Male and female brains

David Albury of Edinburgh wrote to The Mail about a legendary French language class’s discussion on the appropriate gender of the noun ‘computer’. The teacher, dividing the students into two groups, asked the women to come up with four reasons that the computer must be masculine, and the men to provide four proofs they are feminine.

The women were certain a computer is male, because:

  1. To get his attention, you must first turn him on.
  2. He retains a lot of data, but is still clueless.
  3. He is supposed to help solve problems, but is himself also one of the problems.
  4. Choose one, and you’ll then realise you should have waited for a better model.

The male group decided it’s definitely a ‘she’, because:

  1. Only her creator understands her inner logic.
  2. The native language she uses to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
  3. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in her long-term memory for later retrieval.
  4. If you make a commitment to her you’ll then have to spend half your pay on accessories.

However, that marvellous computer, the human brain can be clearly categorised neurologically by MRI scanning as either distinctly male or female according to a study on 949 individuals ranging from eight to twenty-two years of age conducted by the University of Pennsylvania. The results were summarised by John Nash in that same edition of the newspaper in December 2013. The lines of communication of a male brain follow neat straight lines from front to back of both of the brain’s hemispheres; those of the female brain travel back and forth from side to side between the hemispheres – ‘a great mad scribble’, wrote journalist Sarah Vine. So profound are the demonstrable patterns that they seem to belong to two different species!

Also, studies from the Universities of Los Angeles and Madrid published nine months earlier revealed that the female brain is smaller than its male counterpart, but – hold it! – they use fewer cells and less energy and can therefore function with greater efficiency!

  • The male brain can link perception to appropriate action – so men like to solve problems and fix things.
  • Men also like to daydream, while women tend to act quickly, for instance in response to a crying baby.
  • Even male and female migraines have distinct features, because women’s brains have a strong emotional circuitry and they release anger, stress and doubt by talking; men like to avoid talking and de-stress by going for a run.

* It’s always been so from the very beginning: ‘God created man in his own image; … male and female he created them’ (Genesis 1:27). So, vive la difference! ‘Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man of woman’ (1 Corinthians 11:11-12). So, let’s work in team together – in home, in work, in church. A-men!

This entry was posted in Liberating Women. Bookmark the permalink.