"brain sex" questionnaire
6 Apr 2004 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firecathttp://www.guardian.co.uk/life/news/page/0,12983,937443,00.html
EQ: 42 ("on average, men score 42 and women score 47")
SQ: 31 ("on average, men score 30 and women score 24")
My brain type is B (E=s).
If males are supposed to have a brain type of S and females a brain type of E, I guess that makes me "androgynous."
Criticism of this test:
They say, "A key feature of the theory is that your sex cannot tell you which type of brain you have. Not all men have the male brain, and not all women have the female brain. The central claim of this new theory is only that on average, more males than females have a brain of type S, and more females than males have a brain of type E."
It's very misleading to call these differences "male" and "female" brain types if they aren't overwhelmingly connected to other physical/biological sex attributes.
The book connected to this test is called "The Essential Difference," by Simon Baron-Cohen. But if the brain-type tendencies are not overwhelmingly related to physical sex attributes and are only true "on average," then "essential" is a really poor way to describe them.
(In other words, if you ask me what the "essential" biological difference is between males and females, I'll be much more likely to say "Y chromosomes" or "reproductive organs" than "slight differences in how men and women tend to handle social situations and process information.")
The X-Y axis where you plot your EQ and SQ scores to get your brain type is...just...weird.
And of course this theory (that women tend to be intuitive, empathic, and social; whereas men tend to be data-oriented and interested in how things work mechanically) can be used to uphold the current social order where people- and care-taking oriented work is considered less important and is thus less well paid (or, more often, not paid at all) and data oriented / mechanically oriented work is considered more important and thus more highly paid. It can also be used to keep women out of the data oriented / mechanically oriented work because "hey, we know women aren't good at it" and to subtly pressure girls and women away from any interest they might have in systematic thought.
EQ: 42 ("on average, men score 42 and women score 47")
SQ: 31 ("on average, men score 30 and women score 24")
My brain type is B (E=s).
If males are supposed to have a brain type of S and females a brain type of E, I guess that makes me "androgynous."
Criticism of this test:
They say, "A key feature of the theory is that your sex cannot tell you which type of brain you have. Not all men have the male brain, and not all women have the female brain. The central claim of this new theory is only that on average, more males than females have a brain of type S, and more females than males have a brain of type E."
It's very misleading to call these differences "male" and "female" brain types if they aren't overwhelmingly connected to other physical/biological sex attributes.
The book connected to this test is called "The Essential Difference," by Simon Baron-Cohen. But if the brain-type tendencies are not overwhelmingly related to physical sex attributes and are only true "on average," then "essential" is a really poor way to describe them.
(In other words, if you ask me what the "essential" biological difference is between males and females, I'll be much more likely to say "Y chromosomes" or "reproductive organs" than "slight differences in how men and women tend to handle social situations and process information.")
The X-Y axis where you plot your EQ and SQ scores to get your brain type is...just...weird.
And of course this theory (that women tend to be intuitive, empathic, and social; whereas men tend to be data-oriented and interested in how things work mechanically) can be used to uphold the current social order where people- and care-taking oriented work is considered less important and is thus less well paid (or, more often, not paid at all) and data oriented / mechanically oriented work is considered more important and thus more highly paid. It can also be used to keep women out of the data oriented / mechanically oriented work because "hey, we know women aren't good at it" and to subtly pressure girls and women away from any interest they might have in systematic thought.
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no subject
Date: 7 Apr 2004 12:07 am (UTC)