(5) What is Gender anyway?

 Welcome back,

  I hope life has been treating you well and you haven't thought too deeply it hurts. I really felt that this week. It was a difficult one. I found myself floating through life with nothing holding me to the present which is fun for a minute but can be dangerous if you don't feel attached. Feeling attached or solid in your identity can affect many different aspects of one's life. I know that a major topic in the world today is how an individual identifies. Once I was having a conversation with a friend of mine regarding what attributes were feminine and what was masculine. This really got me thinking what is gender anyway?

  During my conversation, we discussed many different attributes but always seemed to come to the same conclusion, it wasn't stuck to a gender really. We would throw out a traditionally seen attribute for whichever gender and always found a counterpoint to the argument of it being attributed to one gender, I wish I had had the research that I do now and could share the findings that they conclude. Now disclaimer, there are always going to be exceptions to whatever it is. Humans aren't solid in behaviors 100% of the time and results vary from person to person. However, the findings are conclusions drawn from the majority. 

  When female and male children were studied from birth these were the differences found! I wondered at first why we would study children, but when I posed this question the answer was that children have not had decades of time to be influenced by society and culture. Even in just the first 5 days, there were already inherent differences between females and males. Females were found to have more white matter in their brains whereas men had more grey matter. Male babies were found to have a bigger startle response whereas females developed faster. Female babies were found within 5 days of birth to be looking and mimicking the movement of the mouths of adults around them versus male babies who were more focused on tactical stimulus. These findings were observed in early adolescents and were not attributed to other aspects such as culture, nurturing, etc. I made this chart of the findings to help better understand the differences in genders. 

Nurturing	Protect
Communication	Constructive/Destructive
Fine Motor Skills	Gross Motor Skills
Detail Orientated	Spatial Orientation
Person Focused	Thing Focused
Cooperative	Competitive
Many Thinking	Myopic Thinking
More White Matter in Brain	More Grey Matter in Brain

Relations	Aggressive
Make Stuff	Break Stuff
Verbal	Things
Connection	Activity
Connectivity	Compartmentalization
Emotion	Logic
Panoramic View	One Shot

                                     Female                                                                   Male

    Each of these attributes can be a great difference and naturally complement one another. In current society, it is a lively debate about how there are no differences in genders. However, if we fail to acknowledge the inherent differences we fail to fully utilize and celebrate the things which make us wonderful to be us. The attributes which we each naturally possess are something that complements and strengthen our bonds, abilities and influence together.

 In conclusion, there are things that inherently make us different. But that is not a bad thing. Each characteristic completes one another and complements the other. Rather than constantly comparing and trying to be there same we celebrate our differences and find how they can help us move further by working together. 

Sincerely, 

Mamma Tree

p.s. I have attached some of the readings/studies which stood out to me the most below. 

Infants Prefer Toys By Gender | American Council on Science and Health (acsh.org)

Stossel: The Science Around Male Brains vs. Female Brains - YouTube

Jonathan Haidt on “Two Incompatible Values at American Universities.” - YouTube