The Gender Difference

     A very hot topic in the world today is how men and women are the same and the idea of genders are invalid and should be irrelevant in this day and age. However, contrary to popular belief there is much scientific research backing the statement that boys and girls are different further than the surface physical differences, but on a biological level. During this week’s discussion one of the preparation readings was a video titled “Men, Women and the Sex Difference” with Jon Stossel. Those who are saying that men and women are the same believe that women are more emotional and men are more aggressive because of the sexist world we grow up in. If the world was unbiased and was not filled with these gender stereotypes then men and women who are completely interchangeable apart from the obvious physical attributes that we are endowed with. I had a hard time with this part of the video where they blamed sexist parenting on the so called “sexist” world we live in. Critics even concede to say that those parents who are aware and try to avoid sexist parenting are still guilty of it in the way that they cuddle the girls more than boys creating a more emotional child. However, in the video there were experiments conducted and observations made that would suggest otherwise. One of the social experiments was that they would have mothers of children around toddler age and separate the child from the mother with a plastic barrier. What they observed was that little girls had more of a habit of just sitting there and crying while boys would attempt at knocking down the barrier. Even at this young age the enant desire to either cry or aggressively confront the problem ahead of them is already prominent. Another test that was conducted was with college students. The first part of this test included leading students around campus as they were blind folded and then stopped and asked how to get a certain building while still blindfolded. The results were that most men were able to give accurate directions on how to get there while women were confused as to where they are in the first place. The second test was that they left students in a room full of random objects and were told just to wait there till they came back. After a minute or two in the room they were removed and asked what items they could remember from the room. IN most cases women could recall the room almost perfectly, moving from item to item. While men could tell you with not the most confidence about a couple of items. This proves that men are better with cardinal directions while women are better with landmarks and visual aids. So now that we have established the fact that men and women are different all the way down to our biological identities it begs the question as to why. Why is it that we are different? My personal answer would be that we are meant to complete each other. Women are to fill the gap of nurturers while men have more of the behaviors of protectors and together they make a whole. I believe we are divinely appointed our genders and we have certain responsibilities that come with our gender identities that define the person we are. We are made different with a purpose and quite honestly I would not want to live in a world where we are the same. What a boring world that would be if we all had the same strengths and weaknesses. I am personally grateful for the fact that we live in this diverse world, you have to admit that it keeps life interesting.