The horror of female genital mutilation still continues in many parts of the world and should be opposed on all levels, including our language. I realize bizarre forms of FGM are now being initiated by Western women on a voluntary basis, but we should never forget that for the majority of mutilated women worldwide, this is a painful, dangerous, barbaric, involuntary practice forced on them by an uncaring patriarchy.

I mean no offense. But many around the world are fighting today to rid us of this insanity. Let’s hope one day it will be an archaic practice, like testing for witches by drowning innocent women.

doubledo@freemail.hu

Thank you for appreciating my posts. But I have to tell you that the main poni Dr.Justin Bailey and Dr.Cynthia Fuchs Epstein and many others are making,is the major things that keep the patriarchy in place and continue sexist inequalities is these very deep rooted common sexist gender myths,roles and stereotypes!

Also I forgot to mention yesterday another very important excellent book by cognitive social psychologist Dr.Gary Wood from Birmingham University in England called,Sex Lies & Stereotypes:Challenging Views Of Women,Men & Relationships.He also shows from a lot of great research studies that most of the gender differences are pretty small,and that we are far more alike than different and that there are much greater individual people differences found,and he also shows how these socially constructed gender roles and categories are very limiting to both sexes and only allow us to become half of a person instead of full human people and how this causes problems in relationships between men and women.

Thank you for posting all that; I’m certain there are folks reading at this site who’ve not learned of it already (I have). However, you’re arguing against a point neither Octogalore nor I ever made. Neither of us stated, or even inferred, that men and women are more different than alike.

Acknowledging differences between the sexes does not have to equal some moral justification or apology for sexism. After all, if men and women were EXACTLY alike there would be no patriarchy to blame.

Funkfilledbratwurst?

I spoke with Dr.Brooks Gunn in 1994 and I asked her how she can explain al of those great studies in the book that show that girl and boy babies are born biologically more alike than different with few differences,but are still perceived and treated that differently from the moment they are born,and she said that is due to socialization,and she said there is no question that socialization plays a very big part. Also there have been studies by many anthroplogists over decades who have done field work in Tahiti and a few other cultures where they have found androgynous men and women,who are rewarded and encouraged to be both “masculine” and “feminine” and are not put into artifical opposite categories and roles. One of the anthroplogists who studied these cultures is Dr.Walter Williams who is the author of the award winning The Spirit and The Flesh.

Also try to check out an excellent online recent article called, by distinguished sociology professor Dr.Cynthia Fuchs Epstein that deals with the media renforcing sexist biases and gender myths,exaggerating small differences,and ignoring the research findings that the sexes are more similar than different,Great Divides:The Cultural,Cognitive,and Social Bases of The Global Subordination of Women. Dr.Fuchs Epstein lists Dr.Justin P.Bailey’s article in her notes and I sent it to her shortly before her article was written, but I’m not totally sure if she found it herself or if I was the one who made her aware of it.

I just really feel I need to debunk the gender myths and assumptions posted by octogalore,and The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker. First of all there is plenty of consisten psychological research studies from decades by many different psychologists and researchers that has found that girls and boys and women and men,are much more similar than different.

Twisty even posted the major meta analyses by University of Wisconsin psychology professor Dr.Janet Hyde called The Gender Similarities Hypothesis in which she reviewed over a 100 psychological research studies done by all different psychologists and researchers from over 2 decades,and found that in most psychological areas girls and boys and men and women are more alike. In communication,verbal ability,personality,math,cognitive ability,leadership etc. and her findings were published in American Psychologist in September 2005.

The American Psychological Association still has two articles on their site about her findings on a section called Gender Matters, One is called,Men and Women:No Big Difference Studies Show That One’s Sex Has Little Or No Bearing On Personality,Cognition,and Leadership. The other article is called,Think Again:Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills Psychologists Have Gathered Solid Evidence That Boys and Girls Or Men and Women Differe in Very Few Significant Ways Differences That Would Matter in School or At Work- in How,and How Well They Think. There used to be an online excellent college paper by feminist Framingham State College psychology professor Dr.Justin P.Bailey called,Men are from Earth,Women Are From Earth,:Rethinking The Utility of The “Mars/Venus” Analogy. And he also debunks these common gender differences myths and assumptions with a lot of decades worth of research findings including Dr.Hyde’s and he explains how our society and the media is obsessed with claims about gender differences and always exaggerates the small average differences. He explains that despite this constant focus on gender differences,research has consistently shown that women and men are more similar than different.

He explains that the assumption that large gender differences exist for many other abilities is also not supported,such as female advantages in interpersonal skills,nurturance,or verbal abilities are often nonexistent or overestimated. He then explains that popular stereotypes such as the “non-communicative male,”the “map-reading deficient” female,or the alpha-leader male,males make better leaders,the differences between men and women are only 1% or less for verbal ability,verbal aggression,spatial ability,communication,reactions towards infants and leadership. And he says despite decades of searching for differences,the evidence does not support large or even moderate differences much less a “different worlds” analogy,and that most large differences are found between *individual people*

I would also suggest you read an excellent thorough book by Brown University Biolgist and Geneticist Dr.Anne Fausto-Sterling called,Myths of Gender:Biological Theories About Women and Men. The sexes are actually biologically and psychologically more similar than different and our gentials are very similar since they start off from the same exact tissue in the womb,and our brains are more similar than different too, plus it’s a well known scientific fact that the human brain is plastic and easily molded and shaped by different life experiences,trainig and enviornmemts,which can even change the structure and function of the brain. I have a lot more to add but my post is already too long so I will just have add another.

Which f-word? I have to know!

About advice from men on how to be a real feminist, it’s hardly necessary to theorize when history supplies such a wealth of examples of why the dominant class cannot be trusted to help the subordinated class free itself. E.g. the kind neighbor man who paid without consulting her the fine imposed on Susan B. Anthony for voting because he didn’t want her jailed - but in doing so foreclosed her chance of taking her case to the Supreme Court; or the much-praised Congressmen and Senators who loudly supported the Equal Rights Amendment but subverted any chance of its passing or having any teeth if it did pass by refusing to allow core issues like barriers to abortion to be cited as examples of sex discrimination that the amendment would prohibit.* Or one of the hero white lawyers who helped Thurgood Marshall et al. craft the cases that advanced the Civil Rights movement but years later scoffed at feminist efforts to sex-integrate powerful men’s clubs in Washington, DC. (I have since wondered what subtle braking actions or flat bad judgment he may have applied as a white ally of Black activists.)

I have so many more examples, across many subject areas, of gate-keeping by benevolent men, but they all reflect the same unquestioning faith in men’s superior judgment in matters involving women’s rights and lives. Not that a man cannot be helpful in analyzing men’s ideas and actions, but in the end their judgment is no more to be relied on than that of Anglos advising Hispanics, whites advising Blacks, rich advising poor. Sexism advantages all men and entirely escaping the influence of what advantages us is virtually impossible. As writers to this blog often acknowledge, it’s hard enough for women to fight their way clear of patriarchal thinking.

Asked by fellow members of her NOW chapter how white women could fight racism, Colette Roberts replied, “Fix white men.”

Andrea Dworkin once remarked that when she criticized pornography for its profound harm to women, all she could see in the eyes of male listeners was the question, “What do I get to keep?”

*If interested, request published critique of relationship of ERA-Roe-1st Amendment defense of pornography by writing to reference@now.org