A Mans Way Home

A Response to the Quartz Article “The biggest myth about our brains is that they are “male” or “female” I just stumbled across this article written some time ago (2017) the proposition that the writer Lila MacLellan is advocating for the is removal of the terms “male” and “female” brains. She begins by stating the work of Daphna Joel from Tel Aviv University. Her research shows that the brain when required can change the structure of neurons from a female state toa male state. So great start begin by admitting that there are two types of neurons present one type primarily in males and the other primarily in females. She then goes on to state that in circumstances of stress; I.e. survival, the brain can change these neurons to the other pattern if required. So there are two types of neurons one male and female and in extreme circumstances they can be changed. Not really disproving your claim is it? After a brief detour to criticize James Damore of Ex-Google Memo fame. She gets back on...

Baker, Carloline,  et al. “ 1848: Declaration of Sentiments. ” Womens Rights Friends, 26 Jan. 2019, www.womensrightsfriends.org/pdfs/1848_declaration_of_sentiments.pdf .

“Some feminists today continue this “essentialist” view. Women share - they argue - certain essential characteristics. For example, women emphasise relationships, and responsibility to others; they learn to value sharing and nurture, cooperation and connection. These values may translate into greater support for political candidates who promote peace and ecology. Or they may have repercussions for science and medicine, which have been traditionally male-defined. [...] a holistic outlook maybe more natural to women because of the importance they give to relationships. Note that these values are not necessarily linked to a female nature - although some contemporary feminists will so argue - but can be accepted as the result of gendered social experience, in which girls learn to be person-oriented and boys are encouraged to manipulate objects, distancing themselves from them in order to analyse or control them.” (pg. 3) Le Gates, Marlene. In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western S...

Let’s imagine the lives of two very different men. The first was born to a single mother. As a boy he grows up without knowing who his father is except the little his mother tells him. He struggles with the effects of poverty, second hand clothes from the charity shops, the unhealthiest microwave meals, and a mother who I barely home as she works two jobs to support them both. His schooling suffers his teachers who are all women, consistently mark him down, he finds it difficult to concentrate and has trouble controlling his temper. He consistently fails his classes, and returns home to his mother who becomes more and more disappointed with him. He internalises this a begins to feel that he will never be a success; will never have a good job and will probably end up committing crime, and ending up in prison being raped. He begins to exercise and workout, the only thing he enjoyed in school. He grows his body but not his mind, becoming a strapping young ladies man. The second is born to...

I’ve never trusted psychiatrists. Why would I? Whenever I have had to sit in one of their chairs and allow them to poke through memories of my past, they were determined to find that singular point of trauma on which all my current unhappiness and problems could be blamed. To open it up and drag it into the light of day. I felt uncomfortable allowing my private thoughts and emotions to be revealed to someone that in all honest I hardly knew let alone trusted. These sessions tended to not end well, with me feeling worse than when I first went in. They didn’t solve anything for me except to expose my failures, make me relive my regrets and force them back into the forefront of mind at a time when I wanted solutions, not reasons. The reasons were clear to me I knew what I regretted in my life and how they had caused me to be in that situation. I’ve never needed help to know what I regret. Was it the abusive relationship that I went through for 3 years as I was desperate to feel like...