Women Essays

Women Essays Women Essay Women Essay Women have been victims of misconceptions and criticisms; and so have men. Both genders have struggled to erase these misconceptions not just from the spoken word of other people or the other gender, but also those that have been written about their being ‘women’ or being ‘men.’ Two of these articles were Women’s Brains by Stephen Jay Gould and The Male Myth by Paul Theroux, which discussed the misconceptions about and discrimination in women and in men, respectively. Gould started his essay by mentioning the difficult plight of women in the words of a famous woman writer, George Eliot. He went on discussing how early studies depicted women as inferior to men all because their brains were smaller than men’s. He enumerated several scientific researches and findings, with particular figures, as to why women â€Å"could not equal men’s intelligence,† are passive, have brains that â€Å"are closer in size to those of gorillas than to the most developed male brains,† and will begin a social revolution if they leave the confines of the home. However, Gould inserted positive insights into the negativities claimed by some researchers by mentioning few of the reasons why women received bad commentaries and sarcasm and why they are inferior, physically speaking. Moreover, Gould being a scientist himself, particularly paleontologist (Linder, 2004),  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   examined the scientific claims on women’s brains and wrote his interpretation and stressed the ill-founded contentions of researchers he mentioned. He looked at the angles that were consciously and unconsciously overlooked by them. He concluded the article by affirming the discriminative plight of women and proved that not all scientific claims are truth and therefore should not invoke inferiority to certain groups. He completed the cycle of analysis by ending with George Eliot’s words honoring women. On the other hand, Theroux also started his article by mentioning a statement from Dr. Norman Cameron, which has obviously affected him: â€Å"Fetishists are nearly always men; and their commonest fetish is a woman’s shoe.† He went on with personal thoughts on how he disliked being a man. He mentioned some views as to how boys should behave and act to be men, as well as the misconceptions against their manliness. His focus dwelt on his personal experiences from childhood and adulthood, how America perceives men to be manly, how the society shapes and dictates men’s persona, and his self-denial of being a writer because of the various connotations people associate â€Å"writer† with. He concluded his article by stating that men’s lives are much worse than women’s. Each author began his article with a statement that has affected him in some way. With these opening lines, readers can easily get a hint as to what is expected with the rest of the article. Both authors took their opening statements as a starting point to develop the paragraphs, their arguments. Understanding the articles means understanding the authors behind them. Gould mentioned several scientific research data and discussed and refuted their claims. He analyzed data he had with scientific reasoning. He has every right to do this since he was a paleontologist and he knew how to interpret data systematically and accurately. On the other hand, Theroux, being a highly acclaimed writer (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), based his arguments on reality – on what he sees from his environment and from what he personally feels and believes in. Being a part of the human species and the American society at large, he also has a right to discuss such opinions he had on the misconceptions about the species he belongs to. However, Gould’s arguments are more credible and sound because his are empirically and scientifically grounded unlike Theroux, whose arguments are experience- and opinion-based. But this is understandable based on the title alone, since Gould discussed about Women’s Brains while Theroux dealt with The Male Myth. One spoke of a body part and thus needs scientific explanation while the other discussed myths, thus require opinion, observation, and personal experience. But then again, perception-wise, Gould’s contentions would also appear more believable. This is because as a paleontologist, he is expected to base his arguments on scientific and empirical facts. His own gender or sexuality and contradiction to females, if any, cannot take over or else he will not be credible. Theroux, however, happens to be a male so much of his arguments would be based on his feelings. Moreover, each of the articles tackled the issue of general misconception and discrimination: Gould on women and Theroux on men. Both articles aimed at clarifying and correcting these misconceptions so that both gender will be better understood by society. However, it is a given fact that men and women cannot and will not escape these commentaries, criticisms, and myths about their gender, sexuality, and being. This is because it is a natural thing for humans in general to judge and discriminate to the point of using scientific data to prove their ends, like what researchers mentioned in Women’s Brains did, or putting one down because his profession does not earn a right to be called a profession, like how society made Theroux feel because he was a writer. There are certain statements in the articles that jive with each other inherently. For instance, Theroux said in The Male Myth, â€Å"It is very hard to imagine any concept of manliness that does not belittle women.† This belittling of women can be found in the whole of Women’s Brains, which cited male researchers claiming their superiority. On the other hand, Women’s Brains mentioned that the man â€Å"has all the responsibility and the cares of tomorrow, who is constantly active in combating the environment and human rivals†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This complemented Theroux’s statement that â€Å"a man proves his manhood in America in old-fashion ways† like hunting and defending himself. Moreover, based on the two articles, the notion that women are homemakers and caregivers and should therefore focus on motherhood emerged. The notion that men are the superior beings was also demonstrated in both articles. But being a mother, a woman, is difficult; and so is being a man, and manly at that. Both genders have to contend with and oppose to what society has held and continues to hold true with regards their sex or gender. Theroux claimed it is easier to be a man. But he can only prove that if he himself has experienced being in the high-heeled shoes of a woman. Girls or women cannot likewise claim that their species live a more difficult life unless they have been into the brains and hearts of men.