McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Dresden vs everyone in the Genre

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Ursiel:

--- Quote from: Lightsabre on October 24, 2007, 07:44:49 PM ---What does this have to do with communication?
As the others have said, Men and Women do think differently.
IT's a biological fact.
Cope.
Sweeping it all into a 'we're all exactly the same' cupboard is not just hazardous to communication, it's hazardous to development of humankind in general.

--- End quote ---
I agree. We were all made different for a reason. Although I don't really know the reason but we're not one and the same.

seradhe:
... Wow

Gods I miss a day I miss a lot. ahh forum life.

My wife had the displeasure of skimming the posts over my shoulder just now, and I'll spare our fellow Forumites the series of four, five, and six letter words that came out of her mouth.

Biological differences aside, we are also talking about over 2,000 years of social identification to work against. I'm not saying it's impossible for a female author to think, or write, like a male one. I am saying that by the time one is old enough to read and write, they have been subject to the unwritten social standards of everyday society, whether directly or indirectly. I am not meaning this as a negative point, it's just an observation of the slight-but-there variations between male and female daily life.

we've come a long way from the paleolithic ideals of "Hunter/gatherer and childbearer". Socially women are on equal grounds with men. To demand that women think exactly like men is either A) Utopian and therefore doomed to fail, or B) pushing that women are still inferior to men on some level because they think differently.

I can't say I've read nearly as many books as many of you, so I am reserved to arguing on the biological/social grounds, and leave noting the differences between author X and author Y to those who have a larger Repertoire.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: seradhe on October 25, 2007, 03:05:39 PM ---Biological differences aside, we are also talking about over 2,000 years of social identification to work against. I'm not saying it's impossible for a female author to think, or write, like a male one. I am saying that by the time one is old enough to read and write, they have been subject to the unwritten social standards of everyday society, whether directly or indirectly. I am not meaning this as a negative point, it's just an observation of the slight-but-there variations between male and female daily life.

--- End quote ---

Slight is kind of the point.  If there's any systemic difference between how men and women think, it's invisible behind the scale of the differences between expected social roles and between individuals, and if you've not had the occasion to see firm evidence of that, I can only suggest travelling more, reading more widely, and getting to know more cultures and more people, where the expected social roles are different or who just don't actually think those social roles worth accepting.  The "there are ways all women think alike and different ways all men think alike" argument dismisses the reality of far too many of the real people I know and care about, women and men, for me to accept it for a moment; that there are ways in which mainstream Western society expects and wants all women to think alike and different ways in which it expects and wants all men to think alike, sure, but so many of these ways seem deeply harmful to me that I'm entirely unwilling to accept them, and will oppose them wherever I can.

seradhe:

--- Quote from: neurovore on October 25, 2007, 03:16:41 PM ---Slight is kind of the point.  If there's any systemic difference between how men and women think, it's invisible behind the scale of the differences between expected social roles and between individuals, and if you've not had the occasion to see firm evidence of that, I can only suggest travelling more, reading more widely, and getting to know more cultures and more people, where the expected social roles are different or who just don't actually think those social roles worth accepting.  The "there are ways all women think alike and different ways all men think alike" argument dismisses the reality of far too many of the real people I know and care about, women and men, for me to accept it for a moment; that there are ways in which mainstream Western society expects and wants all women to think alike and different ways in which it expects and wants all men to think alike, sure, but so many of these ways seem deeply harmful to me that I'm entirely unwilling to accept them, and will oppose them wherever I can.

--- End quote ---

That is a completely Valid and personal rational for your beliefs, and I respect that.

It is also Valid to point out that these expectations are not enforced in any way other than the individuals desire/lack thereof to conform. The ubiquitous urge to "fit in" is a far worse prison for the mind than any standards or regulations on thought. It has been my experience that most people in the creative fields (artists, writers, architects etc...) are more often than not free thinkers above these standards.

This is more and more looking not like an argument between Male and Female perspectives, rather between Masculine and Feminine.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: seradhe on October 25, 2007, 03:46:17 PM ---It is also Valid to point out that these expectations are not enforced in any way other than the individuals desire/lack thereof to conform.

--- End quote ---

It would be really nice if social pressures against people in non-standard gender roles never translated into economic pressures or worse, but try telling that to, for example, a man who has a genuine gift for childcare trying to get a job in that direction.

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