permaculture

[Lee Flier <leeflier@comcast.net>]

 Oh, I don't deny that.  I think what I'm saying is that I'm not sure 
how constructive it is to frame it in those terms.  In my own 
experience, this only seems to get people more entrenched rather than 
enlightened.  Most people are really loathe to be seen as un-masculine 
or un-feminine, so if you point to some study that shows there are 
differences, people will tend to cling to those behaviors as if doing 
otherwise would betray their gender.

President Obama alluded to this same problem when he spoke about how 
many black kids in poor areas will put down a friend who reads books for 
"acting white."  I'm sure you could point to statistics that show fewer 
black kids than white kids read books regularly, but obviously, 
correlation doesn't equal causation, and this doesn't mean that reading 
books is or should be something that's associated with "being white."  
Likewise I think the implication that "women are better at communicating 
than men," among other things, is self perpetuating.

On 8/20/2010 2:29 PM, LBUZZELL@aol.com wrote:
> Thanks, Lee.  There has been quite a bit of research on "average"
> differences in conversation styles in women and men