I've been wondering about how much gender influences point of view as opposed to life experience. I'm a guy (I'm pretty sure about that too.) and I want to know, is there something unique to being a girl that influences the way she acts and thinks that is completely seperate from social influences? If there is, how much effect does that have? Is it the kind of thing that would be overpowered by social influences? How would natural differences and social differences affect how you write a character of a different gender than you?
When you read something, and you don't know whether the speaker is male or female, can you tell which it is, purely by the writing?
I would say there is. I mean women and men are vastly different anyway, so surely their writing's and point of veiw will be different. Btw gender actually means the attitudes and values held by the two sexes. If your gender is female it means you think like a female. If you sex is female, you're physically a female.
I've been told by a girl that my writing sounds like something a guy would write based off of what I focus on. That's all I can say on this matter.
There have been extensive studies done defining the differences between the genders. However i believe this falls into the urban legend. It is believed true but I do not think there is any official or recognized study that supports it. But there are many distinct differences between the male and female mind frame. There are equally so many physical ones, like Pain tolerances for example.
In that case I withdraw it (although I wont edit it out, coz then you'd have to edit and stuff etc etc) and apologise in case it caused any offence. But I do think that men and women tend to write differently, and about different things, if you gave a woman and a man the same premise and then told them to write a story about it, i think the end results would differ in ways that them being two individuals does not quite explain. And of course, this is not a bad thing.
I would have to agree with you 100% with out question. Males and females do in fact think differently. They approach situations differently and they deal with life differently (All of this has been supported) and all in all have different outlooks on life. But you said this the best: Gender is a products of the mind not the body. Thus a female by genetics does not in fact have to think like a female. That is where many of the problems arise.
Ouch! That hurt to see in print. The fact is that these "studies," (of which this one is a misquote *) are prey to the same manner of number bending as all studies. The qualities being compared are completely subjective and any kind of measure would be speculative at best. *The study is actually concerning the difference in the way men and women manage spatial relations skills vs. abstract thought.
Well once again I am sorry. I will edit it out. I feel I should point out that I used that example with the understanding that it was a marginal difference. I did not for a second believe that women have no capability of logical thought, and that men are emmotionally stunted. In the same way that anything in the human body that comes in pairs one of them will always be slightly bigger, this is the understanding I had of this study- that difference was there, but it was not a vast difference. So even if it was wrong, my point was that men and women think differently, and that was the only thing in my knowledge I could quote to support my point. Sorry for any offence.
Your taking it too much to heart. Women by culture are conditioned to be more emotional, hence what you have heard. There is truth to it in that as "general overall whole" women tend to be "more emotional" and men tend to be "more logical" but there have been no studies done to confirm this fact. No study study in relation to the mentality of thought process based on gender or gender identity at least. It is considered more a "Cultural norm" IE: It just "seems that way" don't it? No need for you to feel that you have insulted anyone. Nor do I think anyone should be insulted by what you have said. It is very common for people to believe this and it has been "said" many times and it is an urban legend. But correcting someone with insight always accomplishes more then to just lash out and try to chastise anyone you do not agree with. and that is not an urban legend.
I believe many of the differences are cultural. I despise the stereotype promoted by the likes of John Gray's Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. The differences between individuals are far greater than the differences between the gender means. But that does not mean you should ignore the culture-driven elements either. The only suggestion I would offer is the same as for any other character: observe as many individuals as possible, in as many situations as you can. Observe them as individuals, not as part of a category.
It's ok I'm not taking it to heart, I was just worried about offending people, and also that I have embarrassed myself lol
No problem, I wasn't offended. (I just realized that could sound pretty concieted.) This seems like one of those situations where both sides could be true. "Culture and individuality make more of a difference" is very true, there's examples of it all around us. "Gender makes more of a difference," might also be true, because in most societies women and men have roughly equivalent positions as in other cultures. Historically, men are the fighters-providers, while women are the nuturers-child raisers, regardless of culture. In the Towers of Sunset by L.E. Modesitt Jr. it starts out with a society where the women are dominant, and the warriors, while the men are pets and toys. It was definitly different than the norm, and I could never really suspend my disbelief. It just felt unnatural, like he had forced it to make a point.
I liked the book Men are scum and Women whine too much, Umm I mean Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. There are many issues that are "generic" among genders but not every single individual has that trait. Cultural norms are acceptable to use, IE: Writing that a woman is more emotional then a man. As it strikes as believable. Mainly because it is common and it true. The only mistake is that It is not not "Aways" true". Freud put forth an example using flower arrangement, and that feminine men would arrange flowers near to identical to feminine women. This sparking the debate of male/female being a mental state.
I have no idea, it was mentioned in my text book for a course I took called "Signs and Symbolism" at NTID. I do not have my course books, nor can I cite which book Freud mentioned it in. I am not a huge Freud fan but some of the stuff that was credited to him that had to learn as part of my course studies in college did make sense and I agree with, I also agree with some of the things Jung said. But that is college for you. P.S. Never... never take a philosophy course at 8 am.
I dropped in earlier but since it looked the guys were having such a good time trying to figure us gals out, I thought I'd wait and see what conclusion they came to.
I think the conclusion is that girls are weird. And we don't really want to understand them, because that takes away half the fun. We just talk because it gives us something to do. Heaven help the first man who actually understands a woman.
Sounds like the same conclusion a group of girls would come up with. Hey! We must be more alike than we thought. Love you guys!
Well, gravity puts the seat down, but muscle puts it back up. Nature has obviously made the male the more muscled sex, so it follows that they are the ones meant to lift the toilet lids. The female is not intended to do any work here; therfore the natural state of the lid is down. (At least, that's what I tell my brothers. But they don't fall for it either.)
I'm quite a girly guy.... I could probably have counted for the female voice in this thread if Daisy and Topper hadn't shown up!
