The idea of gendered brains
Hm. Plates shifting just a bit. Maybe. Pink News reports:
The Green Party has hit out at a Science Museum quiz that tells kids they have a “male or female” brain.
Feminist campaigners hit out at London’s Science Museum on Twitter this week, after a woman was taken aback to see ‘girl’ brains coded in pink and ‘boy’ brains blue in the interactive exhibit.
Well yes. I was taken aback by that exhibit too, as were a lot of my friends. We’ve all been a good deal taken aback by this whole claim that there are “girl brains” and “boy brains” because it sounds so very identical to the pseudo-scientific justifications for the subordination of women we could have sworn feminism had been disputing for decades. I have to say that in a scream like the Duchess because how can I say it calmly?
The test, which cites its source as pop-up children’s psychology book ‘The Brain Pack’ by Ron Van Der Meer and A Dudink, claims to be able to tell the difference between the male and female brain.
It says: “Generally males and females are very similar to each other in the way they think. Psychologists have developed tests to show up some differences between the sex[es].”
But campaigners say it reinforces tired stereotypes.
Ya think?
Green Party’s equalities spokesperson Sarah Cope said: “It’s really disappointing to see the Science Museum reinforcing outdated gender stereotypes in this way.
“The idea of gendered brains is dubious science at best, and this kind of sexism – telling girls at a young age that they have feminine brains – is part of the reason why boys still dominate STEM subjects and less than 10% of engineers in the UK are women.”
This is what we keep saying.
And it also isn’t good for a girl to be told she has a male brain because she doesn’t fit into their girl box or a boy to be told he has a female brain because he’s gentle, quiet, and nurturing.
Don’t tell the UK DoE about this or school kids will be forced to take that test within a fortnight. The results will determine what GCSEs they’re allowed to do.
Doesn’t the criticism of gendered brains conflict with most trans narratives?
Yes, it does, which is why there is this ongoing dispute on the subject.
No, see–
Shut up, that’s why.
@ 3 Brian Buchbinder
To precisely the same extent that acceptance of homosexuality depends on the identification of “gay” and “straight” brains.
(Or to use fewer words: No.)
Silentbob, it relies on the assumption that some behavioral preferences are biological rather than cultural, so, yes.