Do You Have a Male or Female Brain?

[JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown]

www.magiquiz.com/quiz/is-your-brain-more-male-or-female/

I know it's just a stupid online quiz but this is the environment young people are growing up in, and I thought you'd all find it ridiculous.

I got 'female' which means I'm better at finding my keys and maintaining the peace apparently.

If you can't be bothered to look at the quiz (which is sensible because it is daft and looong), it consists of questions like:

What was your favorite thing to do as a child?
- Play Doh all day
- Play with my Easy Bake Oven.
- Make Creepy Crawlers

You're walking through your house. How likely are you to notice dirty plates on the table?
- I always notice them.
- If I’m not distracted I’ll notice them.
- If I’m paying close attention I might notice them.
- I probably won’t notice until someone mentions them.

It’s such nonsense. My teenage daughters have perfected the technique of never seeing any dirty plates. My nephew however is extremely tidy. Does this mean they are boys and he’s a girl?

Thingybob - I went to an all girls school and loved science and maths. Never crossed my mind that this wasn’t a girls subject as so many of my friends studied science as well. I did a physics degree myself. The school prided itself on regularly getting better O level results in maths than the local boys school. I don’t believe in stereotypes.

There is no sexed brain. Stuff like this should be taken down.

Obviously always. Hardly surprising when they’ve been set such a manly example by a mother with a degree in a man topic. Go and find the Harry Enfield ‘women know your place’ clips and play them on a loop.

I'm on a phone Errol so can't figure out how to link to studies but try out the question on your family and friends.

The question being "Did you prefer maths or art at school" ... my family, regardless of sex, would all be maths. DH only has one maths A level whereas DD and I have two apiece. Wider family is mostly STEM, no discernible difference by sex. Friends and colleagues likewise.

There may be a question of what you were allowed to like at school - the 'stem in girls schools' phenomenon gives a strong hint on how that operates.

One to forward to Gina Rippon then.

Errol thinking of my family, I can think of only two with non-stem degrees and they are Male, all the other degrees are STEM both Male and female. To be fair I am not sure what my grandmother studied but she did become Mayor of her town in the 1950s.

I have a male brain apparently

Dear God that quiz goes on and on. I didn't see how some of the questions were relevant - are you an introvert, for instance.

I think there are differences in male and female brains but not the differences our sexist society has told us are there. And our brains are too complex to put into words what those differences are, complicated more by the strong influences of culture.

I do not believe in male and female brains.

Precisely because I am capable of engaging mine.

I gave up on the second page, so I guess I'll never know if my brain is male or female. How will I ever cope?

Seriously though, even if there were average psychological differences between men and women, that doesn't equate to a "male brain" and "female brain". Nobody ever says that being over 5ft 10 is a "male height" and being under 5ft 6 is a "female height" (and anyone in between had an "androgynous height" I guess).

"We've determined that your brain is more FEMALE! Be sure to share your results with your friends!"

Oh well.

It's not a matter of belief. It's a matter of evidence. And the evidence does not support the 'Male and female brain' hypothesis.

There's evidence that adult brains may be a mosaic of traits conventionally thought of as 'masculine' or 'feminine'. There's only one sure way of telling if a brain belongs to a man or a woman, that's to check its chromosomes... nothing to do with function.

It's so regressive. I cant believe that we are foung back to a place where females are defined by stereotypes.

Indeed. My brain is female because it's in a female body. That is all.

"It's so regressive. I cant believe that we are foung back to a place where females are defined by stereotypes."

I have heard the following argument several times now: "There are gender roles, yes, but gender identity is different", upon me asking what exactly they are identifying as. Never have I heard what this magic 'gender identity' actually is, though.

I don't have a brain if I did I would be dangerous

Professor Cohen has a thesis of ‘systemising’ and ‘empathising ’ brains. No prizes for guessing who he thinks gets which one. Gina Rippon makes the excellent point that even Professor Cohen doesn’t claim that ALL women have empathising brains (making them a natural fit for low paid caring jobs of course) but some men can have them too and some women have systemising brains. So - why call them male and female brains at all then?

I also think it’s a disgrace how low paid many caring jobs are.

MrGHardy - I completely agree. What is ‘gender identity’ divorced from biological reality if not stereotypes. David Thomas’s column in the Daily Telegraph is interesting - ‘I knew I was a woman because I cry in films, am an emotional person, like wearing dresses, worry all the time, enjoy shopping and am interested in interior design’ What is this if not a stereotype of what David thinks a woman is? For the record, if this is the test of womanliness then I fail miserably.

Whether you like Pineapple on your pizza determines whether you have a lady brain? wtf

Exactly! But every time I point out that they identify with stereotypes they go "no, gender roles exist, but identity is something totally different". The sheer cognitive dissonance is astounding.

In fact, I had several posts back and forth the other day, and in the end they got so cornered, so instead of replying again, they deleted the comment (and with it all the replies, on instagram) and blocked me. Close your eyes, hold your ears, and sing la la la.

But is liking pineapple on Pizza a male or female trait?

I was shit at both maths and art, does that make me non-binary?

I was shit at both maths and art, does that make me non-binary?

Me too, I preferred English, had long hair (often tied with a ribbon) and wore skirts a lot. But now I work in coding, have very short hair & live in trousers with useful pockets.

We must both be non-binary.

This board could greatly contribute to eradicating this thinking by ending the tradition of accusing everyone who doesn't agree with the party lines of being a man.