What actually defines a person as a woman or a man (apart from the obvious)? Are there any real differences?

Question

What actually defines a person as a woman or a man (apart from the obvious)? Are there any real differences?

Answer 1

the only difference between a man and a woman,is their sexual organs.

Answer 2

Good question.

It's a difficult one, too. If a woman has a hysterectomy and both b*****s removed, nobody would say she's "no longer" a woman. She'd still be seen and accepted as a woman, despite her lack of female organs.

This would indicate that it's not just about s*x organs.

Most people seem to accept that there's a mental difference too - a gendered "way of thinking".

There is a lot of scientific evidence that men and women's brains differ in structure slightly, which could cause a different style of thinking, and two different gender identities.

But there's no way people could argue that there's no overlapping in how men and women think. I've met men who are emotional, and women who are not. Men who are passive and women who are aggressive. Men who like typically "feminine" hobbies/interests, and women who like "masculine" ones. These people think in the style of the oppiste s*x, but are still considered to belong to their gender...

It can't be just down to a way of thinking, either, then.

It's a thorny issue sometimes -- for instance, when a man has surgery to "become" a woman, what has changed? What has made him become a woman apart from the physical? Is he a "woman" simply because he identifies himself as one?...

All very mysterious. Wish I had an answer.

Answer 3

Studies have been done both at UCLA by Roger Gorski, Ph.D. and at Yale Medical by Dr. De la Costa that men and women think differently.  The corpus colossum, or center of the brain separates the right and left brain.  Men tend to think laterally, and women tend to think bilaterally, which explains why women multitask more easily.  I think my friend's husband's analogy is a good one. "Men think like a 'shotgun house; a hall down the middle and rooms on each side. They must go into the hall to get to the next room.  A woman doesn't have a hall in her house...and weaves from room to room to go from front  to back ."  Another difference is that women synapse differently with ovulation monthly.  This hormonal change affects behavior.  Unless there is another psychological reason, men are usually constant in behavior, their hormonal changes (increased testosterone) or synapsing taking place when they are in some type of competitive situation with another male.  Note: Girls, don't shoot the messenger...I'm only relaying info from medical/scientific studies.

Answer 4

Society has different expectations of each gender. When a child is socialised (both primarily [at home] and secondarily [at school]) s/he is taught to act in a certain way. For example, as a little girl I remember being told off for climbing a tree by my nana who told me that it wasn't 'ladylike', although it was perfectly acceptable for my cousin Ryan (male) to do it!

It even comes down to the socialisation we take as read, for example, dressing girls in pink and letting them play with Barbie, rather than dressing them in blue and letting them play with Action Man (the greatest hero of them all!).

It's even embedded into society now, with phrases such as "boys don't cry" and "that's not ladylike" being in common use.

Hope I was somewhat informative/interesting in my ramble!

Answer 5

In my mind, it is their it is only personality that separates man and women. :)

Girls tend to act differently to guys.

If a guy acted like a girl then I would actually treat them differently as I would to someone who acted like a guy.

Answer 6

Well, we are wired differently, chemically, physically, emotionally, genetically,  and no amount of tinkering will change that, a man is a man even if he removes his parts and adds new ones he is still a man, and that goes for a woman too.  We are born what we are born it is society, a search to define ourselves, pleasure seeking and defiance of what we were designed to be that influences us in desiring to be what we are not.  God Bless

Answer 7

Yes. The main one, is that women personalise everything. This is hard-wired behaviour as shown by studies on child behaviour and the observations of practically every parent in the land. 'Chevert' above, repeats the falsehood that women are better able to multi-task. This actually is not true, as many studies have shown. Feminists make, and repeat, many falsehoods.

It is also known that men have better spacial awareness, tend to be better at subjects like maths/physics etc. Men also tend to be potentially more aggressive.

I would tend to be suspicious of academic studies into alleged differences, because they usually have a feminist bias.

Just to illustrate my very first point. When I used to check into hotels, a female receptionist would always say, "would you complete this form for ME please".(personal) Whilst a male receptionist would always used the impersonal, "would you just fill that in please" (impersonal). This difference is extremely important, because it underlines the fundamental difference between the way males/females perceive their relationship with their jobs/employers and the customers.