On Monday in class we talked about the differences between genders. This had me thinking about all the things I have learned about the differences this year through readings, life experiences and my psychology of men and women class. Recently society has gotten frustrated with the studies of gender differences because they fear that the more we emphasis the differences, the wider the gap between us will become. This could be true but I think that they more we know about the differences may allow us to create stronger more functional relationships with one another. In my psychology class we learned all the differences starting from babies to grown ups.
One of the huge differences between baby boys and baby girls are that baby boys don't tend to connect with their moms or the people holding them through eye contact. The baby boys are more interested in the world around them and the girls are more interested in developing strong interpersonal relationships. This is true as the child grows up. Boys are always way more fascinated with how something works or how to put something together. While young girls play with toys like barbie and baby dolls that all reflect their desire to have relationships with people. Girls actually have more neurons that help them create and grow interpersonal relationships. So this is not just a stereotype, it's biological.
As the boys and girls grow up, the girls tend to learn how to read people emotions much better than the boys which I feel like shows a lot when they grow up.
I talk about all these differences between boys and girls and I think it's interesting to look at what makes girls laugh and what makes boys laugh. There is definitely a difference here because I remember going over to play with boys next door when I was younger. They would always want to watch their favorite show. I honestly can't remember what it was called but I remember being oh so confused about why anyone would waste their time watching it. I didn't think it was funny at all. It goes the other way too for girls. Young boys don't necessarily find the humor in chick flicks or romantic comedies. They can't relate so they just don't find the humor.
I even remember being in the back of my mom's car when I was younger with the boys I carpooled with. They could laugh for ten minutes straight just from making farting noises from their armpits....like ewww! haha. I'll have to admit sometimes I did laugh but only cause they just got so tickled over the dumbest thing.
Boys and girls are different in so many ways but we all have something unique to offer (well most of us anyway...)
Til next time,
Caroline
While I see how someone can think that highlighting the differences between men and women will draw us further apart, I too think it is important so that we can better understand each other. It's so interesting to look back and see how the differences start from infancy and grow over time to make two very different genders. Throughout their entire childhood, girls are steered toward people-oriented pastimes: playing house, dolls, and little clubs. Boys, as you mentioned, love to take things apart and put them back together. I think this is why certain jobs, such as computer science and engineering, are so dominated by men. It's not that women can't perform well at those jobs, it's just that they enjoy and are good at interacting with people. They prioritize social interaction above an "esteemed" job. While this is a broad overview, I think it's important that people realize there are differences between men and women and those differences should not be ignored.
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