All very true! Also, women living longer than men could well be due to them going to the doctor more, and not strictly biology.
I'm sure some differences in brain development do exist, but - so what? If you watch large numbers of little kids playing, boys do appear to spontaneously engage in rough-and-tumble play even as toddlers, for example, whereas fewer girls do. But while it's interesting to speculate about how this may be connected with the evolution of sexual selection (mate comptetition), the only reasonable place where this information could be used is the development of child care programs. That is, when children are taught to curb violent tendencies, more effort will have to go into teaching this to boys than to girls. Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean that it ought to be that way.
Unfortunately the one thing that IMO would be very difficult to change is that men on average have greater muscle strength (although not endurance). This is an unfortunate consequence of human muscle development, and is evident whenever you watch highly fit men and women compete together (for instance, the serves in mixed doubles tennis). This is a real problem for women worldwide, because it is relatively easy for an average man to overpower an average woman, and that can create all sorts of problems in society -- including self-perception in men and women. This is why self-defence courses for women focus on other ways to disable an opponent -- brute strength is just not likely to work. Those are not available to women in the third world, though.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-08 12:37 am (UTC)I'm sure some differences in brain development do exist, but - so what? If you watch large numbers of little kids playing, boys do appear to spontaneously engage in rough-and-tumble play even as toddlers, for example, whereas fewer girls do. But while it's interesting to speculate about how this may be connected with the evolution of sexual selection (mate comptetition), the only reasonable place where this information could be used is the development of child care programs. That is, when children are taught to curb violent tendencies, more effort will have to go into teaching this to boys than to girls. Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean that it ought to be that way.
Unfortunately the one thing that IMO would be very difficult to change is that men on average have greater muscle strength (although not endurance). This is an unfortunate consequence of human muscle development, and is evident whenever you watch highly fit men and women compete together (for instance, the serves in mixed doubles tennis). This is a real problem for women worldwide, because it is relatively easy for an average man to overpower an average woman, and that can create all sorts of problems in society -- including self-perception in men and women. This is why self-defence courses for women focus on other ways to disable an opponent -- brute strength is just not likely to work. Those are not available to women in the third world, though.