Blame Your Brain

And, of course, by "Clever Title" I mean the ability to rhyme "Brain" with "Blame."

I found this article from CNN to be interesting. It’s by Dr. Louann Brizendine, who is a professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco and has written books called “The Female Brain” and “The Male Brain.”


I don’t know how much of this is fitting brain function to fit preconceived notions of the socially established functions of the two sexes, but it’s still interesting to read. The basic thrust is: ‘Hey, a bunch of that stuff that men do that anger women? That’s all because our brains are wired that way.’ So, the part about men hiding their emotions, the part about protecting territory, or staring at breasts and all that, is supposedly beyond our control. I don’t know if there’s a part of the brain that accounts for leaving the toilet seat up or for admiring your own genitalia with a hand mirror, but I imagine that’s somewhere in the book.

I had two immediate reactions upon reading this.

Reaction the first: great. Next time I’m in trouble for doing something ridiculously stupid in front of my lady friend, I can just claim that it’s my brain’s fault and that I had nothing to do with it.

But then, reaction the second: somewhere there is a god, and he hates us. Or he has a sick sense of humor. If it’s true that the male brain is hardwired to stare and large breasts “the way we (women) look at pretty butterflies,” and it is true that the female brain is hardwired to understand this and to get jealous due to a need to “seek security and reliability,” then we are hardwired to fight. Constantly.

Somewhere, someone thought it would a great idea to make it so that people spend long hours agonizing over why they can’t understand the person that they want to have sex with.

Man, brains make me so angry. I wish I could punch brains.