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Read other letters about this article
You did say it, sorry I didn't read very carefully.
We disagree about what is possible obviously, and while you are more straightford in your (in my opinion delusional)views than most the reality is that even though many women argue that gender is entirely socially constructed most don't really believe it when confronted with specifics. You do apparently,
And where is my evidence, you may ask? I look at myself, my family, my boyfriend, some of the women I know. I am much more aggressive than my boyfriend, much better at math, much more organized, planning the future. I tell him about his finances and explain investment vehicles. I'm going into a very male-dominated field. My boyfriend is the English major, the more emotional and (what i consider) sappy person, verbal, loves to cook, drink wine, etc. His mother and my mother are both strong-willed heads of the household who were in charge of the family completely, not just at the "hearth." Both worked throughout our childhoods. Both my grandmothers were engineers.
Most of my female friends have a ton of interests other than marriage, children and home-making. Sure, most women I know do want these things, but a sizeable minority from various countries, educational and socio-economic and religious backgrounds do not.
All this is evidence to me that women are not "all like this" or "all like Y" and having different role models than most American men and women had in their parents can make your life perceptions and your WHOLE SELF very different from the typical woman.
honest but delusional, although maybe not so delusional, after all; taking the position you do allows you to maintain intellectual consistency when you argue that all difference is constucted, and since men and women are different you will never be proved right but since no "acultural" humans will ever be available to study you can never be absolutely proven wrong either.
Actually, there are acultural humans - newborns. Sure, you can talk about how eating a lot of fish sauce vs. curry vs. foie gras can make a difference in utero, but beyond that, studies are performed on newborns, who have the least cultural influences humans can possibly have. I would love to see more research into that. Plus, if you study cross-culturally, you can see some of your stereotypes fall away.
