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Delusions of Gender

When we think confidently compare the “female mind” and the “male mind”, we think of something stable inside the head of the person, the product of a “female” or “male” brain. p. xxvi

In other words, women and men may differ not so much in actual empathy but in “how empathetic they would like to appear to others (and, perhaps, to themselves)”, as Eisenberg put it to Schaffer. p. 16

The take-home message of these studies is that we can’t separate people’s empathizing ability and motivation from the social situation. p. 22

In other words, when we are not thinking of ourselves as “male” or “female”, our judgments are the same, and women and men alike are sensitive to the influence of social distance that, rightly or wrongly, pushes moral judgments in one direction or another along the care-justice continuum. p. 25

And it’s important to bear in mind that these jittery, self-defeating mechanisms are not characteristic of the female mind -- they’re characteristic of the mind under threat. p. 34

-referring to stereotype threat

What psychological processes lie behind this turning away from masculine interests? One possibility is that, as we learned in an earlier chapter, when stereotypes of women become salient, women tend to incorporate those stereotypical traits into their current self-perception. p. 44

Women prefer those kinds of dead-end jobs because they fit better with their family commitments, the companies typically claimed in their defense when their happily fulfilled female employees filed lawsuits against them. p. 69

As Tichenor points out, what this means is that “cultural expectations of what it means to be a good wife shape the domestic negotiations of unconventional earners and produce arrangements that privilege husbands and further burden wives.” p. 82

And yet as we’ve seen, higher fetal testosterone in nonclinical populations has not been convincingly linked with better mental rotation ability, systemizing ability, mathematical ability, scientific ability, or worse mind reading. p. 130

“Just because you see a response [in the brain] -- you don’t get to claim it’s hard-wired.” p. 171

When it comes to genes, you get what you get. But gene activity is another story: genes switch on and off depending on what else is going on. Our environment, our behavior, even our thinking, can all change what genes are expressed. p. 177

Biology can be said to define possibilities but not determine them; it is never irrelevant but it is also not determinant. p. 178

But the gender gap is narrowing all the time, and shows that mathematical eminence is not fixed, or hardwired or intrinsic, but it is instead responsive to cultural factors that affect the extent to which mathematical talent is identified and nurtured, or passed over, stifled, or suppressed in males and females. p. 184

The circuits of the brain are quite literally a products of your physical, social, and cultural environment, as well as your behavior and thoughts. p. 236

I adored this book. It will be immensely useful both online and in person in discussions over gender, especially when someone brings "science" into the discussion. Far from just being theory, Fine brings in a multitude of studies that back up her assertions, which more or less boil down to what we all learned in Gender Studies 101: gender is a social construct. 

Fine tackles the idea of brain size, math and science skills, "essential differences", neurosexism, among other issues. The book was by no means dry at all, but it didn't pander to the lazy reader, either. I felt challenged but not overwhelmed. 

One fact that I'll take from this book concerns gender priming. For example, when a woman is asked to fill out her sex and then take a test (I believe math, but I'll be safe and just say test), her performance sinks. Apparently just being reminded of your gender brings up anxieties related to stereotypes and can affect your scores. That's just one test! Imagine having that happen all the time.

This text would be useful to:

-any gender studies student

-anyone interested in Neuroscience (probably not those who actually teach/research, however)

-those who question assertions of male superiority in the sciences as natural

-anyone raising children 

The Poisonwood Bible

This forest eats itself and lives forever. p.5

Leah says in Congo there's only two ages of people: babies that have to be carried, and people that stand up and fend for themselves. No in-between phase. No such thing as childhood. Sometimes I think she's right. p. 358

You have nothing to lose but your chains. But I don't happen to agree. If chained is where you have been, your arms will always bear marks of the shackles. What you have to lose is your story, your own slant. You'll look at the scars on your arms and see mere ugliness, or you'll take great care to look away from them and see nothing. Either way, you have no words for the story of where you came from. p. 495

There were more beautiful/moving passages but they were too long. The best can be found in Orleanna's and Adah's narratives. 

I enjoyed this book because, or perhaps in spite of, its scope. It was a book about a new, strange land. A book about family. About war and religion (aren't they the same?). About Colonialism. About growing up. About loss. I'm not familiar with the Bible so I wasn't able to fully appreciate all of the references to the work, but I could figure out some relevant pieces. 

I've read some reviews and some people felt that none of the characters were sympathetic. I disagree. Every  character had its moments, and more importantly, its own purpose. My favourite was Adah, and Orleanna. The prose used for these characters was beautiful and effective. Even when Orleanna went a little heavy on the foreshadowing and Adah's backwardssdrawkcab words threw me.

My mom recommended this book to me some time ago, and I recommend it to anyone who:

-likes family sagas

-knows/would like to know a bit about colonialism/missionary work in Africa

-questions organized religion

-appreciates a good redemption motif

-appreciates well-executed speech patterns (really, every character had her own voice. it was excellent!)

-wants to sink into a novel

No more books/Get reading Challenge

NO. MORE. BOOKS.

I have so many that someone could take twenty of them and I likely wouldn't notice. Many of them I haven't read. I intend to change this. I won't buy any or ask for any until I've finished all the titles on this list. The only exceptions are books for class or from library book sales -- I'm not going to pass those up, as they're my only way to get books in this area.

Here are books I will finish that I have already started:
Purple Hibiscus
Brideshead Revisited
Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Anarchism and Other Essays (Kindle)
Reading Women
Delusions of Gender
My Mistresses's Sparrow is Dead (E-book)
The Political Brain
International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction
Too Big to Fail
The Essential Feminist Reader
Notes From Underground
Why I Am Not a Christian
A Man of The People
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories
Skylark Farm
Walden (e-book)
The Second Sex
The Weight of Heaven (e-book)
The Master and Margarita
Uncle Tom's Cabin (e-book)
Atlas Shrugged
On the Road
Collected Stories (of Marquez)
Anna Karenina

Yeah, so quite a few titles, and that's only those I chose.

Here's a list of books from my TBR pile that I will finish before I can buy any more books:
The Sacred Willow
Life & Death in Shanghai
The Makioka Sisters
Nausea
No Longer Human
Bless Me, Ultima
The Thing Around Your Neck
The Discovery of Witches
The Woman in the Dunes
Infinite Jest
The Satanic Verses
2666
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Grotesque
A Long Way Gone
Native Son

and that's all. I may alter this list at some point.
I have no idea how long this will take as I'm in school this summer. But I'll try to finish a book or so a week and make a post about it. I have one already started on Manifesta.

Even thought it wasn't a real readathon, I still enjoyed my day.
I picked these up during & after my bath:

Sometime soon I'll commit to at least 18 hours of reading and have official goals. Actually, I think I'll do this at the end of the month! Yay.

I'll update all my recent reads soon.

So I finished my essays. I took a huge break and ate and looked up Emma Goldman and looked at basketball players of the 1972 Olympics. Also worked out. But, I did all I wanted to read, school-wise. 'Kicking Off' isn't a priority yet.

What to read next? I'm going to take a bath in a few minutes, so I'd like something relaxing. I think I'll just rummage around and see what I can find. Either way, I'd like to make some progress tonight!

Finished reading my chapter! I'll be having lunch now and then going on to the essays.