2006, Morgan Read Books
Are men stronger than women? Some say obviously, others say no way! Michelle Wolf in her stand-up on Netflix supports feminism: she wants respect and equal opportunity. But she also pokes fun at the idea that women are just as strong as men saying, let’s face it, we’re not! If you have Netflix, check out her stand-up, it’s very intelligent and funny, but don’t venture there if you’re fainthearted as she walks where others fear to tread and it may not be for you!
Anyway, wherever you stand, and to get back to the book at hand, don’t hesitate to read The Female Brain as one more very fascinating piece to the puzzle. At the risk of going off on another tangent, I’ll say that many years ago I read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (1992) and found its conclusions quite interesting. Based on surveys, the author showed how men and women relate differently in relationships. That book was a top seller but was criticized for stereotyping.
Brizendine’s book is more scientific, based on studies of the brain using cerebral imaging. She concludes that even if female and male brains are 99% identical genetically, the remaining 1% variation makes a difference.
Her research supports that women compared to men are generally more intuitive, think less of sex (i.e. not almost all the time!), are sexually more turned on verbally than visually, and tend to avoid conflict. These and other assertions are supported by examples and stories of how these differences play out in real life, which add to the reading experience and turns this rather technical subject into a page turner!
There is not a lot of discussion about homosexuality; there’s an appendix which includes some information. More studies have been conducted about male homosexuality, for one thing. However, this book was written in 2006, so if anyone has some new information, please comment!
Brizendine also wrote The Male Brain, which I recommend if you’re a man, or if you really want to read more on the subject, but most of the same information is already in the first book.
If you're brain is starting to smoke at what you may consider to be the unfair assertions of differences in brains between the sexes, and for another discussion of the book including comments from readers strongly opposed to it, go to:
Not sure I agree with the idea that the brain is responsible for women being more intuitive or avoiding conflict. I'd argue that society puts a premium on women that do not challenge men (rape threats and being labelled a b*tch take care of that just fine), and women, unlike men, are not punished for getting in touch with their emotions and feelings as well as the feelings of others, so no wonder so many men are stunted in the "intuition" department.