Genders think differently
By Jen Jackson, contributing writer
Posted on October 9, 2006

Why do men seem to be able to tune women out during a football game? Why do women seem to remember a fight that happened months ago? Are these gender roles created by our society or are they present at birth in differences in our brains?

Recently, more studies that survey the differences between men’s and women’s brains have begun. CAT scans of both sexes are able to show that certain areas of the brain are enlarged in one sex and contracted in the other.

Psychiatrist Louann Brizendine said the hippocampus in women is larger than it is in men. The hippocampus plays a part in memory and may be the reason behind a woman “never [forgetting] a fight, a romantic encounter or a tender moment — and won’t let you forget it, either,” she said.

But JMU psychology professor Dr. Arnie Kahn said this is more due to the nurture factor created by society rather than the differences in the brain.

 “Boys are taught not to express certain emotions such as sadness; girls are taught not to express anger,” Kahn said.  He also said that females and males both experience sadness and anger, but each gender has “learned what to express, where to express and how to express differently.”

The University of Toronto also studied the differences between men and women. When put in a room full of objects and taken out a few minutes later, women were able to accurately describe and name numerous objects in the room. In contrast, men seemed to typically answer with non-descript words such as “stuff.”

Even when it comes to sex, women tend to think of it as an intimate act, where as men sometimes see sex as more casual. Junior Jenna Gilliam attributes this to the fact that “women tend to use their brains, where men tend to use the other organ,” she said.
Brizendine also found that female babies tend to connect with faces more so than male babies. Male babies even tend to crawl away from their mothers earlier than female babies.

Freshman Steven Ball agrees that men tend to be more independent.
“[Girls] seem to need to talk to their friends about everything,” he said.