Al Roker interviews Leonard Sax, "Why Gender Matters"

[LyssaJamie93]

Sure the book this guy wrote is decent, but he does not come across as intelligent. A lot of the information he states is affected by outside influences; by society and parenting styles.

[domoyu3]

why dosent he consider that how we act is also affected by society?

[Meresortsitar]

I won't trust any of the gender differences mentioned in kids' games to be 'real' before they haven't made a large-scale experiment where boys and girls are raised in a society where they have never been treated differently because of their gender (see also /watch?v=MMldVZOxW64) and there are strictly no gender roles for grown-ups. If they find differences then - I'll agree.

Other than that we can never really know which are true differences and which manufactured by society.

[petitemasochist]

Quite a few of the boys I grew up with loved to play with my Bratz dolls and I liked cars and legos as well as baby dolls so what gives?

[PimpMyParadigm]

my sister came out of the womb with high heels and a corset

"at least ive got an excuse now"

they say that girls listen 7x boys

"at least ive got an excuse now"

my sister just sits there and listens, follows orders

"at least ive got an excuse now"

[crangdaniel]

The whole point with science explaining our differences was never intended to make people feel bad about the differences. It is important to know our differences if we want to fix something when its broken. For instance if you get a decease and we don´t know that girls and boys are different we are more likely to treat it wrong and make it worse. The hysteria on making genders same may have fatal consequences on you.

[nta214]

This pseudo-science nut really freaks me out.

[crangdaniel]

@nta214

is medicine pseudoscience?

[nta214]

@crangdaniel Don't try to bait me into something with some bs response like that. This guy is wacky and on the fringe, yes he's pseudoscientific at best, and most people don't buy what he's selling. Believe what you want, I think he's full of crap.

[crangdaniel]

@nta214

Would you consider your doctor wacky too?

[nta214]

@crangdaniel Probably... I stay away from pill pushers best I can.

[abodi83]

Regardless we agree or not it is a truth men and women are different

Being in different schools help both gender to be better and to get better results as the researches proved

[cubicaljane]

I played with trucks and I'm a girl! My friends and I took the heads off of Barbie Dolls!

[crangdaniel]

@cubicaljane

Guess that makes you an exception among the norm. My big toe is curved to the right

[Chongalulu]

Great book and absolutely correct. Research shows differences and that makes a better world when we can live together and work together and understand our differences.

[mywolf1]

I disagree somewhat about trying to seperate what boys and girls play with. I remember when I was young, playing with my sisters dolls in a loving way was the pre curser for being a good parent. I have one daughter who is now 27 as well as a granddaughter and I am glad that those dolls were made available because now I have 2 beautifull girls.

[OZDE32]

@mywolf1 bullshit, says on your page you like a video of a 16 year old boy pumping iron, so you're fucked in either way or your a stupid douche feminist who needs to lie

[OZDE32]

@mywolf1 fuck you pedophile weirdo. suck a cock.

[goosejocke]

@mywolf1 People try to tell all us that Boys and girls are different! otherwise people sadly will stop think that (atleast some in the society..) there are some really bad examples of that, in sweden.. (in one pre-school, they call each other "shim" / it .. well a mix between boy and girl ... a neutral word :/ .. so unnecessary and wrong!)

[JustThink00]

unnecessary? i'll tell you what's unnecessary, mentioning a person's gender every time you refer to them. As if it's always relevant! as if gender is not the key defining trait of every person on the planet and so important that we must always be thinking about it, even though it is neither chosen, earned, or meaningful in any deep way.

There are physical differences to be sure, but any rule you come up with about mental differences will have exceptions, because we choose who we are.

[JustThink00]

@mywolf1

not trying to tear you down, but personally I neveer had the slightest interest in dolls. What in the world do you do with them anyway? but I still ended up a very nurturing sort of person, more so than a lot of females I know.

[tipofmytongue1024]

The author seems very passionate about the subject. :)

[grumpyjester]

We need to face the facts: there's no point denying biological roots for gender differences just because we prefer them not to be there.

This should not have to affect an individual though: there are plenty of girls who like cars and boys who like dolls, and that's great. But it *does* stop us from doing crazy stuff like they did in Norway (the 40% female executive quotum).

[JustThink00]

ultimately all this talk is irrelevant. we choose who we are.

[cubicaljane]

@JustThink00 I totally agree with you.This can really mess kids up.We are all individuals.Also this vision thing has been disprovedThis is harming society.

[Worldofchange]

Leonard Sax has no idea what he's talking about.

[JosueA]

good stuff

[zzxzqwq]

So wife beating and bullying are all to do with gender what sick little creep. Scum like this should be put in an electric chair.

[zzxzqwq]

But women bully sand abuse too, so the argument does not make sense.

[tdspowers]

Sax never places these claims in absolute terms, obviously individual variation would mean that some men will be less aggressive then some women and vice versa. Sax never states that all men are more masculine than all women, Saxs claim deal with group means, what he is saying is the average boy is more aggressive than the average female. Dont moralize the topic just because the genders should be carbon copies of one another does not mean that they are.

[zzxzqwq]

No we do need to moralize the topic, as he justifying abuse and putting down shy men. Some studies suggest men are supoposed to lack social skills and so shyer men would be more manly in some areas. As men have poorer communication skilthan womenl. Sax tries to suggest men are always out going. I find this deeply insulting. Also he is justifying abuse and that is an issue of morality.

[zzxzqwq]

Also we must not moralize abuse as manly. It does glamorise abuse if you say it is manly. I have no problem with pointing out men like football, or wars and are better at strategy than women. What i do not support is using language such as men are more aggressive, men are more violent, it does excuse abuse as manly. He uses this stuff to excuse the wrong stuff. Also men have poorer communication skill but he feals to point that out, as he has an agenda on what he sees as manly.

[dubified89]

@zzxzqwq Back in the day men being prone to 'violence' meant that we could fight off the ferocious predatory animals that there was less defense to pre-technology. Technology also invented and designed by men. Feminism is evil at least post early 1900s or so

[tdspowers]

Your criticisms of Sax consist building a straw man, Sax never uses absolutists terminology like everyone or all, you attack his points by painting a gross caricature of his work. The data in relation to group means is easily observable men commit more violent crime then women do, this is not a revelation new to Sax, all he does is offer an biological explanation for the previously existing data.

[zzxzqwq]

Sax is an evil maggot creep. I hope someone beats him up. Evil shithead bastard.

[iaintgonletup]

This guy sounds CWAZY!!!

[akasporty101]

Have you read the book?

[iaintgonletup]

I'm just talking about the way he sounds when he's talking; it's funny!

[ElWongus]

This is actually a good book. My teacher for Teacher Cadets assigned us this book for a book report. It's really interesting.