男女來自不同星球?專家稱屬無稽之談

Some days the opposite sex seems so different, you can almost believe that they come from another planet.

Indeed, the theory that we are all hard-wired by our gender has proved so popular that a book on the subject, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, became an international best-seller.

Now a leading neuroscientist says women's brain power is no different to men's after all – and we are actually incredibly similar when it comes to intellect. professor Gina Rippon says the idea that our brains are controlled by our gender is outdated and wrong.

And she has even accused researchers of producing findings that can be used to support the old prejudice that women are not men's intellectual equals.

'There is increasing concern within the neuroscience community about the misinterpretation and abuse of our findings on the links between brain structure and behaviour,' she said.

'This "neurohype" is designed to support stereotypes and to suggest that there is a major biological and structural difference in the brains of men and women that explains their social roles and status.

'This is nonsense. There may be some very small differences between the genders but the similarities are far, far greater.’

Professor Rippon's comments follow a spate of books promoting the idea that there are structural differences between men's and women's brains.

However, the professor from Aston University in Birmingham, argues that although today's researchers can observe the minute workings of the brain, they are still asking questions that appear to be inspired by old-fashioned male-female stereotypes.

Take a look at the characters in programmes such as Mad Men, the TV series about a 1960s advertising agency, and you'll get the idea.

'Throughout history, biological explanations have been used as weapons to explain and maintain social differences,' she added.

'In Victorian times, scientists suggested women thought with a different part of their brain from men. In the 1950s they came up with the idea that women's "inferior" thinking was controlled by their hormones. Now the idea is that men and women have different brain structures –but there is no real evidence for any of it.'

有時候男人和女人看起來是如此不同，你幾乎都以爲他們來自另外一個星球。

事實上，我們天生就由自己的性別決定這一理論非常受歡迎，有關這一主題的書——《男人來自火星，女人來自金星》成爲了全球暢銷書。

如今一位頂級神經學家稱，女性的腦力與男性差別並不大，在智力方面男女實際上是驚人地相近。吉娜•瑞彭教授說，認爲我們的大腦由我們的性別控制的想法是過時的，也是錯誤的。

她譴責一些研究者“製造”研究結果來支持女性智力不如男性的老偏見。

她說：“在神經科學界中，有些人會曲解和濫用我們在有關大腦結構和行爲之間的聯繫方面的發現，這一現象越來越讓人擔心。”

“製造這種‘神經誇大論’目的是爲了支持固有成見，表明男性和女性的大腦存在着重大的生理上和構造上的不同，從而解釋男女的社會角色和地位的不同。

“這是無稽之談。男女之間可能存在着一些很小的差異，但是相似性要多得多。”

在瑞彭教授發表這些言論之前，已出版了許多宣揚男性和女性在大腦構造上有區別的書。

不過，這位來自伯明翰市阿斯頓大學的教授說，雖然現在的研究人員們可以觀察到大腦的細微運作，但是他們的論題似乎依然受到對男女的老式成見的影響。

看看講述20世紀60年代一家廣告公司的《廣告狂人》電視節目裏的人物吧，你就明白了。

她補充說：“縱觀歷史，生理上的理由一直被用作武器來解釋和維持社會上的差異。”

“在維多利亞時代，科學家們指出女性思考時使用的大腦部位與男性不同。20世紀50年代他們認爲女性的思考能力‘弱’是因爲受她們的荷爾蒙控制。現在又認爲男性和女性的大腦構造不同——但任何論斷都沒有確切的證據。”

Vocabulary:

hard-wired: 天生的

a spate of: 一連串，大量的