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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Why Modern Women Behave More Like Men

Women's bodies change with work trends

Women today behave very much more like men than their grandmothers. After all, they attend college to compete in careers (rather than to find a husband). They are interested in sex. They drink alcohol and do drugs. They are active in competitive sports, including as professionals.

Social scientists often attribute such profound changes to "sexual liberation" but this is really more of a semantic trick than a true scientific explanation. It is an exercise in circular reasoning. We should not be too surprised by that because virtually all so-called explanations in the social sciences follow a similar defective formula as I argue in scholarly detail in my recent book "The myth of culture: Why we need a genuine natural science of societies."

If women are behaving more like men and scholars attribute this to sexual liberation, we are entitled to be skeptical. It is tantamount to saying that women are now free to behave more like men because they are more free to behave like men (i.e., have been sexually liberated, or unshackled from feminine "roles"). We are in the presence of the Rumpelstiltskin effect - give the problem a name and it goes away.

It is all too easy to be a critic, of course. If one wanted to provide a real explanation for changing feminine behavior, what would this be? There are different possible levels of explanation but the most basic is biological. A lot of evidence is accumulating that the competitive behavior of men and women, just like that of other species is mediated by changing levels of sex hormones.

Using hormones as an explanation may seem far too simple, a case of biological reductionism run amuck. Ironically, hormonal explanations are never quite as simple as might be imagined for the simple reason that behavior affects hormones and hormones affect behavior in a never-ending chain of reciprocal causation. That is why hormones are such a valuable clue to understanding changes in gender-typed behavior.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess this explains the sexual aggressive behavior of women that I see out in our local bars . It used to be men chased women now it has reversed and the women are desperately and shamelessly chasing men . Of course it's under the guise of looking for a mate but they find a different one every night . be careful of disease if you should run across one .

Anonymous said...

Sheilas...(they are not your mom).

Anonymous said...

I think it must be all the anti depressants women over 35 are on . I guess they think being easy is empowering but it's really just pathetic !

Anonymous said...

Why buy the pig when you can get a little sausage for free?

Anonymous said...

The article says it all. Women have to be agressive because there are many men that have become pansies. It's role reversal.

Anonymous said...

I can only recommend if you want a moral woman that hasn't been brain washed by American media go international . They're better looking and are thankful and taught values by they're parents .

Anonymous said...

3:32 If you want men to be more aggressive don't give them any for a while . But if you can't help yourself don't complain when no one wants to keep you.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame to see women act like that I wonder if they realize all the men in their lives have no respect for them Fathers , Sons , Brothers and Husbands . Low self esteem it's tragic !

Anonymous said...

521 I completely agree with you. The real secret is to not give any to any of them. Then you have to bat them off like flies and they will bend over backwards to do anything for you. There is alot of power in that.

Anonymous said...

6:02 I'm glad you see the value of self respect but don't do it for a sense of power do it because you respect yourself and whoever you end with will respect you too !