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"Masculinity Retrieval?"

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http://www.newsweek.com/id/214834 Pink Brain, Blue Brain

Claims of sex differences fall apart.

By *Sharon Begley http://www.newsweek.com/id/183003 NEWSWEEK

Published Sep 3, 2009

From the magazine issue dated Sep 14, 2009

The
message that sons are wired to be nonverbal and emotionally distant thus
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The sexes "start out a little bit
different" in fussiness, says Eliot, and parents "react differently to
them," producing the differences seen in adults.

Those differences also arise from gender conformity. You often see the claim
that toy preferences—trucks or dolls—appear so early, they must be innate.
But as Eliot points out, 6- and 12-month-olds of both sexes prefer dolls to
trucks, according to a host of studies. Children settle into sex-based play
preferences only around age 1, which is when they grasp which sex they are,
identify strongly with it, and conform to how they see other, usually older,
boys or girls behaving. "Preschoolers are already aware of what's acceptable
to their peers and what's not," writes Eliot. Those play preferences then
snowball, producing brains with different talents.

The belief in blue brains and pink brains has real-world consequences, which
is why Eliot goes after them with such vigor (and rigor). It encourages
parents to treat children in ways that make the claims come true, denying
boys and girls their full potential. "Kids rise or fall according to what we
believe about them," she notes. And the belief fuels the drive for
single-sex schools, which is based in part on the false claim that boy
brains and girl brains process sensory information and think differently.
Again, Eliot takes no prisoners in eviscerating this "patently absurd"
claim. Read her masterful book and you'll never view the sex-differences
debate the same way again.

*Begley is NEWSWEEK's science editor.*

Find this article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/214834

October 28, 2011 at 5:49 AM

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