re: #436 Obdicut

My wife and I are different genders, true.

We’re also different people in a zillion other ways.

Gender is one of the ways we’re different. It is far from the most important way.

I think people put a lot to much time into thinking about what gender is and means. And whether a particular difference between two people has a basis in gender or not.

Well, it’s an interesting topic, and one that’s got so many moving parts and gears and such that it’s awfully hard to sort out.

My favorite random gender thing is the study that seemed to show that male vervet monkeys prefer cars and stuffed animals, and girl vervet monkeys prefer toy cooking gear and baby dolls.

This was supposed, by a number of people, to show that gender differences are innate.

What they couldn’t explain to me is, since vervet monkeys in the wild don’t drive, cook, or raise human children, how in God’s name they could have some sort of innate attraction to these gendered toys.

I’m still waiting for some sort of rational explanation for this. The best one I’ve heard so far is from a basketball coach at my old school, who believes that females have an innate attraction to small containers, which he believes explains the toy cookware thing.