Exceptional Male myth on female Logic Deductive Reasoning by Marisa3 Story of the Month contest entry

I have always loved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Holmes never ceases to amaze with his powers of deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning (top-down logic) links premises with conclusions and Holmes was brilliant at this and therefore very much of an elitist about his considerable brainpower. He has, on many occasions, pontificated on the 'inferior' female brain when it comes to logic and rational thinking. "I don't dislike women, I merely distrust them. The twinkle in the eye and the arsenic in the soup..." - Sherlock Holmes This brings me to an egregious misconception that has been perpetuated throughout history, which is that there are major neurological differences between the sexes. (If I could get my hands on the bombastic Victorian male who started this rumor, I would resurrect the bastard and make sure his second death was slow and painful). Somehow, there is this overall view that men are the only ones fully capable of logical thinking. (To borrow Scrooge's line .... Bah humbug!!). In Cordelia Fine's book "Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference" she dispels the myth of there being major differences in the hard-wiring of the male and female brains. Fine, a researcher at Melbourne University, states that "there may be slight variations in the brains of women and men", but added, "the wiring is soft, not hard. It is flexible, malleable and changeable." According to Lise Eliot, an associate professor based at the Chicago Medical School, "All the mounting evidence indicates these ideas about hard-wired differences between male and female brains are wrong." So gentlemen, this whole bugaboo that women lack sufficient brainpower to deduce, or use deductive or inductive reasoning is "another fine mess you have gotten us into" (to quote Oliver Hardy). There is a laundry list of pitfalls associated with this accepted myth and men, (bless their little pointed heads) have not only created this list, but have proceeded to do a saturation campaign for its societal acceptance and they have done a stellar job. Take the ubiquitous sitcoms of the 50s and 60s (usually written by all male staff writers), where the women wore strands of pearls and always looked as if they were ready to go have lunch with the girls, all to stay home and do the vacuuming. (Ask any 'real' mom of that era just how productive she would be in cleaning the toilet and chasing a toddler around in a pair of high-heels and a designer housedress. I am certain her response would be swift and full of expletives). They always deferred to the husbands on final decisions. These were the "men" of the house. (With the exception of Ralph Kramden (The Honeymooners) and his wife Alice who nailed his balls to the wall at least twice a day ... Go Alice!). How many times did Rob (Dick Van Dyke Show) tell his wife Laura not to ... "worry her pretty little head" about one thing or another? How about Lucy and Ethel (I Love Lucy) and the antics they got up to. Ricky and Fred continually dismissed them and their schemes. They were the featherheaded wives with absolutely no common sense. These women all had one thing in common and that was that they were always getting pats on their neatly coiffed heads and being spoken to as if they were five years old. All of the above shows were fun and funny, but they also reflected, on many levels, how women were viewed by societal standards during those decades. Back then, it was widely accepted as fact that women could not drive, handle money or understand politics (this is just a short list). Their credibility was narrowly extended to cover childcare, cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry. (Can you say 'Stepford Wives' boys and girls?) "The feminine energy has a powerful gift: the ability to nurture, love, have deep compassion and empathy." (Excerpt from Divine Feminine - by Sue Patton Thoele). While this passage does capture the feminine side of a woman's nature, it is only a one-dimensional look at her very complex character. "There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." - Washington Irving So many patriarchal cultures continue to exist and even in a more enlightened society the myth still persists that women are fundamentally different from men when it comes to the powers of reasoning. It is widely accepted that women arrive at conclusions from a very different source than men (which is viewed as hardwiring and therefore not subject to change). Men might have us believe we actually retrieve our reasoning from the dark side of the moon. That is simply because they cannot comprehend our delivery system. I do believe the amount of credence given to one's views is proportionate to how one couches those views. If they are delivered in an emotional state the credibility is subject to being diminished greatly by male counterparts. They simply employ the 'tuning out' method and all that is being said is promptly negated. So, women, I would suggest putting the blunt object you are holding with menace down (although I have to admit it is a very good attention getter) and bring the volume of your voice back into local range. Then address this male person in a civil and calm manner. State your case in concise terms and allow for his rebuttal. If during the course of his response he says something, stupid, vague or insensitive, then all bets are off and you are free to resume throwing objects of your choice at him. I don't think even Jimmy the Greek would take odds on how this situation will play out. Look at it this way fellas, if nothing else it is a test of your physical agility; it will keep you on your toes. The way I see it, neural plasticity, education, and culture/society make a huge difference in how we view men v. women and their ability to reason. The setups of the brains of these two genders consist of soft-wiring and therefore are subject to change. One article I read stated: "in short, our intellects are not prisoners of our genders or our genes and those who claim otherwise are merely coating old-fashioned stereotypes with a veneer of scientific credibility." "For two millennia, 'impartial experts' have given us such trenchant insights as the fact that women lack sufficient heat to boil the blood and purify the soul, that their heads are too small, their wombs too big, their hormones too debilitating, that they think with their hearts or the wrong side of the brain. The list is never-ending" - Beth Hess (Sociologist) All scientific studies aside, women are most assuredly capable of rational and logical thinking. If we weren't, there would not be so many positive and productive men in this world, as most had strong female caregivers who played a huge role in their nurturing and formation of their characters. Women may be perceived by men as less logical at times, because of the range of emotions they are in touch with. We are after all the givers of life, the ones who get the opportunity to assist God in bringing new life into this world. So do we have a few more hormones to deal with and much more complex bodies for the privilege? Yes. But we are now and have always been intellectually equal to men; not above, not below, but beside. Partners in life. It's the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. - Maya Angelou Recognized Author Notes I have always been intrigued with the easily accepted notion that women cannot hold a logical thought in their heads. It seems that when women finally make it into positions of authority or other prominently held positions that are male dominated, they are either considered anomalies or tokens. Society has been slow to change when it comes to seeing women as equal to men in deductive powers. I believe, up to now, that women have unwittingly perpetuated this myth, because, as in Stockholm syndrome, we have become sympathetic to the mans point of view. Men tend to offset their frustrations of not understanding women by dismissing them as illogical. If they can convince those around them that women are just irrational creatures, then their job is done. They are off the hook as far as further discussion is concerned.(I realize this statement paints with a broad brush, so for all those men who do not subscribe to this archaic view, I apologize.) Let us face it, there are fundamental differences between the genders and I am all for those differences, they make life interesting. Society has done a number on men, as well. They are expected to be strong and stoic and to contain their emotions at all cost. So much role playing goes into the business of being male and female. My hope is that future generations will get beyond the myths and truly find common ground for mutual respect and equal thought.

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