Ladies and Gentlemen...
I saw some statistics the other day that said that men commit more than 87% of murders, over 95% of rapes and 87% of robbery and assaults. Its not that surprising though. But why? What is the difference between men and women that makes men so much more likely to commit crime? Is it just based on biological differences- more testosterone, or is it the man fulfilling the role of hunter gatherer in a modern setting?
Maybe I want to ask a bigger question: What is the difference between males and females(aside from the obvious visible ones)? The reason I say 'males and females' rather than 'men and women' is because what it is to be a man or woman varies from culture to culture. For example, in pre-industrial Europe, medicine (apart from midwifery) was thought to be a mans career, whereas in Russia it was almost exclusively made up of women. But what it means to be a male or female wont vary from culture to culture. It's the difference between sex and gender.
What do you guys think the difference is between the males and females? From a scientific but also a biblical or religious perspective. I really don't know much about the issue, but I am concerned by simplistic explanations of maleness and femaleness- even biblical ones. How can people from less masogenistic cultures than the biblical authors ones understand these passages?
At the end of the day, I have no idea what is essentially male in me, and what is essentially female in women. If we were able to find this, then I think it would take away a lot of the pressure that people can feel from society to fit in to certain moulds- moulds that are probably not made for them. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this, I know some of you will have looked at this a whole lot more than me.
posted by Tim Lovell @ 10:58 pm
8 Comments:
I realise this is a relatively serious question to ponder but one thing that sets men apart from women - sheds! It is a separately male phenomenon that a person creates their own habitat in the bottom of the garden where they indulge their eccentricities. Discover why don't women have sheds and then I think you'll get your answer.
well, reducing it to a purely biological standpoint, the male has an XY chromosome and the female an XX chromosome. the extra arm that the female chromosome carries contains information to make ovaries, estrogen and boobies. (hee hee I said boobies)
But, looking around at humans as we live, there is so much variation from super manly men (like my husband) and super camp men (like ben) and super girlie girls (like cindas)and super butch women (like ben). there seems to be so many more than two genders. in an age where we have identified the genetic fingerprint of humans, are we not being a little bit reductionist by just using chromosomal differences to determine identity. I think many people would be less confused if we didnt try to force them into a category.
Men are buggers aren't they. Particularly young men. The average profile of a criminal in Britain is an 18-25 year old male. I think Tim's shed insight is profound, maybe men who commmit crime are reacting against shedless childhoods.
Jon, I think you're in the wrong discussion, the one about men being buggers is on Cats blog.
I like the shed hypothesis, but I need more.
I'm going away for a few days, so probably wont be blogging for a bit. Keep it going until my return. Peace out.
Who are you Joelzinho? You might well know me, I am quite famous. I hit local news at the tender age of 5 for trying to save the rain forests - maybe that’s why you know me!
I've been thinking about sheds and this wasn't just another witty comment. My parents have two sheds. My mum has one and my dad has one (they tried sharing). My mum’s is small, practical and at best, a big box for lawn mowers and other gardening paraphernalia. My dad’s is a shrine that mirrors all aspects of his highly eccentric personality. Yes it’s messy, and yes no one else could make use of it but that’s what makes it so interesting. Maybe it’s a little like animals that mark their territory but instead of peeing everywhere a shed is a man’s chance to mark his ground. My dad’s shed has fragments of his life littered around. Parts of cars, parts of boats, projects which once started are never meant to be finished. I could go on but something distinctly male is found in sheds but I’m not quite sure what it is or what to call it. Maybe I can invent a new word. The thing that defines men as men is ‘shedism’. This could also solve another problem. Maybe Ben Brown is the way he is for the lack of sheds in his life. Maybe we could run shedding weekends to help men find their inner shedism?
Dr Joe, quoting Mark Twain, says inside every man there are actually three men:
1. the man he thinks he is
2. the man other people think he is
3. the man who he really is (Joe's edit: "the man God made him to be")
Is the conflict between the objective reality of the third and the subjective opinion of the previous two the cause for all this gender confusion? I don't think I'm sticking my neck out to say almost certainly.
I think there are general rules for the difference between men and women but generalisations are so crude as to be almost pointless.
RTF has done some teaching based on "women be subject... men love..." explaining that these are the instructions Paul gives because they are the things that each gender can find it easier to neglect.
Hey Dan's brother, I'm Dr Joe's mate (and Dan's mate) Dave. Nothing particularly startling to add on this issue, but I seriously recommend you read Elaine Storkey's fantastic book 'created or constructed'. Covers these kinds of issues and is really interesting, shows how the thinking on this has changed through history too.
Good point Andy. I did cut and paste it from a site that I thought looked good, but I don't know. I seem to remember a figure of 98% or something that I heard a while ago, but it definately does still happen.
However, unfortunately nobady has been able to satisfactorally answer my question, I still don't know what the real difference between males and females are.
Although I have enjoyed seeing the shed theory grow from its embryonic stages to a more (though not yet complete) thesis on the topic of gender differences.
Tim, what about people in the jungle, who have never heard of a shed, and die without knowing that a shed even exists? What would you say about their genders? Would they be lost in the quagmire of sexuality that we call Ben Brown?
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