Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA06017 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 16 Apr 2001 19:13:21 +0100 Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 11:13:12 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) From: TJ Olney <market@cc.wwu.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: memes and sexuality/ Gender Bias for Memes In-Reply-To: <62.db7406e.280b9c77@aol.com> Message-ID: <Pine.WNT.4.21.0104161039440.216-100000@C157775-A.frndl1.wa.home.com> X-X-Sender: market@[140.160.80.17] Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
The memetics of gender very much contribute to communication difficulties
between people of differing gender orientations. You will get much further
with gender thinking if you make the distinction between gender as a social
construct (memetically based of course) and sex as a biological one. The
poles for the english language are then masculine <- -> feminine and not
male<- ->female.
What you will find across groups is that there are XY folks who are very
feminine in their behaviors and XX folks who are very masculine in their
behaviors. This includes their use of language and attribution of meanings to
words. The problem that arises if we are not careful about the distinction
is that the central tendencies for XX tend to be feminine and for XY to be
masculine, and we start to really mix up what has been genetically
determined, what has been genetically influenced, and what has been
memetically influenced. There is getting to be some excellent research that
has helped to tease out these differences. Hormones do matter, but,
especially with drugs of various kinds, their influences can be drastically
modified.
So few women?
A strong gender bias exists for peace making vs argumentation. That bias is
amplified by a cross cultural difference between different English speaking
countries. Wade and J.R., of course, represents the ultimate masculine
perspective of "I said it so it must be right, and even if it isn't I can
defend it." (Which of course has given rise to the sweatshirts that say "If
a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman there to hear, is he still
wrong?") It's too bad I've had to put them in my "file with out reading"
filter, because they both occasionally have very interesting things to say.
We on the list have no way of knowing whether they are XX or XY, only that
their verbal behavior represents a very masculine (current epoch) approach to
communication. There are very few intelligent women willing to participate
in a discussion with that point of view, it conflicts with feminine values.
Maybe that is why so few self-identified-as-women participate on the list.
TJ
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