Posts Tagged ‘gender’
Sunday, August 8th, 2010 by Mel Konner
Note: By invitation, I’ve started a blog on the Psychology Today website, and my latest post can be read there or here, although different (and likely more numerous) comments will be posted there. This entry resembles and updates one I posted here in March 2009, which was followed by an interesting exchange on “insatiable widows” and other cross-cultural myths.
We hear a lot about sex differences, and arguments rage over which are real. Evolutionary theorists weigh in about why this or that difference should be expected, while some anthropologists say cultures vary so much that generalizations are folly. But of all Darwinian predictions about la différence, few are as logical as the one about sex differences in sexuality. Here’s why.
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Tags: evolutionary psychology, gender, sex, Sex differences, sex drive, sexual desire, sexuality
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009 by Mel Konner
My friend and colleague Alice Schaerr Rossi, a co-founder of the National Organization for Women and one of the leading sociologists of her generation, died on November 3 at age 87.
For a few years in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I worked with her and Jane Lancaster, a distinguished anthropologist now at the University of New Mexico and editor of the journal Human Nature, on a committee of the Social Science Research Council, and both of them affected my thinking about gender. (more…)
Tags: Alice Rossi, difference feminism, gender, menstrual cycle and mood, mothers, parenting, Sex differences
Posted in My Blog | 5 Comments »
Sunday, November 8th, 2009 by Mel Konner
Thank goodness for a brave woman with character to spare
Five feet and four inches of pure skill and courage, Kimberly Denise Munley, at lunchtime Thursday, saved an unknown but large number of people from injury and death. She did it by running straight toward a terrorist armed with two guns blazing at her and she kept walking into that deadly barrage until both of them fell with serious wounds. Around them were the bodies of the twelve people the terrorist had murdered and at least thirty he had injured—one, it turned out, also fatally. (more…)
Tags: Fort Hood, gender, heroes, heroism, human nature, Kimberly Munley, terrorism, violence, women's roles
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Monday, June 29th, 2009 by Mel Konner
My friend and colleague Prof. David Blumenthal wrote this comment on my last posting, and I try to answer it below.
Dear Mel,
I’m not sure I agree that educating women is the way to go. As long as Islamic
men have the following cluster of problems, no amount of women’s education
will work:
(1) Islamic men have no empowerment - not economic, not religious, not
political, etc. This is also why Arabs can’t negotiate a peace; they have to
be empowered, to win. (2) Islamic men believe that submission is the
ultimate value - for themselves and especially for those who defy them. (more…)
Tags: Arab cultures, educating girls, evolutionary psychology, gender, gender gap, Iran, Iranian protests, religion, Sex differences, sexism, women's rights
Posted in My Blog | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 by Mel Konner
This was the remark of a TV journalist about the movement to defeat Ahmadinejad at the ballot box-and that was before the protests began. As the weeks wore on, women became even more prominent. They were in the forefront of many demonstrations, exercising leadership, twittering and facebooking tips about police positions and protest meeting places. (more…)
Tags: democracy, educating girls, equality, extremism, fifth column, gender, inequality, Iran, Iranian protests, Islam, Islamic civilization, male dominance, religion, sexism, women's rights
Posted in My Blog | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 by Mel Konner
In response to my last posting, “Sex Lives, Male and Female,” reader Clare wrote this thoughtful comment:
“I’m curious what you make of the ethnographic accounts from cultures where widows are considered to be insatiable sex fiends? Is this how fear of women expresses itself, that they become more interested in sex than is considered usual? Or is there some truth to the folklore? Is there any evidence that sexual interest waxes and wanes (so to speak) over the life course of men and women?”
I thought it well worth answering at length: (more…)
Tags: education, evolutionary psychology, female sexuality, gender, gender gap, male dominance, Pakistan, patriarchy, polygamy, sex, Sex differences, sexism, sexual desire, sexual drive, suttee, Taliban, widows
Posted in My Blog | 4 Comments »
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 by Mel Konner
Sex is something that women have and men want. Or is it?
I caused a bit of comment in a blog on another website when I wrote, “Your mother told you men only want one thing, and you may have rolled your eyes, but she had a piece of the truth. Biology and common sense both tell us sex is something women have and men want. We can try as hard as we want to talk our way around this, but we can’t make it any less true…”
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Tags: evolutionary psychology, gender, gender gap, human nature, marriage, sex, sexual desire, sexual differences, sexual drive, sociobiology
Posted in My Blog | 5 Comments »
Monday, March 9th, 2009 by Mel Konner
If you want to go forward send girls to school; to regress, try sending them home again.
For many years now, a growing number of authorities on aid to the developing world have come to the conclusion that there is no better way to spend an aid dollar than in underwriting schools for girls.
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Tags: affirmative action, developing world, economic development, education, family size, gender, gender gap, health, inequality, male dominance, Pakistan, patriarchy, poverty, religiosity, Taliban, terrorism
Posted in My Blog | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 by Mel Konner
McCain’s VP Pick Makes Darwinian and Boasian Sense
Shock and awe. That had to be one thought in McCain’s mind when he picked a little-known governor of Alaska–the state one pundit called an overgrown igloo–to stand a heartbeat away from his seat in the Oval Office, his age and cancer history be damned.
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Tags: affirmative action, culture, Darwin, evolutionary psychology, gender, human nature, motherhood, Politics, Presidential election, Sex differences, sociobiology
Posted in My Blog | 4 Comments »
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 by Mel Konner
Evil is real, and so are evil genes.
Today I stumbled on a C-SPAN presentation by Barbara Oakley about her book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend. I haven’t read the book, but it evidently overlaps with many things I’ve long thought and written myself, in The Tangled Wing and elsewhere.
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Tags: antisocial personality, borderline personality, evolution, gender, genes, genetics, human nature, malignant narcissism, Politics, psychopath, reproductive success, Sex differences, sociobiology
Posted in My Blog | 1 Comment »
gender 
