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Hi Kenneth,
Len:
The previous posts became a bit confusing and muddied; I've attempted
to edit out the main concepts and respond to them.
Kenneth wrote:
The general idea that memes could have a gender bias is expressed in
which words oneself uses to express themselves.
Len:
I believe that gender and sexuality are one and the same thing. No person
is a blank slate. Males and females enter the world with gender brains
that are *receptive* to certain memes, *remake* memes in their own sexual
image, and *reject* others.
Each human has a determining core or center based on male or female
sexuality. There develops a powerful degree of memetic selection based on
on gender along with each person's unique birth characteristics. For each
one of us, beginning at birth, memeplexes build but always on a substrate of
the powerful sexuality genes, hormonal influences, and other determiants.
For Homo sapiens, there is a range of genetic sexual influences with
permutations, and degrees of cross-over in each gender.
Ken wrote:
But there is no doubt that certain memes are typically
feminine/ masculine.
Len:
IMHO a meme is asexual; what gives it a feminine/masculine
identity is the persons individual sexual orientation who incorporates it
into his/her consciousness.
Kenneth:
That is when a male talks about order will he mean the same thing as a
female does !?
Len:
The meaning will be different for each person based on memeplexes
constructed on the orientation of a male-female genetic base.
Kenneth:
Does a male/ female thinks, feels, experieces, .... the same things when both
read a book about suicide !?
Len:
Suicide is a meme that has all kinds of gender, religious, social and
legal baggages. If we could factor out gender, it would once again
revert back to genetic beginnings. I submit that the individual's
*sexuality* develops into his/her most powerful memeplex. Sexual
orientation additionally influences virtually all other meme-meanings
that are learned in the course of a lifetime.
Len:
>Aren't there gender differences in the way people *experience* certain
>memes?
Ken:
<< Of course, I have no problems with this statement. Like Vincent said
on the first draft of this thread way back in July 2000, there has to be
something different about male/ female information processing.
Males/ females use different language constructs as a result of that, and
in the end this includes different cultural/ social/... behavior.
Len:
Vincent said it much better than I could. I would add that the "different
language constructs" are based on male-female genetics.
Len:
>It would be interesting if through research we could tease out the purely
>gender-related reasons for male-female differences in their understanding
>and usage of language.
Ken:
>How would you tease this !?
Len:
1. Take a random sample of 500 female adults.
2. Have each subject independently write a sentence
for each of 25 words that have suspected male/female
differences.
3. Using linguistic tools, do a language analysis of
each sentence output.
4. Do a similar study of 500 male adults.
5. Compare the outputs of each gender group.
Take care, good buddy,
Len
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