Fundamental differences between the two sexes

Unlike the opinion of feminists about the complete identity of the two sexes, with the exception of the function of childbearing, biology adheres to an opinion devoid of political correctness about the existence of fundamental differences between the male and female sexes, which manifest themselves not only in the function of reproduction, but also in the adaptive capabilities of the body. These differences are genetically determined, and they cannot be leveled by external influences.

8.2.1. Biological feasibility of the existence of two sexes

In the previous section, it was shown that the formation of the floor is a multi-stage process, fraught with errors. Why did evolution take the path of creating such a complex mechanism? What is the biological reason for the existence of sexual reproduction?

Asexual, vegetative reproduction is much easier. With it, each descendant is an exact copy of the parent organism. For example, all peppermint plants — a plant that is intensively cultivated for the needs of the food and perfume industries — are descendants of a single plant that was accidentally discovered at one time among wild mint plants. Vegetative reproduction is advisable when the conditions of existence are constant.

In reality, the habitat is constantly changing, so for the survival of the descendants, they need new properties that the parents did not have. This is achieved in the process of formation of germ cells (meiosis), during which a combination of individual sections of chromosomes occurs and the possibility of the emergence of organisms with new combinations of traits is created. This method of reproduction, with development from an unfertilized egg (parthenogenesis), also exists among higher vertebrates, for example, some lizards. Even greater variability of offspring is provided by reproduction with the participation of two individuals. For example, in snails, each individual produces both male and female germ cells. When they meet, they exchange sexual products. With sexual reproduction of hermaphrodites, a wide variety of offspring is provided, and the rate of reproduction of the population is directly proportional to the number of individuals.

This proportionality is absent in the vast majority of species in which there is a division into males and females. The rate of reproduction depends only on the number of females. A change in the number of males has very little effect on the rate of reproduction of a species or population. However, males make up about half of the total number of individuals. The biological expediency of the existence of such a number of individuals, on the presence of which the rate of reproduction does not depend, is not obvious.

It is possible to remove 90 percent or more of the males from a population without affecting the number of offspring and therefore the rate of reproduction of the population. However, of the approximately XNUMX species of mammals, only hyenas have taken this path. In hyenas, males that are born are destroyed, one is left alive, which is used only as a donor of germ cells, and outside the breeding season, he leads the life of an outcast. In the overwhelming majority of mammalian species, as well as other classes of vertebrates — birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and cyclostomes (lampreys and hagfish) — males make up half of all individuals. So why are males needed if the rate of reproduction of the species does not depend on their number?

Moreover, males sometimes cause obvious harm to offspring, for example in lions. The community of lions is called a pride. It consists of one male, several females and immature offspring.

The lion is called the king of animals for a reason. First of all, he sleeps 16 hours a day. He does not go hunting, the females bring him the best pieces. Moreover, he does not participate in territorial conflicts that arise between females of different prides, as a result of which animals sometimes die. The entire contribution of the lion to social life is limited to the fertilization of females and the expulsion from the pride of males who have reached puberty. In addition, the lion, of course, drives away competitors, that is, young lions who do not have their own pride. When he is defeated in a fight with an opponent, the winner begins to own the pride by killing all immature cubs. And, despite such an unsightly social role of males, newborn males are not killed, as is customary among hyenas.

Using Occam’s principle, we come to the conclusion that if in the vast majority of species males make up about half of the individuals, then males are needed for something.

The two sexes differ in the energy costs for the reproduction of one offspring. The costs of the female individual are several orders of magnitude higher than the costs of the male.

First of all, it is necessary to answer the question — what is the difference between males and females? In most species, males and females differ in appearance. These differences are so great that often, when a previously unknown animal species is discovered, male and female individuals are mistakenly described as representatives of different species. Man is no exception. It can be assumed that a Martian, for example, is likely to consider a man and a woman to be representatives of different species. Differences are obvious in the following parameters: body size, body proportions, pigmentation, amount of muscle tissue, distribution of adipose tissue, distribution of hairline. Differences in external structure also suggest different functions of the two sexes, not limited to different reproductive roles. Even in those species in which fertilization takes place in the external environment, it is always possible to accurately indicate which of the two is female and which is male. For example, some reef fish can undergo sex changes. In the absence of males, one of the females becomes a male. What gives grounds to assert that those reproductive products that this individual threw out earlier were eggs, and now it throws out spermatozoa?

The two sexes differ in the energy costs for the reproduction of one offspring. The costs of the female individual are several orders of magnitude, i.e., hundreds of thousands and millions of times higher than the costs of the male.

8.2.2. Genetic stability and individual plasticity of females

The theory explaining the biological expediency of the existence of two sexes was proposed by our compatriot V. A. Geodakyan (V. A. Geodakyan himself speaks not about the energy, but about the informational difference between the two sexes. Since the concept of information is less obvious than the concept of energy, here we proceed from energy differences between the sexes). This theory explains the facts well and predicts many others, many of which have already been discovered.

Since the rate of reproduction is directly proportional to the number of females in the population, females are maximally adapted to the existing conditions of existence. At the same time, the number of males is always excessive, since the rate of reproduction depends very little on the number of males. Therefore, the male sex is a «testing ground» of evolution.

The genetic diversity of males is higher than that of females.

Even Charles Darwin noted a greater variety of forms among males in all species. Due to a more intense mutational process and some other genetic features, the genetic diversity of males is much greater than the genetic diversity of females. Most of the genetic changes in the new generation of males are unsuccessful. Accordingly, a significant part of the males will die or leave no offspring (in the evolutionary sense, this is the same thing). However, in a small part of the males, the changes that have occurred will be suitable for the changed conditions of existence. It is this part of the males that will leave offspring, i.e., ensure the reproduction of the population.

Females are easier than males to respond to environmental influences, that is, they adapt better to environmental changes than males.

Thus, the first feature of the female compared to the male is a small genetic variability. The second fundamental feature of females is closely related to it — high adaptability. More precisely, the higher ability of females compared to males to adapt to current changes in the environment. A little ouch, but, in fact, it is correct to say that males are “narrow specialists” with low ability to relearn, and females are not very specialized “generalists”, but with a high ability to learn , i.e. adaptation to current conditions.

In females, both somatic and mental signs are plastic, that is, they change under the influence of the environment of existence. For example, if a woman moves north from the middle zone, then in her body much faster than in a man’s, changes occur aimed at adapting to a cold climate: an increase in adipose tissue, a change in the size and number of red blood cells, etc. After returning to a warm climate reverse changes also occur faster in women than in men.

But, of course, most importantly, the significantly greater plasticity of women’s behavior compared to the behavior of men.

Any woman is unusually easily applied to any social position. The groom, elevated by fate to the duke, will still give his whole life as a stable, while the daughter of a sergeant, who by the grace of the same fate became a countess and mistress of the king, for several months or even weeks cannot be distinguished in any way from the most noble lady, already at the birth of his recorded on the pages of the Gothic Almanac (Nordau M. (1885) cit. by: Lombroso C., Ferrero J. A woman a criminal and a prostitute).

Of course, the beauty Izora was right, who, after sleeping for four hundred and fifty-six years, in response to an offer of help in gradually adapting to new times, dismissively threw: “It’s you, men, you need to adapt, and a woman is always a woman! (Uspensky M. White horseradish in a hemp field.) »

The plasticity of a woman’s behavior is often called conformism, condemning the behavior of Chekhov’s Darling. But this ability to adapt to changing circumstances gives women enormous advantages in everyday life. Of course, any sign loses its adaptive value, being hypertrophied. Therefore, the creation of such a psychiatric category as «Stockholm Syndrome» seems controversial, when hostages begin to feel friendliness towards the raiders who have captured them and sometimes go over to their side, and women sometimes fall in love with outright criminals. It is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances pushed to the limit.

An example of genetic stability and environmental plasticity in female rats is shown in fig. 8.6. In these data, it is easy to see a general pattern that has been repeatedly shown for different biological species. With artificial selection for opposite manifestations of a trait (in this case, for high and low learning rates), the differences between males of two divergent lines are greater than between females. This is called high male genetic variation (Fig. 8.7). On the other hand, within each lineage, the differences between females are greater than between males, i.e., with the same genetic background, the spectrum of changes in behavior caused by differences in individual experience is much wider in females than in males. The high environmental variability of females reflects the high individual plasticity of females.

Rice. 8.6. The results of testing the behavior of rats of genetically pure lines of two different behavioral types — A and B.

In males, compared with females, genetic variability is higher and environmental variability is lower. The same data are presented both in the form of a table and in the form of a graph. Males are born diverse: the difference between the two lines, which have been selected for more than 50 generations, is much greater between males than between females. The average number of avoidances in males of type A is greater than in males of type B by 90. The difference between females of the two lines is only 60. However, females are more susceptible to environmental influences. This can be seen from the fact that the range in which the measured characteristic of behavior changes is much larger in females of both lines than in males.

Rice. 8.7. The high dispersion of genetically determined traits in males leads to the fact that among them there are more individuals with extreme values ​​of traits. Even if the average indicator of a trait, for example, the sensitivity of the sensory system, is higher in females, among males there are more owners of very high sensitivity. Therefore, among, for example, tasters, the vast majority of men

8.2.3. Males are stress resistant

It should be emphasized that the greater plasticity of females is manifested at a low level of stress. With a high level of stress, due to the large genetic diversity, some males show high resistance to stress. The high resistance to stress of men, in comparison with women, is manifested, in particular, in the ability to make decisions in a stressful situation (Fig. 8.8).

For example, there is a list of professions prohibited for women in the Russian Federation. It is forbidden to hire women for physically hard and dangerous work. However, some professions related to operator activities are also prohibited. For example, a woman cannot be a bus driver or a locomotive driver. This is due to the high probability of a stressful situation in these professions and the responsibility for the lives of dozens of people, which lies with the driver and driver.

It should be noted that when testing in the laboratory, women perform tasks related to operator activities better. That is, the physical qualities necessary for a driver are better developed in women. Women have a wider field of vision, a better ability to determine the distance to an object and the speed of an object, etc. Even such a sense as a sense of inertia, which is very rarely used in everyday life, but which is necessary for a car driver, is better developed in women. Women have better motor skills. Finally, women have better developed sensorimotor integration, i.e., higher coordination of movements with the received visual information, etc. But this superiority of a woman is manifested only in a laboratory study, in a situation with a very low level of stress. In real life, when the level of stress is potentially very high, female drivers are significantly more likely than male drivers to cause accidents.

Males are more resistant to stress than females. In a stressful environment, men, unlike women, retain the ability to make decisions.

Once again, we emphasize that the described regularities are of a statistical nature. The existence of tall women does not disprove the general pattern «Men are taller than women.» A girl can become not only a professional Formula 1 pilot, but also a pilot, if she has the ability and perseverance. Nevertheless, women are not taken as pilots of a passenger airliner — just in case.

Statistical studies of large groups of the human population confirm the greater genetic variability of men and their higher resistance to stress. Mental illnesses with a clear hereditary mechanism (various forms of dementia) are more common among men. And among women, diseases predominate, in the occurrence of which the role of stress factors is great. First of all, these are depressive states, the frequency of which among women is several times higher than among men. The specific biological mechanisms of low resistance in women are unknown, but it has been reliably established that women have a weaker mechanism for regulating the adrenal cortex by negative feedback (see Chapters 4 and 5). After exposure to stress, women take longer than men to reduce cortisol secretion to baseline levels. Many other physiological parameters also return to normal after stressful changes more slowly in women than in men (Fig. 8.9).

Rice. 8.9. Slow recovery of physiological parameters in women after stress (Lebedev V. I. Personality in extreme conditions. M., 1989). Changes in the heart rate of astronauts before launch and when the spacecraft enters orbit. For all astronauts, the heart rate increases as the launch approaches and reaches a maximum at the moment of launch. This is followed by a gradual decrease in heart rate. By the time of weightlessness, all male cosmonauts had a pulse rate less than 5 minutes before launch. A fundamentally different pattern of pulse changes was noted in the only female cosmonaut. Tereshkova’s heart rate at 5-minute readiness and at the time of the start did not exceed the maximum heart rate that occurred in the group of men. After the start, this indicator decreased very slowly for Tereshkova. If at the moment of launch it was higher than the average for men by 16 beats per minute, then at the middle stage of entering orbit it was higher than the average for men by 33, at the final stage — 34, and in the event of weightlessness — by 36 beats per minute. minute. Thus, the stress rise in heart rate persisted longer in Tereshkova than in male cosmonauts. The time constant (see section 4.3.4) of response extinction is greater in women than in men and for other measures of stress

Despite the ideological significance of Valentina Tereshkova’s flight, women’s space flights were stopped for decades. And the reason for this, of course, is not that the heart rate of V. Tereshkova returned to normal much longer than the heart rate of men. The fact is that she did not complete the research programs of her flight. She did not get in touch for much of her 72-hour flight, apparently due to impaired consciousness. When the connection could be restored, she reported that «the ship is not controlled.» At the same time, the sound “P” in the word “ship” was clearly heard in the control center, which indicated the shutdown of higher cognitive functions, since this is how Tereshkova pronounced this word before she got to Moscow and learned the normative pronunciation.

But the greatest annoyance of the researchers was caused by the fact that after landing in the field, Tereshkova immediately ate thoroughly — in violation of the strictest prohibition — accepting the gifts of enthusiastic collective farmers. In doing so, it ruined the entire program of medical research.

It is not known whether the Americans took into account the disastrous results of the Soviet experience in launching a woman into space, but they kept their female astronauts in reserve until disbanded. The detachment included pilots who had combat experience in the Korean War, the most experienced paratroopers, that is, outstanding women. In training, they showed results that were significantly superior to men’s. For example, in the “pool of silence”. In this case, a person is immersed in a dark pool of salt water to create weightlessness. The subject is dressed in a special suit that prevents movement. A person cannot even touch the thumb to the index finger. Thus, sensory input to the CNS is minimized. Almost complete sensory deprivation is extremely difficult for a person to tolerate. An untrained person can withstand no more than a minute: in addition to indescribable horror, interruptions in cardiac activity begin. And women overlapped the performance of men several times! The two best performances of men were just over two and three hours, while women kept in the «pool of silence» for 9 and 11 hours.

Nevertheless, excellent results in training do not indicate high resistance to stress and the ability to make decisions in a stressful situation. The test subject knows that at the first signal he will be immediately removed from the pool (or pressure chamber, or heat chamber), while the astronaut in real space, on the contrary, knows that no one will come to the rescue. And the first space flights were flights into the unknown, since the situation being created, despite all the training on Earth, had a huge share of novelty. This purely psychological factor of novelty is what determines women’s inability to work as testers.

It must be said that the flight organizers had evidence that it was novelty that was the critical factor in space flight, and not weightlessness, overloads, noise, vibration, and other physical factors. Before the launch of one of the first ships, the dog, who was supposed to become an astronaut, fled to the steppe. There was no understudy, so they caught the first Baikonur mongrel that came across, stuffed it in, fastened it and launched it. The dog returned safely from space, having endured all the physical exertion, without tearing off numerous sensors and without signs of mental disorders. But astronaut dogs were trained for six months, accustomed to space ammunition, to overloads and other unpleasant sensations of flight. The successful experience of a naive dog showed that the hardest thing when launching into space is the unknown. The dog did not know what was ahead of her, she did not understand that she was in an environment absolutely hostile to living beings, separated from the vacuum by a thin layer of unreliable metal. But man knew, and unconsciously working imagination gave rise to stress.

At present, after the accumulation of half a century of experience in space flights, when the novelty has significantly decreased, women fly successfully both as tourists and as ship commanders. The situation, devoid of novelty, contains a minimum of stress, so now space flights are quite accessible to women. But repeated spaceflight experience does not increase a woman’s resilience to stress, as shown by the Colonel Novak incident (see Section 4.1.4).

The ability of some men to make decisions at a high level of stress (i.e., to form a program of behavior, and not show displaced activity) and the plasticity of women’s behavior at a low level of stress is clearly manifested in the medical professions.

The vast majority of surgeons and anesthesiologists are men. Even a planned operation is fraught with unexpected developments, i.e. stress. What about emergency surgery?

On the other hand, if we take not the great therapists whose names after their death are called clinics, hospitals and research centers, but simply “very good” doctors, then there are no fewer women among them than men, and maybe more. It is generally accepted that women are better diagnosticians than men. This is due to the fact that the accuracy of perception, observation, attention to detail in women is much higher than in men. Women, having made a diagnosis, can change their mind if additional symptoms appear, take into account, if possible, all the numerous factors that affect the course of the disease in a particular patient. A man, examining a patient, goes through the system of possible diagnoses with their numerous options and, having found the appropriate cell in his memory and entered the patient into it, often does not change his mind, despite the new results of the examination.

Thus, men have a clear advantage over women in stressful circumstances. With a high level of novelty of the situation, men are able to act adequately, choose an adequate program of action, or even develop it. Women, on the other hand, demonstrate displaced activity, and constant stress is an uncontrollable situation for women, which is manifested, in particular, in a significantly higher frequency of depression in women (see section 5.2). If the situation contains a small element of novelty, that is, changes occur slowly, or do not require an immediate reaction, then women cope with it much better than men.

Eastern wisdom says «Listen to a woman and do the opposite.» Formally, the Russian proverb «Listen to a woman, call her a fool and do as she says» contradicts her. Both recommendations are valid, since the first describes behavior in a stressful situation, and the second — in a situation with a low level of novelty.

8.2.4. Resource Accumulation and Female Cycling

In addition to the three listed sex differences — genetic variability, individual variability, stress resistance — male and female individuals differ in two more fundamental features. Both stem from the different energetic contribution of the two sexes to reproduction. The cyclicity of the physiology and behavior of females is directly related to the need to prepare for reproduction, to accumulate the resources that will be required to raise offspring.

The physiology and behavior of females, unlike males, changes cyclically.

Women in most cultures today are single for most of their cycles. As a rule, a woman gives birth once or twice. Therefore, the menstrual cycle attracts much attention of researchers and doctors. The menstrual cycle fluctuates not only affect, but also some cognitive abilities. Spatial tasks are better performed by women with low estrogen levels, and verbal tasks are better with high estrogen levels; long-term visual memory is better formed in the luteal phase of the cycle than in the menstrual one, but there is no effect of the cycle phase on verbal memory; fluctuations in long-term visual memory correspond to changes in the level of progesterone in the blood, but not the level of estrogen.

Fluctuations in various cognitive functions throughout the menstrual cycle are insignificant. But we do not dwell on this interesting topic, since they have little practical value. These fluctuations do not reach such an amplitude that it makes sense to take them into account in everyday life. Serious problems in women begin only after menopause.

The main feature of a woman’s behavior that is directly related to the menstrual cycle is the cycling of affect, which often develops to a painful degree (see section 3.5).

Changes in cognitive abilities in the menstrual cycle are insignificant, but the affective state fluctuates significantly in the menstrual cycle.

The tendency to accumulate resources is manifested in females both at the somatic level and at the mental level. Reproductive function in females is preserved only with a certain amount of adipose tissue (Fig. 4.2). Reducing the amount of fat below a certain limit leads to violations of the stability of sexual function, and with the further development of the process — to the cessation of egg production.

Since the tendency of females to accumulate resources in the form of adipose tissue is an adaptive trait, it is evolutionarily fixed in the stable preferences of males. Numerous surveys of men show that the vast majority prefer chubby women to athletic and asthenic ones. Since the main place of fat depot in women is the upper thighs and buttocks, it is this part of the female figure that determines the attractiveness of a woman (Fig. 8.10).

From the tendency of men to chubby (fat) women naturally follows the standard image of a fashion model, model, pop singer, who should be thin and, if possible, even bony. In search of new erotic impressions and experiences (see sections 4.1.4, 4.2), in search of novelty, a man prefers an image that is perhaps more different from what he is used to, from the one he chose a long time ago. The applause of the public at fashion shows is by no means an indicator of changes in stable male preferences.

Females are more likely than males to accumulate resources. On a physiological level, this is the accumulation of fat. On the behavioral level, it is the accumulation of vital resources.

In the behavior of animals, the propensity to accumulate resources is manifested in the creation of food reserves — in a form of behavior that is more characteristic of females. When courting, if the cat is especially cute to him, the cat brings her a mouse.

In humans, the tendency to accumulate resources is manifested in a greater than in men, the propensity of women to save money. Sometimes this statement is objected to by pointing to the love of women to shop. But in the process of purchases there is only an exchange of one, universal resource for another, also a vital resource. A woman always buys things, and does not waste money. Never will a woman go on a rampage in a restaurant throwing money at gypsies, never buy a million scarlet roses, and spend all her savings on a rare postage stamp.

The propensity of women to accumulate money is used in practical psychology, for example, when recruiting an agent. Although this is a creative process, which always begins with a thorough study of the target of recruitment, all its individual characteristics — from political views to food preferences — nevertheless, there are general rules in it. According to one of them, it is easier for a woman than a man to attract the material benefit of any enterprise. A man is easier than a woman to win over to his side with flattery. A fortuneteller (i.e., a practical psychologist) from A. I. Kuprin’s story «Reptile» says:

A man, even though he is a fool and his ears are cold and, so to speak, generally a donkey, nevertheless he believes that he has the soul of a tiger, the smile of a child, and therefore he is handsome. So, lie to him boldly …

In accordance with this scheme, they act when it is necessary to attract a man to their side: they admire his virtues, intelligence, knowledge, abilities, purely human charm, etc. At the same time, they constantly emphasize that he is not appreciated, that he occupies a low position in the hierarchy his community through no fault of his own, but solely because of the intrigues of envious people and the short-sightedness of his superiors. As a result, a man changes his self-identification, he now prefers to consider himself a member of another social group — another family, another production organization, another state. A change in social self-identification is often called betrayal (in contrast to betrayal, which is a betrayal associated with damage to the former community with which the person previously identified himself).

The adage of itinerant artists «Don’t applaud, it’s better with money» was formulated by their wives. A woman is interested in vital resources, and a man is interested in the attention (admiration) of others, that is, in leadership. He is not interested in money about itself, but as an indicator of social status and as a means to achieve influence on others, which is reflected in the well-known formulation: “The American dream is, by earning as much money as possible, to influence as many people as possible.”

Males, to a greater extent than females, are characterized by a need for leadership. In humans, this need is manifested in vanity and ambition.

The different reproductive roles of men and women, or rather, males and females, are also related to the fact that female animals are less aggressive than males. In social animals, protection from predators is a function of males, also because males are less valuable to the population (see color insert, Figure 8.8). The literature describes many cases of altruistic behavior of males, as a result of which they die in the fight against a predator, saving their females. Aggressive behavior of males takes rigid forms not only during interspecies contacts. Intraspecific aggression, which also often leads to the death of one of the participants in the conflict, is characteristic almost exclusively of males, since it is associated with the struggle for the female. The female, on the other hand, does not need to suppress the activity of other females, since this will not increase the probability of her reproductive success, which depends only on herself, on her choice. The female will almost always be fertilized. In addition, agonistic contacts that often accompany aggressive actions can cause significant damage to the viability of the female, which will adversely affect the entire population. The reproductive success of males varies widely. A male can pass on his genes to all the females in the community, or he may not pass on any of them, which most often happens. This uncertainty encourages males to constantly suppress competitors. Therefore, constant intraspecific aggression takes place almost exclusively between males, and in females it manifests itself only when vital resources are limited, for example, when there is no food.

Female individuals are less aggressive in intraspecific contacts.

The same patterns operate in the human community. Although competition between women for profitable suitors does exist, it rarely takes hard forms and almost never — forms of agonistic contacts. It should be emphasized that the aggressiveness of men is manifested in all spheres of their social activity, although these activities, as a rule, do not affect their reproductive success. At the same time, the aggressiveness of women, which has no biological justification, is weakly manifested in those forms of activity that are not associated with reproduction (Fig. 8.11).

8.2.5. Male and female psychological types

Summing up the description of the fundamental differences between males and females, we note that these differences form the category of psychological types: male and female (see section 6.4). From the incomparable energy contribution to the process of reproduction, the features of genetics, physiology and behavior of the two sexes follow. These features characterize not only humans, but also all dioecious animals. The differences between the male and female sexes can be formulated as different sets of needs and a different style of satisfying these needs.

There are obvious differences in the style of the stress response. Male style is close to type A. A man seeks to return the changed conditions of existence to the usual ones. Women adapt to the changes that occur, which characterizes her behavior as type B. Attempts to train a woman for stressful type A behavior are futile and, moreover, detrimental to her health. First of all, the psyche of a woman suffers.

Differences in the needs of men and women are also obvious. For a woman, the accumulation of resources is a priority, that is, dominance in the narrow sense (see section 7.1.1). For a man, a high rank of leadership is more important. The social behavior of men is close to r-strategy (see Section 7.3.2), while women are more likely to be social K-strategists.

Men’s and women’s psyche and (or) behavior, like other psychological types, differ in the set of needs and the style of the stress response. The main difference in needs: in males, the need for leadership, in females, in the accumulation of vital resources. Males are more resistant to stress than females.

The difference between the types «man» and «woman» is close to the differences between types A and B, respectively, and r- and K-strategies of social contacts, respectively.

Thus, Occam’s principle dictates that typology based on a «male» and «female» set of needs and styles of satisfying them should be rejected as redundant. Indeed, males are r-strategists with behavioral type A, and females are K-strategists with behavioral type B. Nevertheless, the concept of male and female psychological types is widespread both in the specialized literature and among non-professionals. Probably, the stability of the archetypes «man» and «woman» is explained by the fact that, unlike other typological systems, representatives of these two psychological types are very easy to distinguish by somatic features.

8.3. cognitive differences

On average, men and women have the same intellectual abilities. This is noted in the book by C. Lombroso and J. Ferrara «Woman — a criminal and a prostitute», the very title of which reflects a tendentious view of a woman. The authors acknowledge that female students are not inferior in intelligence to male students.

There are no differences between men and women in general intelligence, as measured by the intelligence quotient (IQ), but there are differences in individual abilities. These differences are small, they rarely exceed 20% (for those familiar with statistics — from 0,25 to 1 standard deviation).

The average value of the IQ of men and women is the same.

It should be emphasized again that the differences in adults are due not to different hormonal levels, but to those features of the physiology and structure of the nervous system that were formed in the embryonic period under the influence of sex hormones. For example, the introduction of progesterone improves visual memory in women, while in men this procedure is ineffective.

Differences in the individual abilities of adult men and women are due not to different hormonal levels, but to those features of the physiology and structure of the nervous system that were formed in the embryonic period under the influence of sex hormones.

As already mentioned, women have better verbal abilities, speed and accuracy of perception, subtle movements. Men perform better on spatial and quantitative tests, while women navigate by objects rather than a map. Women classify objects according to formal features. For example, to the question «What kind of car do you have?» a woman can answer: “Green”, forgetting to mention the model, year of manufacture and other significant features of the car. We will not dwell on these features, since they are described in detail in the psychological literature.

Let’s note two widespread misconceptions about verbal abilities. It is often said (and written) about the best «verbal thinking» of women. It is not right. Not all thinking is verbal. It is better to use the term «verbal activity». A woman’s great verbal activity is manifested, for example, when she asks for a light. A woman uses a detailed sentence, with introductory words, a complete construction of a phrase. A man in a similar situation is limited to facial expressions, gestures and lowing. When explaining a concept, a woman uses speech, while a man prefers to draw a diagram or graph.

Another common misconception is that women are talkative. Measurements taken with maximum accuracy showed that the average number of words spoken by a man and a woman in a day or a week is the same. The difference lies in situations that are accompanied by verbal activity. A man will not have a long conversation on the phone with a friend, he will prefer noisy communication with a wide range of interlocutors and (or) drinking companions.

The great social activity of men is again explained by the different energy budgets of the two sexes. Women are more self-centered and show less social activity, while men can afford to spend some of their energy not on reproduction, but on activities that do not promise concrete benefits in the near future.

It is difficult to meet a woman who is concerned about the situation in East Timor. At the same time, a man, not being a diplomat or financier, may be keenly interested in foreign policy. It is men who conspire, play football and organize learned societies. Such occupations are not in the circle of women’s interests, not because women are less intellectual, but because they are less inclined to group activity (see color insert, Fig. 8.12). In Lysistrata, a comedy by Aristophanes, the absurdity that gives rise to the comic situation lies in the fact that women have arranged a conspiracy, and this is a form of activity in which one must necessarily sacrifice one’s momentary vital interests. Some credibility of the ridiculous situation is given by the fact that the conspiracy was directed against men who are overly fond of social life and, as a result, neglect their families.

The main gender difference in cognitive abilities is the rigidity of men and the intuitiveness of women.

The male intellect is rigid, the female intellect is intuitive.

In the previous section, it was pointed out that, due to their high resistance to stress, men are better surgeons than women, and women are better diagnosticians than men. This difference is associated not only with different stress resistance, but also with the peculiarities of cognitive abilities.

Men make a worse diagnosis, because they study any object, trying to attribute it to some already familiar category. If this fails, then the object is analyzed, i.e., it is divided into components, each of which, in turn, is already classified (Fig. 8.13). Naturally, the number of familiar categories, in other words, the number of cells in the table, grows with the accumulation of professional experience. But this number always remains limited and, most importantly, the use of the analytical method of cognition is mandatory.

The woman perceives the object as a whole. The woman is intuitive. This means that she sometimes (usually) cannot explain the consistent course of logical reasoning that led her to a certain decision. But the adoption of this decision is influenced by all the features of the phenomenon studied by the woman. A man, on the other hand, often, having found in his intellect a certain cell for a certain phenomenon, no longer pays attention to numerous particulars — the decision is made! And it is already very difficult to force him to change his decision.

The ability to dismiss details, sometimes even ignore obvious facts, makes it possible for some men to create fundamental scientific theories. A classic example is the creation of the theory of stress by Hans Selye. The very subject of the study — the nonspecific component of the reaction — caused skepticism among colleagues. The scientific interests of G. Selye were called by his supervisor “the pharmacology of dirt”.

His other statement, that the adaptive reaction of the body is regulated exclusively by humoral factors, was met with hostility by the world scientific community. These were the 30s of the XNUMXth century, all physiology and medicine were permeated with the ideas of nervism, the primacy of the role of the central nervous system in the regulation of all body functions. Nevertheless, Selye dismissed as unimportant those facts that did not fit into his system. At present, no one doubts that stress develops with the close interaction of the nervous and humoral systems, but the narrowness of Selye’s view, his self-righteousness, bordering on paranoia, allowed him to create his theory, which subsequently attracted the attention of world science to the humoral aspects of the regulation of functions. .

Unfortunately, not all men who are deaf to the arguments of others manage to build a scientific theory, which later turns out to be true. The stubborn inventors of the perpetual motion machine, the unrecognized poets writing tons of paper, the scientists who have been talking nonsense for decades — all these categories of people consist exclusively of men. Women have enough plasticity to quickly quit a hopeless occupation.

Because of the cognitive differences between the two sexes, men will never understand women. Until the middle of the twentieth century, only men explained the psyche and behavior of women. Such explanations always give only an approximate picture of the inner world of the object under study. For example, it is impossible for a researcher to penetrate into the soul of a cat, which feels differently than a human, and also has a completely different range of needs and ways of fulfilling them. Since the twentieth century, the psyche and behavior of women began to be studied and described by women themselves. Perhaps they have achieved significant success in this, but men will never know about this, because women both consider the subject being studied in a different way, and state it in such a way that such explanations do not clarify anything for a man. Consider, as an example, the book by K. P. Estes “Running with the Wolves. The female archetype in myths and legends” (Kyiv: Sofia; M.: PH “Helios”, 2004. 496 p.).

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., former Executive Director of the C. G. Jung Research and Training Center, is a highly experienced psychoanalyst. Her book has been translated into more than 25 languages ​​and, apparently, enjoys well-deserved popularity. In any case, the women who have read it speak very highly of it. They say that they enjoyed the very process of reading, that is, the text undoubtedly has a psychotherapeutic effect.

However, I have not been able to find answers to specific questions. For example: what, according to Dr. Estes, the features of the female psyche that distinguish it from the male, add up the female archetype? Or: what features of the female psyche are reflected in myths and legends? What I understood about the female archetype, having overcome half a thousand pages, can be formulated something like this: “In every woman there is a woman-girl, a woman-mother and an old woman. Feel them in yourself, wild woman, and you will be well.”

The peculiarities of the perception and thinking of a woman make the results of the study of the female inner world, conducted by women, secret knowledge, open to the initiated, but forever hidden from men. Therefore, a woman will always remain a mystery to a man; which, of course, is for the best.

Due to their intuitiveness, women understand animals much better than men. Dressage competition remains the only sport in which women compete against men. Greater resistance to stress, which is associated with any competition, gives an advantage to men. This is compensated by the ability of women to perceive the behavior of the animal as a whole. The following process takes place in the man’s head: “The horse turned its ears outward, which means that you need to lean forward a little; at the same time, she jerked her head to the left, which means that it is necessary to pull the right rein, etc. ” The male consciousness consistently analyzes all the movements of the animal and develops a solution in the same way. And the rider evaluates the gestalt of the animal’s behavior and changes her behavior not as a result of a chain of individual observations, their classification, the search for an adequate reaction and the decision on a specific motor reaction, but “intuitively”. Intuitively does not mean by chance, as God puts on the soul. Intuitive decisions often turn out to be correct (otherwise they are called «stupid»), and you can always justify them after the fact. But in the time available for the rider to make a decision, such an analysis cannot be carried out.

In chapter 7, it was substantiated that the patroness of wild animals, Artemis, kept her virginity. And the fact that she was a woman is also not accidental: female intuition helps to understand animals deprived of articulate speech. In addition, females communicate more easily with animals than with males, due to the less aggressiveness shown to females by both males and females.

Thus, the main cognitive gender difference is the rigidity of the male mentality and the intuitiveness of the female. The average capacity of women for logical constructions is not lower than that of the average man. The widespread idea of ​​the existence of a special «female» logic is associated with the egocentrism of a woman, due to the difference in the energy costs of reproduction. The logical abilities of women are the same as those of men, but the value system, that is, the set of needs, is different for the two sexes:

If the phrase “I have nothing to wear” is said by a man, it means that he has nothing clean. If a woman says: “I have nothing to wear,” then this means that she has nothing new. The value systems of men and women are so different that some statements require special commentary for representatives of the opposite sex. For example, when one woman says to another: “Your suit is good. I have the same five years old, as the moth ate, ”she lets her hairpin in. The fact is that she makes it clear to her friend that she wears clothes that were worn more than five years ago. And outdated clothes are an indicator of a low social rank for a woman, since the lack of novelty in appearance leads to a decrease in attention from men.

Some cognitive differences are due to different energy contributions to reproduction: the greater sociality of men, “female” logic, and the lack of a sense of humor in women.

The different energy roles of the two sexes also explain the lack of a sense of humor in women. Recall that a sense of humor is the ability not to be offended when a joke is made on you, in contrast to wit, the ability to play a joke on another (see Chapter 1). “Don’t joke with women: these jokes are stupid and indecent,” Kozma Prutkov quite rightly said (Thoughts and Aphorisms, 91).

Without considering in detail the theory of the comic, let us join the opinion of I. Kant, who believed that it is generated by the discrepancy between what is happening and what is expected. In interpersonal relationships, incongruity is created most easily if the situation is inadequate to a high social status. The gray-haired professor jumping through the puddles is funny, but not a little boy. It’s ridiculous to put a button on a chair for a respectable teacher, and not for a slob neighbor.

A man, unlike a woman, can afford to temporarily be in a stupid position, that is, to lower his social rank, that is, to reduce his vitality, being in a ridiculous position. A woman who is concerned about the constant increase in resources, including the level of social status that provides access to vital resources, does not tolerate jokes about her. A joke addressed to a woman is a faux pas, a hairpin, or outright rudeness.

In Maupassant’s short story «The Norman Joke,» during the wedding of a rich farmer who was also an avid hunter, one of the guests shouted: «The poachers will have fun tonight!» The groom barked — they would not dare, but when the young people retired to the bedroom, a shot rang out from the nearest forest. Then another one! The young husband, having rushed about, despite the persuasion of his wife, nevertheless grabbed a gun and ran to catch poachers. At dawn, the wife raised the people, and only then “… they found him two leagues from the farm, bound from head to toe, half dead with rage, with a broken gun, trousers turned inside out, with three dead hares around his neck and with a note on his chest: «Whoever goes hunting loses his place.»

The most remarkable thing is that such a cruel prank is perceived by the victim as just a joke:

Subsequently, talking about his wedding night, he added: — Yes, what to say, it was a glorious joke! They, the useless ones, caught me in snares like a rabbit, and threw a sack over my head. But watch out if I ever get to them!

It is obvious that the status of the hero of the story does not correspond to the position in which he found himself — instead of the marriage bed, he would be tied up in the forest. But such an incident, clearly associated with a decrease in fitness in a broad biological sense (instead of reproductive behavior, risk life and health, not to mention the possibility — albeit a very small one — of the wife’s fertilization by another man), is perceived by the hero of the story precisely as an amusing, interesting case, about which he loves to talk. The hero, like any man, perceives a temporary decrease in his fitness as a natural event — «Today you, and tomorrow I.» It is no coincidence that he threatens the pranksters on occasion to repay a hundredfold. And they will perceive his actions not as retribution, but as a return joke.

Obviously, the wife, like any woman, does not see anything funny in this story, but only a tragedy. A woman, like any female, cannot risk even a temporary decrease in viability and even the threat of such a decrease.

Thus, many cognitive differences between women and men directly follow from the different energetic contributions of the two sexes to the production of offspring. The main cognitive differences between men and women are:

• rigidity of intellect;
• weak intuition;
• weak verbality;
• high sociality;
• sense of humor.

8.4. Gender differences

In psychology and sociology, when talking about the differences between men and women, it is customary to use the term «gender» rather than «sex» differences. Meanwhile, the differences between the concepts of «gender» and «gender» are not entirely clear. As a result of several scientific conferences, specialists in the humanities came to the conclusion that the term «gender» is due only to good funding for «gender» studies, in contrast to studies of «gender differences» (Bogdanov K. A., Panchenko A. A. GENDER as GENDER (instead of foreword) // Mythology and Everyday Life: Gender Approach in Anthropological Disciplines, Proceedings of Scientific Conference February 19–21, 2001 / Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) / Edited by K. A. Bogdanov, A. A. Panchenko. St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2001. S. 5–10.)”. Indeed, “gender” sounds solid, since it is a foreign word and does not evoke associations with odious concepts: sexual intercourse, genital organs, sexual problems, sexual perversions, etc. in any case, non-natural scientists do not see the actual difference between the concepts of «sex differences» and «gender differences».

And yet it is legitimate to use the term «gender» to refer to stereotypical ideas about the forms of behavior and psychological characteristics of the personality of Men and Women. Many of these traits are culture-specific (Figure 8.14), but the vast majority of these stereotypes are biological patterns—dramatic differences in the energetic contributions of the two sexes to offspring.

8.4.1. Two systems of ethics

A male, like all males, can theoretically leave a large number of offspring, while a female, like females of other species, can only produce a limited number of offspring.

This explains the different strategies of reproductive behavior of males and females. In human society, this has led to the creation of two ethical systems. Those forms of behavior that are acceptable for men or even encouraged by them are considered unacceptable for women.

The strategy of male behavior is determined Coolidge phenomenon: an unfamiliar female is always better than a familiar one.

The name of the phenomenon is associated with the name of the American President Coolidge. During an official visit to the farm, his wife allegedly asked the farmer, «How many times in a row can a bull cover a cow?» “Ten,” he replied. «Give this to Mr. President.»

Then Coolidge himself asked: «The same cow?» — «Only different.» «Give this to Mrs. Coolidge.»

Thus, males try to spread their genes as much as possible by passing on their genes to as many offspring as possible. At the same time, since the production of offspring is very expensive, females cannot afford to mate with the first partner they find. Therefore, the reproductive strategy of females is imitation and waiting. Females prefer to choose proven sexual partners who are already successful with other females. As a result, there is a positive feedback — the more sexual partners a man has, the greater his chances of connecting with a new woman.

The two systems of ethics are reflected in such proverbs and sayings as, for example, “Be good to a fellow, don’t be ashamed of it,” and, on the other hand, “Weak in the front.” In all cases, we are talking about people with a strong motivation for copulative behavior. However, this behavior of men is approved, although often not explicitly, and the implementation of the same motivation by women is condemned by traditional morality.

The double ethical standard — for men and for women — is due to the different reproductive roles of the two sexes.

Here it is appropriate to recall that humans are predominantly a K-strategist (see Section 7.3.2), i.e., a species whose behavioral repertoire includes extensive care for offspring. And the main burden of parental responsibilities, of course, is borne by a woman. The high price of a possible failure in choosing a reproductive partner determines such a gender feature as modest behavior prescribed for girls in almost all cultures. Only by giving the initiative of courtship to a man, the girl will be able to appreciate his dignity, which will inevitably manifest itself in his behavior.

The longer a girl does not make it clear to a man that she likes him, the more fully his properties will be revealed. It should be noted that modest behavior is prescribed, that is, restraint of motor acts. It is permissible to dress provocatively, immodestly paint the face, etc., but it is impossible to make a movement towards the man first. The first man she likes may not be the best, so a woman is obliged to provoke a potential sexual partner to show her possible virtues in the process of courtship.

Consider, for example, Watteau’s masterpiece The Capricious. The pose of the lady is characteristic — she straightened up and leaned forward a little. With a gesture of the hand picking up the dress, the lady, as it were, fences herself off from the persistent admirer. In the silhouette of her figure, rounded, pleasant, quite feminine contours are combined with sharp curves of lines — a pointed toe of a slipper, a vigorously clenched hand — which emphasize the mood of resistance. On the face of the lady, one can easily read proud disobedience and at the same time a readiness to continue accepting courtship. It is no coincidence that the gentleman is preparing to get something from his inner pocket (purse, gift?). His posture is somewhat careless, on his face not only attention is read, but at the same time self-confidence and a share of irony. The gentleman is not a young man, therefore, most likely, sexually experienced, well acquainted with the ritual of courtship, all the steps of which must be completed before the lady provides him with final evidence of her favor. It can be assumed that if for some reason the lady does not want to deal with him, then the gentleman will calmly leave.

If the woman has already made her choice, then the man does not have the right to refuse her, because the energy costs of the male for the reproduction of the offspring are negligible compared to the costs of the female. Men who reject a woman’s direct offer go down in history — like Orpheus, Phaedra’s stepson Hippolytus and the beautiful Joseph.

All jokes about sex are based on double standards. As we have already said, much of what is considered normal for a man and even welcomed and encouraged is indecent or even unacceptable for a woman. Consider the following historical anecdote (Antique anecdote / Ed. S. Venglovsky. St. Petersburg: Neva Magazine Publishing House, 1995.):

The Roman emperor Octavian Augustus saw a Greek on the street, surprisingly similar to his face, and asked him: “Did your mother go to Rome when she was young?” He replied: “No, my mother has never been in Rome, but my father lived in Rome for a long time.”

This story is funny, because in it the emperor finds himself in an awkward position. Why, then, do we consider such a position to be inconsistent with the high imperial rank? Because the image of the father, who at one time had extramarital sex, does not compromise the emperor, and even, perhaps, adds shine to his diadem. On the contrary, a hint that the emperor’s mother was a relaxed girl, led an absent-minded lifestyle, can greatly damage the imperial dignity.

The threat to the reputation of the emperor’s mother is heightened by the fact that she is suspected not just of premarital or extramarital affairs, but of connection with a Greek. In Rome at that time, the vast majority of teachers, doctors, philosophers, magicians, architects and artists were Greeks (more precisely, bearers of Hellenistic culture). The contemptuous attitude of the nobility towards educated people was aggravated by the fact that Greece had been one of the provinces of the Roman Empire for a century and a half. Thus, the social level of a noble Roman girl was much higher than that of any Greek. Communication with a subordinate for any woman, for example, a lady with a coachman, is no longer “uninhibited behavior”, this is what in Russian is called “waving in all directions (Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. History of the city of Glupova)”. At the same time, the connections of men with women of low social rank are perceived by others quite calmly, that is, they are not a violation of moral or ethical standards.

Any female individual, including a woman, cannot afford to squander her eggs, producing offspring from low-ranking males. The low social rank of the male means his low fitness. Poor adaptability is most often due to unsuccessful heredity. Even if poor fitness is associated with environmental influences (mutilation), then even then this means that such a male will not be able to take care of the offspring. Males, like males of other species, can easily afford to spend some of their gametes on fertilization of low-ranking females.

Although the costs of male reproduction are relatively small, but with the K-reproduction strategy (see Chapter 7), which prevails in humans, a man would like to spend energy on growing offspring that carry his genes. There can be no complete certainty that a woman is pregnant from him. Therefore, in different cultures, the institution of engagement was formed. After the girl was declared a bride, her freedom was sharply limited. In patriarchal cultures, she was simply locked up until her wedding day. In this way, the likelihood of sexual intercourse and pregnancy was limited. As a result, the man received, if not a guarantee, then some confidence that he would not have to spend energy on raising the descendants of another man. Of course, the possibilities of contacts between the bride and the groom were also limited. A man rightly believes that it is more reliable to have a non-pregnant bride than a bride who claims that she is pregnant precisely from him — and what else can she say ?!

In the Russian tradition, the institution of engagement was supported by a large number of posts, during which weddings were not allowed. As a result, more than two months passed between the engagement and the wedding. Thus, a child conceived by a husband could appear no earlier than 7 months (in case of prematurity) after the wedding.

The biological meaning of the institution of engagement is an attempt by men to prevent the impregnation of the bride by another man.

In Sweden, the country with the largest number of civil marriages (forms of cohabitation of a man and a woman without legal registration of this fact and, of course, without an engagement period), a genetic study of the entire population was carried out. One of the side effects was that 11% of men are not the biological fathers of children who are raised as relatives. Moreover, families with obviously other people’s children — adopted or adopted — were excluded from the statistical data array. So it turned out that every ninth man was deceived (perhaps unconsciously) by a woman and spent his energy on raising someone else’s child, who is not his biological descendant, that is, on the reproduction of someone else’s genes.

A study of 400 Welsh citizens showed that in this sample, the percentage of deceived men is approximately 000. It should be noted that biological tests can indicate with absolute certainty that a given man is not the father of a given child. That a particular man is the father of a particular child can be confirmed biologically with a probability only approaching one, but never reaching it. Therefore, the real proportion of men who do not raise their biological offspring is even greater.

Consequently, even such a seemingly purely human institution as engagement is based on biological laws, in particular, on the need to use energy sparingly.

8.4.2. The social meaning of the existence of two sexes

Numerous differences in the behavior of men and women are of a statistical nature. In a sufficiently large sample, you can always find a woman who will have a greater set of «male qualities» than most men. But one function of gender differences is absolute — it is the satisfaction of the social need for self-identification.

The existence of two sexes with fairly rigidly prescribed norms in behavior and especially in social behavior, that is, in communication, satisfies this basic social need. The experience of Soviet power connected with the establishment of equality between men and women is indicative. Immediately after the revolution, they tried to introduce an attitude towards a woman as a comrade, who, of course, is “distracted” for several months of pregnancy, but otherwise she is the same member of society as a man, and therefore the norms of behavior for men and women should be the same (Fig. 8.17). Despite the fact that such a system of relations was supported not only by propaganda, but also by the wide distribution of nurseries, canteens, house kitchens, and other services that minimized a woman’s craving for a family, it was not possible to level the gender characteristics of behavior stereotypes.

The presence of male and female behavior with a fairly rigid framework allows a person to feel like a member of a certain community — either men or women. Even if a person fails in other areas of life, nevertheless, he satisfies the basic social need — in self-identification, feeling his belonging to a social group formed on the basis of sex.

It is no coincidence that, according to unwritten laws, the presence of women on a fishing trip or men visiting beauty salons is not approved. These are clubs that are closed to the other sex. The studies of M. L. Butovskaya showed that in the communication of boys and girls of three to six years old there are the same stereotypes of behavior that are noted during the contacts of two tribes of a primitive culture (Butovskaya M. L. Ethnographic Review. 1997. No. 4. P. 104-122.).

Julius Caesar’s famous words “Not even a shadow of suspicion should fall on my wife” are widely known, with which he explained his sudden divorce from Pompey after a young man was discovered in the room of his wife’s maid. But his wife was suspected not of adultery, but of complicity in blasphemy! The young man was found in the house of Caesar, at the time when the Good Goddess was celebrated there (her real name has not come down to us, because it was known only to women). Not a single man could not only be present at the festival, but also be in the house in which the celebration was celebrated. A man who entered a closed women’s event was accused of impiety, because he was guilty not only of the women he offended, but also of the city and the gods (Plutarch. Caesar, IX, X.).

Violation of gender stereotypes of behavior causes stress or ridicule. If a person’s behavior is very different from the expected, then this causes psychological discomfort.

In ancient Greece, with total bisexualism, the term «kined» was a nickname for «half-men» who, with their effeminate behavior, gestures, love for outfits, cosmetic tricks, deserved universal contempt. In the comedies of Aristophanes and the works of other authors, they are given various vulgar nicknames (Licht G. Sexual life in Ancient Greece. M .: KRON-PRESS, 1995). A man must remain a man, no matter with whom he prefers to get the satisfaction of his erotic needs — with women, with boys or with mature men.

The most disgusting of N.V. Gogol’s characters, Plyushkin, looks like an old woman. The accumulation of various vital resources, quite excusable in a woman, is called “pettiness” in a man and makes a person especially unsympathetic. For example, the woman pointed to the reason for the divorce: “He counted all the empty jars in the house!” Naturally, people who get divorced after 20 years of marriage do it for more complex reasons, but such an «unmale» act was the last straw, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Naturally, those features of behavior that are considered to be «male», when they occupy a significant place in the behavioral repertoire of a woman, make the attitude towards such a woman non-standard. For example, since it is generally accepted that jokes are the lot of men, a woman who loves to joke and, even worse, knows how to do it, causes men to be wary. At best, she is not treated as a woman, but as a «combat girlfriend.»

Belonging to a certain gender serves to satisfy the need for social self-identification.

Modern attempts to abolish social institutions that are closed to the opposite sex, which are carried out under the slogans of «political correctness», «equality of rights», etc., are also harmful because they ignore the innate human need for social self-identification (see color insert, Fig. 8.19) . For example, the Swedish Institute of Sociology and Medicine compared data on the employees of all 290 Swedish municipalities on 9 indicators of private and public life. The results showed a strong relationship between gender equality and morbidity. For example, an equal income level and the opportunity to occupy the same positions led to a decrease in life expectancy. According to the authors of the study, the correlation found can be explained by the fact that representatives of the strong half of humanity experience psychological trauma from the loss of traditionally male privileges, while women suffer from additional workload and long working hours.

In our opinion, the main reason for the deterioration of health when gender stereotypes are blurred is the disappearance of the most evolutionarily ancient, simple and reliable criterion of social self-identification — gender. Much has been said about the importance of meeting the need for self-identification, in particular for the prevention of depression, in the previous sections (see chapters 2, 5, 7).

Attempts to minimize differences in the behavior of men and women are doomed to failure. Man is a product of a long evolution, and gender-related features of the structure and functioning of the brain, associated with sex, are formed during the entire intrauterine period of development and after the birth of a child. Women are no worse and no better than men, they are different. Thus, the demand for equal rights for women with men is like the demand for equal rights for mice and frogs. Mice would have the right to dive, and frogs to live in holes.

Women are no worse and no better than men; they are different.

Ideas about the characteristics of the psyche of a woman have undergone fundamental changes over the past hundred years. Z. Freud wrote that the root of the psychological characteristics of a woman is her desire to be a man, and the impossibility of changing sex gives rise to all female psychological problems. By the 1980s, the idea of ​​gender equality gained such strength that American doctors for a long time did not want to recognize the existence of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The existence of PMS refutes the main thesis of feminists «there are no differences between women and men.» Only the fact that the separation of PMS into an independent norsological unit, i.e. a separate disease, created a new sector of the medical services market, determined the intensive study of this problem of PMS at the present time.

It is often written that gender-determined behavioral and mental characteristics of a woman are of no importance in modern society, because the difference between the reproductive roles of a man and a woman is minimized due to the development of medicine and scientific methods of raising children, as well as the disappearance of the relationship between sex life and birth children. Indeed, the success of contraception has made the relationship between sexual behavior and reproduction of offspring very weak. However, sexual behavior, even in animals, is not limited to the implementation of the reproductive function. Even only the copulative component of sexual behavior in animals and humans can be traced in many aspects of social behavior. We can also agree that the biological factors that determined the advantages of the existence of two very different sexes are weak in modern society (although the fact that a person got out of the pressure of natural selection is not a proven fact). But the main thing is that the differences between a man and a woman begin to form from the moment of fertilization of the egg and continue at least throughout the pregnancy. Thus, no environmental impact can change:

• greater genetic diversity in men;
• better adaptability of women;
• greater stress resistance of men;
• cyclical life activity;
• propensity to accumulate resources in women.

In conclusion, we recall that these five main differences between men and women, as well as all other differences between men and women, are of a statistical nature.

8.5. Homosexuality

Homosexuality is sexual orientation towards people of the same gender. As in many other forms of behavior, in homosexuality there is an obligate form and an optional one. In the obligate form, erotically colored contacts with the opposite sex are completely excluded. Obligate homosexuals in the human population are no more than 5%, and many authors believe that their proportion is not higher than 1% for men, and even less for women (Kon I.S. Introduction to sexology. M .: Medicine, 1988. 319 p. ). Facultative homosexuality is often referred to as bisexuality. This form of behavior is quite widespread. It has no genetic or congenital determinants.

Facultative homosexuality manifests itself as a result of environmental influences. It can be a transient form of behavior due to the situation, for example, in prisons, long expeditions. Bisexuality can be culturally defined, in particular the rather strict isolation of women, as in ancient Greece. Homosexuality is imitated — children raised in homosexual «families» start sexual life as homosexuals. Homosexual contacts may become preferred as a result of failed heterosexual experiences. Bisexuality may reflect the weakness of gender stereotypes of behavior — «… everything that moves.» Homosexuality can be justified philosophically (Plato) or aesthetically, as Oscar Wilde did. Finally, homosexuality can be one of the forms of psychological defense, such social self-identification, with the help of which a person tries to compensate for his failures in other types of social contacts (see sections 2.2.2, 5.3.3), as the characters of E. M. Remarque do and Eduard Limonov.

Thus, facultative homosexuality is based primarily not on biological, but on psychological and social mechanisms. The biological basis, and not in 100% of cases, can only be found for obligate homosexuality. Immediately, we note that there is no relationship between sexual orientation and the hormonal status of the body of an adult. Homosexuals do not have characteristic anomalies of the hormonal profile. None of the endocrine diseases is a marker of a tendency to homosexuality. No form of hormone therapy results in a change in sexual orientation.

Decisive for the formation of sexual orientation may be the influence of hormones in the process of embryonic development. The nervous system is either masculine or feminine under the influence of fetal steroids (see section 8.1.4). Pronounced sexual dimorphism is noted in some hypothalamic structures, for example, in the preoptic region, the destruction of which deprives the male of the ability to copulate. Naturally, the imbalance of sex steroids should affect the formation of these centers.

For obvious reasons, experimental data on this problem have come almost exclusively from animals (homosexuality is also present in the behavioral repertoire of many species, including laboratory rats and mice). The introduction of testosterone to pregnant females leads to the masculinization of embryos, i.e., to the manifestation of male features of their morphology and physiology. Masculinization of offspring is manifested, in particular, in a decrease in the reproductive abilities of females, in their greater aggressiveness, in a greater number of cages on each other. Accordingly, in a pregnant woman, a change in the amount of androgens (for example, as a result of taking antidiabetic drugs) leads to masculinization of the embryo.

The level of testosterone in the body of a pregnant woman increases as a result of steroidogenesis of the embryonic gonads. In rats, in whose uterus the embryos lie like peas in a pod, a female embryo located between two males develops a more masculinized female than one that is adjacent to only one male or two females. A similar observation was made in humans. The hearing characteristics of women from twin pairs were compared. It turned out that women who had a twin brother, compared with those who had a twin sister, had masculinized characteristics of the auditory sensory system (McFadden D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90: 11900-11904 (1993).).

In the anterior hypothalamus, a person has a group of interstitial nuclei (ING). Several research groups have reported that one of them, NRTI-3, is significantly larger in men than in women, and in homosexual men its sizes are intermediate (Breedlove SM, Hampson E. Sexual differentiation of the brain and behavior. In: JB Becker et al (Eds.) Behavioral Endocrinology, A Bradford Book, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2002. 776 p.). It is possible that it is this core that is the «center of sexual orientation.» Obviously, its formation can also be impaired as a result of changes in the testosterone content in the body of a pregnant woman, which can lead to the formation of homosexuality.

Another type of hormonal influence on sexual orientation is the effect of stress. Comparing the dates of birth of 794 GDR homosexuals, Günther Dörner’s group found a peak in 1944 and 1945 (Dörner G. Adv. physiol. Sci. 15: 111–120, 1981.). During these years, living conditions in Germany deteriorated sharply: the national humiliation of military defeat was added to the famine, bombing, and fighting on the territory of the country. Therefore, the level of stress experienced by residents was much higher than that experienced by the population in 1943 and 1946. The conclusion about the increase in the likelihood of homosexuality during pregnancy stress was confirmed by collecting an anamnesis of homosexual men. Their mothers experienced much more material and psychological difficulties and nervous shocks during pregnancy than a group of heterosexual men of the same age and social group.

A certain part of homosexuals has deviations from the normal structure of the central nervous system, caused by an imbalance of sex steroids in the embryonic period.

The main mechanism of action of stress on sexual orientation is associated with the antagonism of glucocorticoids and androgens. An increased content of glucocorticoids reduces the functional activity of androgens, i.e., prevents their interaction with target tissues, despite the normal content of androgens in the body. Therefore, in the body of a pregnant woman, maternal glucocorticoids prevent the organizing influence of embryonic androgens. This mechanism was confirmed in experiments on pregnant rats, which were not subjected to stress, they were only injected with glucocorticoids. The offspring of such animals were distinguished by smoothed sexual characteristics: males were feminized, and females were masculinized. In addition, as a result of stress, the blood supply to the fetus worsens, which leads to a lack of oxygen and, as a result, to numerous non-specific developmental defects.

So, sexual orientation, its deviation from obligate heterosexuality, is connected in a certain part of cases with the organizing influence of androgens. A change in the concentration of androgens (more precisely, the balance of sex steroids) during critical periods of development, i.e., during the formation of nerve centers responsible for sexual orientation, can lead to the formation of homosexuality. However, it should be remembered that the neuroendocrine theory is not exhaustive in the problem of homosexuality. However, a certain proportion of homosexual men and women have congenital differences from heterosexual people, and a changed sexual orientation is only one of the manifestations of these congenital anomalies. Consequently, the self-name «gay», which is an abbreviation of Good As You — «no worse than you», is biologically justified only in some cases (Rotikov N. N. Another Petersburg. St. Petersburg: Liga Plus, 2000. 639 p.)

Recommended reading:

• Butovskaya M. L. Secrets of sex: Man and woman in the mirror of evolution. M.: Vek 2, 2004. 368 p. The book was written by a biologist who teaches at a liberal arts university.
• Geodakyan V.A. Evolutionary logic of sex differentiation // Priroda. 1983, No. 1, pp. 70–80. Scientific publication.
• Eremeeva V. D., Khrizman T. P. Boys and girls are two different worlds. St. Petersburg: Tuskarora, 2000. 184 p. Popular science about practical pedagogy.
• Imelinsky K. I. Sexology and sexopathology. Moscow: Medicine, 1986. 423 p. Scientific monograph.
• Kon IS Introduction to sexology. Moscow: Medicine, 1988. 319 p. Scientific monograph.

Video from Yana Shchastya: interview with professor of psychology N.I. Kozlov

Topics of conversation: What kind of woman do you need to be in order to successfully marry? How many times do men get married? Why are there so few normal men? Childfree. Parenting. What is love? A story that couldn’t be better. Paying for the opportunity to be close to a beautiful woman.