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Why does nature need male and female
And really, why? After all, once upon a time, plants and the simplest animals did not have this: “he” and “she”. But at a certain stage of evolution, it suddenly turned out that the division of living beings of the same species into male and female organisms is very beneficial. Why?
The answer to this question was proposed in his theory of asynchronous evolution of sexes by Doctor of Biological Sciences, geneticist V.A. Geodakyan. He proceeded from the position that two opposing tendencies always struggle in evolution. The first one is the need to preserve what has already been created, to consolidate those traits that are beneficial, to pass them on by inheritance, to make descendants as similar as possible to their parents. And the second one is the need for progress, further search and change, diversity of descendants, among which one will appear one day who will give evolution a new profitable direction and ensure adaptation to new conditions, will expand the habitat. So, the struggle between the conservative and the progressive, the stable and the changeable, the old, the reliable and the new, the unknown, the risky.
These two tendencies are embodied in the division of living beings into male and female individuals, which gives tangible benefits in the implementation of both tendencies. At the same time, the female sex retains in its genetic memory all the most valuable acquisitions of evolution, and its goal is to prevent their changes as much as possible, while the male sex, on the contrary, easily loses the old and acquires a new one: some of these acquisitions may be useful in the future or already in the present, especially at the moment of occurrence of some extreme conditions. I.e the female gender is focused on survival, and the male gender is on progress.
Therefore, nature «protects» the female sex, and the male is not so «sorry» for her. On males, all the «novelties» of evolution are worked out. The spread of congenital traits in males is much greater. Women seem to be more the same. Men have more beneficial and harmful mutations (genetic abnormalities). Thus, according to some data, there are 100 deaf boys for every 122 deaf girls. Deviations in color vision are also more common in men. Among children with strabismus, as well as stuttering, dyslexia, alalia and other speech defects, mental retardation, etc. significantly more boys. Speech therapy groups in kindergartens and other groups for children with developmental disabilities mostly consist of boys.
So, men by genotype (complex of congenital traits) have a much greater diversity than women. But every living being, throughout its life, is influenced by the external environment, the conditions in which it is located, and under their influence it also changes to some extent. For example, the weight of an animal depends not only on the innate properties of the constitution, but also on nutrition, the presence of stress, the need to lead a mobile or sedentary lifestyle. A set of signs of an organism, formed taking into account the influence of the external environment, is called a phenotype.
It turned out that there are also significant differences between male and female. So, observing pairs of identical twins (their genotype is the same), they noticed that even in the case when the twins were separated from childhood and lived in different conditions, the similarity in male pairs was much higher than in female ones. On the contrary, if the twins were fraternal (they have different genotypes, and the influences of the environment are almost the same), then greater similarity is observed in female pairs. Why? Turns out, nature gave females a wider opportunity to change under the influence of external conditions. Therefore, even with the same genotype, a woman can, for example, lose weight or gain weight over a wider range, therefore, identical twin girls (one genotype) under different living conditions can differ quite noticeably (different phenotype), and under the same conditions, even fraternal twins (different genotype) can become similar in many ways (similar phenotypes). In boys, external resemblance is determined precisely by innate properties and much less by the influence of the external environment.
Thus, with a sharp change in living conditions to which a given species of animals is not genotypically adapted, female individuals can adapt due to phenotypic variability, preserving the entire set of hereditary information — genotypes. For example, with a sharp cold snap, even in individuals who are “not prone to fullness”, the layer of subcutaneous fat can significantly increase. That is, female individuals can leave the zone of discomfort or even death in the zone of comparative comfort and survival (they have better adapted to the cold, they become warm, although they continue to live in the same cold conditions). And male individuals with the same genotype cannot change so quickly and strongly (get away from the cold by changing the phenotype). They only have to die.
With all the changes in the environment, including social ones, males suffer more. But they still have a way out: find another habitat where it would be warmer, or invent a fur coat. The female sex does not need to strain so much, they have already adapted.
It is these differences that determine high predisposition of males to search behavior. This is vitally important for them, this is the way out that nature has given them. And their brain is larger, more advanced in development, but as a retribution — and less reliable, more vulnerable. Search behavior is determined by and the attraction of males (including men) to the development of new spaces, their great intelligence in difficult situations, the tendency to search for unconventional new solutions, to risky ventures.
All evolutionary progressive features are more pronounced in males. If we, following V.A. Geodakyan, we trace the dynamics of the duration of different periods of life in animals (for example, primates) located lower or higher on the evolutionary ladder, we note that the period of childhood increases in higher forms of animals. So, for lemurs, it is only 2-3 years, for monkeys of the old world — 7 years, for great apes — 8-12 years, and for humans — about 20 years. That is, the lengthening of the period of childhood is a progressive sign, and it is more pronounced in males: in boys, childhood lasts longer than in girls.
Girls and are born more mature for 3-4 weeks, and by the period of puberty, this difference reaches about two years. Then, in elementary school, boys are, as it were, younger than girls in terms of their biological age by a whole year. So we got in this conversation about the origins of the differences between the male and female sexes to such conclusions that are already important for educators, parents, and teachers.
So, we know that boys start walking 2-3 months later, they start talking 4-6 months later, complications are more often observed at the birth of boys than at the birth of girls. Women have more miscarriages if they are carrying boys. According to various data, for every 100 conceptions of girls, there are 120-180 conceptions of boys. Often the death of the unborn boy occurs before the woman knows that she is pregnant. Statistics show that among children 7-15 years old, injuries in boys occur almost 2 times more often than in girls. Difficult children are also more often boys. Boys, even very young ones, are more often scolded, less often picked up. In relation to them, the speech of adults often contains only direct instructions (go away, bring, give, do, stop …), and in a conversation even with one-year-old girls, older ones often mention sensory states (like, love, sad, cheerful …).
The physiological side of perception is also somewhat different in boys and girls. It is shown that up to 8 years of age, the hearing acuity of boys is on average higher than that of girls, but girls are more sensitive to noise. In the first and second grades, girls have higher skin sensitivity, i.e. they are more irritated by bodily discomfort and they are more responsive to touch, stroking. Girls’ games are more often based on near vision: they lay out their «wealth» in front of them — dolls, rags — and play in a limited space, a small corner is enough for them. Boys’ games are more often based on far vision: they run after each other, throw objects at the target, etc. and use all the space provided to them. This cannot but affect the features of the development of the visual system.
In addition, it is shown that boys, unlike girls, require more space than girls for their full mental development. If the space is small in the horizontal plane, then they master the vertical one: they climb stairs, climb onto the closet. If you ask children to draw a plan of the surroundings of their house, then the boys in the drawings reflect a larger space, fit a larger area, more streets, courtyards, houses. And do we know how to use or at least understand and take into account these differences when raising children of different sexes?
Raising a boy, raising a girl
Let’s ask ourselves a question: if boys have so many different deviations, if there are many losers and difficult-to-educate among them, then why are almost all outstanding scientists, artists, writers, doctors, composers, designers men? And why did so many great people do poorly in school? Probably, among the poor boys there are many who will never be able to realize what nature has given them. Why? See →
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.