Tuesday's Class

I thought that it was a really good idea to have Dr. Widman speak to our class. He brings a totally different perspective on the topic of gender. Seeing the other side of the spectrum was helpful to me. It really allowed me to decide what I think about gender differences and gender issues in general. I wish that he would have been able to stay on topic a bit more but a certain distraction was ever present. Although this is true, he was able to show us certain evolutionary and biological differences between the sexes. What I found most interesting was the actual brain differences. It was neat to learn about the spatial reasoning differences too but it is hard to say if these differences are a product of socialization and acculturation or if they are biological differences. The brain anatomy is simply indisputable. Even though scientists are not positive what the differences mean, they are positive that they are there. I would have to side with Dr. Widman on the fact that not everyone can be anything. There are clearly limits. However, I side with Professor Cook-Huffman on the idea that socialization is extremely important to our ideas about gender. A happy medium is ideal. We are certainly influenced biologically and we are also influenced sociologically and culturally.