Wow, there really is a difference! How did THAT get in there?!
“Being male is a matter of birth
Being a man is a matter of aging.
Being a gentleman is a matter of choice”
—Vin Diesel
There has been much discussion in the last several years about the differences between men and women. Books have been even written claiming that the sexes are from different planets, figuratively speaking. Men and women are two sides of the same coin, and though they do not have identical physical gifts, both sexes have access to the same intellectual,emotional, and spiritual power. Each sex has accepted different cultural and family roles over countless generations, and therein lies the obvious distinction between the sexes, Yet, both sexes must walk hand in hand, as equals to and helpmates to each other, for our world to survive and prosper.
It is beneficial to provide some information about the physiological similarities and differences in the brain between men and women, and how we process information and express ourselves, as a result of those differences and similarities. It is important to also note the power of cultural conditioning through wayward religious agendas and misunderstandings already integrated within the follower’s consciousness, as well. I will post some quotes from the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible, to show how religiously oriented men have attempted to suppress the nature of the feminine, both within the women in their lives and culture, and within their own “masculine” minds. Both of these factors have ultimate importance in the Common Knowledge game, a socialized process that provides the basic foundation for perception within our collective consciousness, and unconsciousness.
It’s no secret that boys and girls are different—very different. The differences between genders, however, extend beyond what the eye can see. Research reveals major distinctions between male and female brains. Scientists generally study four primary areas of difference in male and female brains: processing, chemistry, structure, and activity.
Male brains utilize nearly seven times more gray matter for activity while female brains utilize nearly ten times more white matter. What does this mean? Gray matter areas of the brain are localized. They are information- and action-processing centers in specific splotches in a specific area of the brain. This can translate to a kind of tunnel vision when they are doing something. Once they are deeply engaged in a task or game, they may not demonstrate much sensitivity to other people or their surroundings.
White matter is the networking grid that connects the brain’s gray matter and other processing centers with one another. This profound brain-processing difference is probably one reason you may have noticed that girls tend to more quickly transition between tasks than boys do. The gray-white matter difference may explain why, in adulthood, females are great multi taskers, while men excel in highly task-focused projects.
The differences between male and female brains show up all over the world, but scientists also have discovered exceptions to every so-called gender rule. You may know some boys who are very sensitive, immensely talkative about feelings, and just generally don’t seem to fit the “boy” way of doing things. As with all gender differences, no one way of doing things is better or worse. The differences listed below are simply generalized differences in typical brain functioning, and it is important to remember that all differences have advantages and disadvantages.
Male and female brains process the same neurochemicals but to different degrees and through gender-specific body-brain connections. Some dominant neurochemicals are serotonin, which, among other things, helps us sit still; testosterone, our sex and aggression chemical; estrogen, a female growth and reproductive chemical; and oxytocin a bonding-relationship chemical.
In part, because of differences in processing these chemicals, males on average tend to be less inclined to sit still for as long as females and tend to be more physically impulsive and aggressive. Additionally, males process less of the bonding chemical oxytocin than females. Overall, a major takeaway of chemistry differences is to realize that men at times need different strategies for addressing stress and anxiety issues than women.
A number of structural elements in the human brain differ between males and females. “Structural” refers to actual parts of the brain and the way they are built, including their size and/or mass. Females often have a larger hippocampus, our human memory center. Females also often have a higher density of neural connections into the hippocampus. As a result, girls and women tend to input or absorb more sensorial and emotive information than males do. By “sensorial” we mean information to and from all five senses. If you note your observations over the next months of boys and girls and women and men, you will find that females tend to sense a lot more of what is going on around them throughout the day, and they retain that sensorial information more than men.
Additionally, before boys or girls are born, their brains developed with different hemispheric divisions of labor. The right and left hemispheres of the male and female brains are not set up exactly the same way. For instance, females tend to have verbal centers on both sides of the brain, while males tend to have verbal centers on only the left hemisphere. This is a significant difference. Girls tend to use more words when discussing or describing incidence, story, person, object, feeling, or place. Males not only have fewer verbal centers in general but also, often, have less connectivity between their word centers and their memories or feelings. When it comes to discussing feelings and emotions and senses together, girls tend to have an advantage, and they tend to have more interest in talking about these things.
While we are on the subject of emotional processing, another difference worth looking closely at is the activity difference between male and female brains. The female brain, in part thanks to far more natural blood flow throughout the brain at any given moment (more white matter processing), and because of a higher degree of blood flow in a concentration part of the brain called the cingulate gyrus, will often ruminate on and revisit emotional memories more than the male brain.
Males, in general, are designed a bit differently. Males tend, after reflecting more briefly on an emotive memory, to analyze it somewhat, then move onto the next task. During this process, they may also choose to change course and do something active and unrelated to feelings rather than analyze their feelings at all. Thus, observers may mistakenly believe that boys avoid feelings in comparison to girls or move to problem-solving too quickly.
These four, natural design differences listed above are just a sample of how males and females think differently. Scientists have discovered approximately 100 gender differences in the brain, and the importance of these differences cannot be overstated. Understanding gender differences from a neurological perspective not only opens the door to greater appreciation of the different genders, it also calls into question how we parent, educate, and support our children from a young age.
There appears to be a physiological reason in the brain for why men and women see life differently from each other. Men and women tend to process information and emotions somewhat differently. Women tend to think more globally, and outwardly network with others, and also within all centers of their own brains, better than males. Yet, there are aspects of many styles of processing available to both men, and women, depending on their own internal natures, including their values and intentions. And, through proper training, awareness, and insight, men can actually process information and emotions with a more complete access to more parts of the brain, in an intelligent, balanced, and loving manners. Men can become much more interested in, and sensitive to the needs of others, and their own emotional needs, if this becomes a conscious intention for them. Studies have also shown that the internal nature of all brains can be changed, even after one reaches adulthood, through a capability called the neuroplasticity of the brain. Men can become much more “feminine” in the way their brain processes emotions and information, showing the powerful transformative force that conscious “nurture” has upon “nature”.
Our collective consciousness in the USA has most of its historical religious foundation in Judeo-Christian values and ethics, a decidedly divisive understanding for living life which continues to directly impact our moral, religious, ethical, political, economic, and judicial processes. I will not be quoting from the Islamic tradition, which is a huge misogynistic oppressive spiritual environment for women, or the Buddhist, Hindi, Taoist, Confucian, or other foreign originated philosophies and religions in the following discussion, though works from many of these thought systems are relevant. The Christian bible will be quoted from, with the intention of showing how the Judeo-Christian ethic can predetermine collective understanding of the relationship between men and women.
Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
—-1 Corinthians 11:9
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
—-Genesis 3:16
For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
—-1 Corinthians 11:8
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,
1 Peter 3:1
The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
—–1 Corinthians 14:34-35
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
1 Timothy 2:12-14
The bible has so many revealing statements and texts about the subjugation and disempowering of women, all in the name of maintaining “Godly” relations. The Christian bible is replete with aphorisms and statements relegating women to the background of the “church”, and in all relations with life. This oppression of women, and repression of so-called “feminine characteristics” within the male have been historically inculcated into the history and traditions of so-called “religious people”, and it reflects in the diseased and imbalanced relationships between some Christian and Jewish bodies of thought, and the world in general.
These religious principles have also become established as conscious, and unconscious, norms for perception within the collective consciousness of America, and mankind in general. Just having a political and philosophical need to keep the church and the state separate is not quite enough, apparently, to establish healthier norms for relationships between the sexes. And, an unfortunate and dangerous outcome to this division between the man and woman is that the man is unconsciously conditioned to see the ‘feminine” aspects of himself in an objectified manner, and tries to oppress, control and dominate those aspects, emotions, and tendencies as if those parts were his “Christian wife”, rather than integrate them into a complete holism within himself. To the extent that the American toxic male continues to be a success in this activity, is the extent that misogyny, sexism, dominance over women, intolerance towards the needs of the innocent or the oppressed, and repression of his own divine nature, continues to be rampant within himself, and within the society that he occupies.
The order is rapidly fading. And the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin’.
—– Bob Dylan – “The Times They Are A-Changin'”
There is a time and a place that our world civilization is reaching towards, when the energies of the male and the female become more balanced and mutually integrated within the entirety of humanity. There is a time and a place when male repression of the divine aspects his own feminine nature ceases, and he is able to reach wholeness. There is a time and a place when male oppression of the female spirit in all others will end, as well, and men will finally welcome the sensitivity, empathy, caring, and compassion that the divine feminine offers to all. There is a time and a place when all of mankind will finally experience itself as balanced, healed, whole individuals, having respect and love for all of life, be it male, female, animal, plant, and even the Earth itself..
There is a difference between men and women, boys and girls. It is time to understand and to love those differences, effect personal change where relevant to incorporate more of the positive aspects of the other sex’s perspectives, embrace and love the similarities, and work with each other towards the conscious healing of the oft-times fragmented contentious relationship between the sexes, as well as the troubled, tragic relationship between man and his consciousness, Nature, and the Earth.
