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Brain Sex - mind over matter?
What is all
this debate about Brain Sex ? People everywhere know
that sex fills most people's brain at sometime or another. Sex is on the
mind or in the brain of males and females - but have you ever thought
that sex in the brain, is not so much what you are thinking
but who you are!
This is a gender issue. Who has most sex in their brain? Women or men? How much does the brain determine our sex and gives us our sexual identity, our sexual preferences and predispositions?  Are we hard
wired into our sex to such an extent that the brain and not the other
parts of our anantomy determine where we go with our sexuality. Brain
sex is not so much about what is going on in our minds, but what
is going on in our brains - and that is a world over which we have no
control!
Some believe the behavioral differences between the sexes is simply the result of social conditioning. They illustrate this by showing how the roles and behavior between men and women change considerably from culture to culture. This view suggests we "condition" boys and girls to grow up into adults according to the customs, behaviors and roles predetermined and expected of them within society. Does that mean we are all clones, replicas, social constructs of our societies, or is their something else - brain sex?? About 10 years ago Anne Moir and David Jessel wrote a book called "Brain Sex" which clearly states: "The sexes are different because their brains are different". Their main thesis is that the brains in men and women are constructed differently and this causes us to process information in a different way, which results in different perceptions, priorities and behavior. Our biology combined with our neurology has hard wired us to manifest our femininity and masculinity. "What we are and how we live is largely dictated by the messages that mould and inform our brains." So sex is not so much on the brain as in the brain. It seems that it is our hormones after all! Hormones determine the distinct male or female organisation of the brain as it develops in the womb. We all begin life as female for just a few weeks and then the infusion of male or female hormones into our system alters the chemistry and our brains and genitals change shape! If our brains are soaked in female hormones, femininity is produced. Masculinity is produced by a good soaking in male hormones. This means the brain is literally 'a sex organ'. We are born with a sexual mind-set! So sex is in our minds more than we could imagine, if you know what I mean! Many books have been written based on the "brain sex" premise. Jonn Gray's international best seller, "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus", takes this a step further. Rather than focusing on the "hard wiring" he focuses on the behavioral, emotional and perceptional differences between men and women - men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, after all - and offers a simple solution: couples must acknowledge and accept these differences before they can develop happier relationships. Brain sex for men and women is like coming from two different planets! Anne and Bill Moir have just recently written another book entitled, "Why Men Don't Iron: The Real Science of Gender Studies". For years men have been urged to become the New Man, to get in touch with their feminine side. But what if it doesn't exist? The Moirs continue to argue that men's and women's brains are wired differently, and that the increasing feminisation of society is detrimental to men and, eventually, to women. Women may want sex out of the brain of men more, and men, it seems, want women to have it more on their brain and certainly in their minds! A very scholarly book called "Apprenticeship in Liberty - Sex, Feminism and Sociobiology", by Beatrice Faust expores this whole debate in depth. She also argues that men and women are different "to the extent that they experience their bodies differently. But research shows that anything that can be said about the female body can be said about the male body. To the extent that raging hormones influence behavior, they influence men as well as women". Beatrice Faust moves into the area of sexual poltics based on a woman's identity in relation to her reproductive cycle. She examines the relationship between biology and culture and like any converstaion she says both sides should be heard, although at times one side may dominate and that traditionally has been the side saturated in male hormones. Brain sex it seems also reproduces societies as well and has been responsible for the masculisation of sociey! Society is just one big sex organ as well, if you know what I mean! Could a brain drain bring about a sex drain as well? What is your view? Do you think men and women
have different brains when it comes to their sex? How have you experienced
the differences? And so the controversy continues. RECOMMENDED READING |
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