Those rotten bastards at Stamford University are nothing better than neurosexists!!! You know, people purporting to conduct scientific research merely to try and justify existing sexism by disguising it as definitive biological fact. ‘It’s because their brains are different’, they say. Which is about as valid as ‘God made ‘em that way’. God wanted women to earn less and have better legs. Iss’inna bible, innit?

They published a paper and claim that just by looking at a brain scan, they can tell if it’s a man’s or a woman’s. Which is useful, if you’re in a pub, and happen to have an MRI scanner parked outside in the car park. You used to be able to just look at someone and observe external clues as to gender. Of course you can’t do that any longer and would get arrested if you tried. If the scientists at Stamford struggle with gender identity so much, the ultimate test is simply to give someone a football to play with. Then their gender is absolutely unquestionable.

This new paper has been accused of merely using biology to confirm their prejudices. Because with all scientific research, it’s not the mere numbers on which the statistics are performed that’s important, but the actual questions asked.

I stated, many years ago, on these pages, that the ultimate difference between men and women was the ability to piss out of a car window. Which remains true today, just dropping in probability from 100% down to 99.2% due to the… errrr… the newer type of ‘man’. And yet is that a measure of ‘gender’ difference? Or merely of behaviour? If women had penises (follow me on this possibly over-stretched hypothesis) would THEY piss out of car windows? Or would some female-only reserve prevent such a thing from being tried? Different questions.

Neurosexism is just like simple sexism but spoken by a PhD undergrad. However, observing gender differences is important. Because we are different. And, glass ceilings and glass slippers (could you re-write Cinderella as a boy??) notwithstanding, those differences must be embraced. Whether they are ‘nature’ or ‘nurture’ differences. I gave Joey a Barbie to play with. Lila’s favourite one when she was a baby. Blonde hair, pink ball gown, tiara, earrings, stilettoes. Joey pulled her head off, bit her leg, head-butted what was left and tried to push her in the paper shredder in our study. Is this an indication of ‘poor nurturing’, or ‘male brain behaviour’? Or just that he is a psychopathic thug intent on destruction??

We’ll never know.

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx