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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Are the sexes the same?
Message-ID: <1682@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 23:00:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1682
Posted: Wed Sep 25 23:00:23 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 05:53:57 EDT
References: <411@decwrl.UUCP> <410@rti-sel.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 21

I'd like to amplify Bill Ingogly's remarks a bit.  When people talk about
the differences between men and women, and how society enters into it, it
seems to me that they tend to fall into a number of errors.  The first is
that which Bill describes: the illusion that society is this homogeneous
organic thing.  As Bill points out, it is far from organic, and
inhomogeneities are the rule more than the exception.  The social pressures
upon a girl being raised in a southern Baptist home in the Tennessee hills
are quite different from those upon a Jewish girl living in NYC.

This same type of illusion is present in a different aspect as well,
however.  One statistical fact about humans is that, on almost any trait you
care to mention, the deviations are quite significant.  Males 6' tall are
quite common, as are males 5'4" tall.  With behavior, the deviations are
just as large.  It has always seemed to me that talking about how "men are
this way and women are some other way" was of dubious utility, even when you
admit that only averages are being discussed.  Perhaps women tend to be less
agressive than men-- but many women are quite agressive, and many men are
quite passive.  Unless you have some idea of the DISTRIBUTION of the trait
with in each sex, I don't think that you can make a legitimate comparison.

C Wingate


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