants to rid the world of gender prejudiced?

"MRIs are used to prove responses to things but surely it's obvious those responses might be being made due to conditioning rather than being innate"

There are twi elements to this - in terms of brain shape, there is very little difference between male and female brains. But in adults the shape of parts of the brain do differ - the theory is that this is down to brain plasticity as a result of conditioning.

But the research is obviously ongoing and well-respected psychologists such as Simon Baron Cohen have a different view, seeing autism as an extension of a 'male brain.'

However as others have said, this is a bit of a side road as women are born into this society and are conditioned by it - even physically changed by it, according to some research.

Development is a complex interaction between biology, cognitive processes and environment - and feminism is focusing on environment.

It is totally fasciniating though isn't iy.

Perhaps they should examine the differences between a tribe that closely nurtures babies and those that leave them alone more.....can't cite examples and should be cooking....

fine vigororusly challenges Baron-cohen methodology and interpretations and the E-brain hypothesis.asserting the researchers knew gender of baby subjects and inadvertently influenced results

baron-cohen is nonetheless v interesting and prolific researcher

Doon't know whether bollock or not Posie - but nor does anyone else I think.

The more I read, the more I realise that scientists agree on very little :o

baby brain is subtle quasi-science way of keeping women down,there there not as clever as you used to be dear. post delivery female brain hormonal levels usually return to pre-pg levels (except in pnd where remains disrupted)

I read that Simon Baron-Cohen book "The Essential Difference" when it came out - was moved to throw it across the room. It was clear even to me as a teenager that a) his methods has some serious holes in them and b) his conclusions are waaay out of step with the "knowledge" he is basing them on.

What an f-ing coincidence that Science Can Now Prove That Ladies Should Care For Kiddies.

Somehow no one ever seems to "prove" that women are more empathetic and better at listening and suggest that as a result they are more naturally suited to being diplomats, representatives at the UN, hostage negotiaters, psychiatrists, TV interviewers, doctors etc.

EvilAntsAndMisamas -- wrt Living Dolls, did they ever figure out whether processing verbal information using both sides had the result of giving the women an advantage in their apprehension of what was being related to them, or was there an assumption that because the men used only one side of their brains then that was inherently superior to the women's two-sided approach?

Was there a conclusion that the women were intellectually multi-tasking (taking it all in and composing mental shopping lists) or was there a conclusion that the women were able to form a more rounded or nuanced conclusion because of the two sided approach?

Science has more than a few glaring bind spots.

...and I can't type ... 'blind spots'

Unfortunately I haven't got the book here to check, but IIRC Living Dolls doesn't recount what the conclusions were as to any possible advantages, but there was no mention of the scientists recognising the multi-tasking possibility. It's all a bit hearsay really and I'd need the ref to check it out properly.