the myth of the gendered brain

[morningtoncrescent62]

Has there been a change of policy at the Guardian? I just spotted another sensible article from them, promoting a book that debunks the idea of the 'gendered brain':

www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/24/meet-the-neuroscientist-shattering-the-myth-of-the-gendered-brain-gina-rippon?CMP=twt_gu

I can't open Guardian links for some reason but I'd love to be able to disprove my view of The Guardian and 'sensible story' as being an oxymoron

Thanks for that, OP. Goodness, that is an extraordinarily GC article for The Guardian.

“The brain is waxing and waning much more than we ever realised. So if you haven’t had particular experiences – if as a girl you weren’t given Lego, you don’t have the same spatial training that other people in the world have. If on the other hand, you were given those spatial tasks again and again, you would get better at them. The neural paths change; they become automatic pathways. The task really does become easier.”

I bet this came under the 'science' editor / topic so the cultists did not engage with it...

It’s a brilliant article written by a distinguished professor of neuroscience completely debunking the whole notion of pink and blue brains. As she archley notes-“forget the male and female brain it’s a distraction it’s inaccuate it’s possibly harmful too because it’s used as a hook to say well there’s no point in girls doing science because they haven’t got a science brain”. Can someone let Layla “I can tell whether someone is male or female by staring into their eyes, their soul” know?

“I am concerned about what the 21st century is doing, the way it’s making gender more relevant. '

Useful and timely article.

How did it slip through into the Guardian?

It's in the Observer rather than the Guardian - completely different editorial teams. I've noticed in the past year or so that the Observer has been a bit more open to GC points of view than the Guardian.

The article is not denying sex differences in the brain but saying we are also shaped but many other factors. So just common sense really.

"People like me are not sex-difference deniers,” continues Rippon. “Of course there are sex differences. Anatomically, men and women are different. The brain is a biological organ. Sex is a biological factor. But it is not the sole factor; it intersects with so many variables.”

Great article - thanks for the link

It's in the Observer rather than the Guardian -

Good point - which gets lost when viewed online.

Hurrah! I love this woman. She's where I got this user name for, having been a campaigner against how neuroscience gets misinterpreted, misrepresented and misunderstood by the media and the masses.

She's also researched the autistic brain. Brains are very plastic. My understanding of the autistic brain is that it can be less plastic in some areas, more so in others though of course this is extremely individual.

The argument by Rippon can be found in Angela Saini's excellent book, 'Inferior'. Looking forward to reading Rippon's book.

Pah - how typical that this is the week I finally decide to ditch the Observer for the Sunday Times...

And there are sex differences. Apparently the brain is enormously changed during and just after pregnancy, and the effects last for up to two years. But it's eff all to do with wearing dresses.

Just read this and came to check whether anyone had linked to it! Very interesting article indeed.

This bit made me sad:

For Rippon, a twin, the effects of stereotyping kicked in early. Her “under-achieving” brother was sent to a boys’ academic Catholic boarding school, aged 11. “It’s difficult to say this. I was clearly academically bright. I was top in the country for the 11+.” This gave her a scholarship to a grammar school. Her parents sent her to a girls’ non-academic Catholic convent instead. The school did not teach science. Pupils were brought up to be nuns or a diplomatic wife or mother. “Psychology,” she points out, “was the nearest I could get to studying the brain. I didn’t have the A levels to do medicine. I had wanted to be a doctor.”

She's only 69. I hope there are no schools left like this now. The National Curriculum has not been an unmixed blessing but at least most children now get some science teaching.

I've just read it, and that bit had my jaw on the table.

I'm in my late 50s. I was so lucky to go to a very academic girls' school. We all did Biology, Physics and Chemistry for the first three years. Then we had to do Maths and at least one science O level, and I'd estimate maybe half the year did two or three. Certainly the sixth form was pretty evenly split Arts/Humanities vs Sciences and most of the latter group went off to university to study STEM subjects. No stigma at all about any of this within the school, quite the contrary. Every single member of the teaching staff was a graduate in the subject they were teaching, so we had them as role models, even if we knew of no others.

Decades later my school merged with a boys' school. In the school newsletter sent to alumni I was electrified to see an article by a sixth former (this is just a few years ago now) telling younger girls that it was OK to pick science and maths for A level - there was no reason to think of them as boys' subjects - the clear implication being that some of them did. Made me very sad.

Bittermints I was shocked to realise that there were more girls doing Physics A-level in my tiny all-girls school 30 years ago than in DD's 2500-pupil mixed sixth form college.

Great article. Not surprising that it was in The Observer and not The Guardian.

I went to an all girls school in the 70s. Being good at maths and science was normal - my first physics teacher was in her early 20s and very glamorous, we all wanted to be like her! We prided ourselves on getting better results in maths and science than the local boys school. I despair of this pink and blue brain bollocks. On the one hand we have STEM ambassadors going into schools trying to get girls interested in careers in science and maths and on the other we have Mermaids telling girls that if they don’t ‘identify’ with Barbie they are boys in girls bodies. Evidence free crap why is this nonsense being peddled to children.

Just read this great article and wondered if it was up on Mumsnet yet - and of course it is!

This kind of science should be taught in schools, not the nonsense on gender that is currently being proposed in the UK and here in NZ too.