Somos tão diferentes não somos??

Think Again: Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills
Research debunks myths about cognitive difference

What the Research Shows
Are boys better at math? Are girls better at language? If fewer women than men work as scientists and engineers, is that aptitude or culture? Psychologists have gathered solid evidence that boys and girls or men and women differ in very few significant ways -- differences that would matter in school or at work -- in how, and how well, they think.
At the University of Wisconsin, Janet Shibley Hyde has compiled meta-analytical studies on this topic for more than 10 years. By using this approach, which aggregates research findings from many studies, Hyde has boiled down hundreds of inquiries into one simple conclusion: The sexes are more the same than they are different.
In a 2005 report, Hyde compiled meta-analyses on sex differences not only in cognition but also communication style, social or personality variables, motor behaviors and moral reasoning. In half the studies, sex differences were small; in another third they were almost non-existent. Thus, 78 percent of gender differences are small or close to zero. What's more, most of the analyses addressed differences that were presumed to be reliable, as in math or verbal ability.
At the end of 2005, Harvard University's Elizabeth Spelke reviewed 111 studies and papers and found that most suggest that men's and women's abilities for math and science have a genetic basis in cognitive systems that emerge in early childhood but give men and women on the whole equal aptitude for math and science. In fact, boy and girl infants were found to perform equally well as young as six months on tasks such as addition and subtraction (babies can do this, but not with pencil and paper!).

The evidence has piled up for years. In 1990, Hyde and her colleagues published a groundbreaking meta-analysis of 100 studies of math performance. Synthesizing data collected on more than three million participants between 1967 and 1987, researchers found no large, overall differences between boys and girls in math performance. Girls were slightly better at computation in elementary and middle school; in high school only, boys showed a slight edge in problem solving, perhaps because they took more science, which stresses problem solving. Boys and girls understood math concepts equally well and any gender differences narrowed over the years, belying the notion of a fixed or biological differentiating factor.
As for verbal ability, in 1988, Hyde and two colleagues reported that data from 165 studies revealed a female superiority so slight as to be meaningless, despite previous assertions that “girls are better verbally.” What's more, the authors found no evidence of substantial gender differences in any component of verbal processing. There were even no changes with age.
What the Research Means
The research shows not that males and females are – cognitively speaking -- separate but equal, but rather suggests that social and cultural factors influence perceived or actual performance differences. For example, in 1990, Hyde et al. concluded that there is little support for saying boys are better at math, instead revealing complex patterns in math performance that defy easy generalization. The researchers said that to explain why fewer women take college-level math courses and work in math-related occupations, “We must look to other factors, such as internalized belief systems about mathematics, external factors such as sex discrimination in education and in employment, and the mathematics curriculum at the precollege level.”
Where the sexes have differed on tests, researchers believe social context plays a role. Spelke believes that later-developing differences in career choices are due not to differing abilities but rather cultural factors, such as subtle but pervasive gender expectations that really kick in during high school and college.

In a 1999 study, Steven Spencer and colleagues reported that merely telling women that a math test usually shows gender differences hurt their performance. This phenomenon of “stereotype threat” occurs when people believe they will be evaluated based on societal stereotypes about their particular group. In the study, the researchers gave a math test to men and women after telling half the women that the test had shown gender differences, and telling the rest that it found none. Women who expected gender differences did significantly worse than men. Those who were told there was no gender disparity performed equally to men. What's more, the experiment was conducted with women who were top performers in math.
Because “stereotype threat” affected women even when the researchers said the test showed no gender differences – still flagging the possibility -- Spencer et al. believe that people may be sensitized even when a stereotype is mentioned in a benign context.
How We Use the Research
If males and females are truly understood to be very much the same, things might change in schools, colleges and universities, industry and the workplace in general. As Hyde and her colleagues noted in 1990, “Where gender differences do exist, they are in critical areas. Problem solving is critical for success in many mathematics-related fields, such as engineering and physics.” They believe that well before high school, children should be taught essential problem-solving skills in conjunction with computation. They also refer to boys having more access to problem-solving experiences outside math class. The researchers also point to the quantitative portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which may tap problem-solving skills that favor boys; resulting scores are used in college admissions and scholarship decisions. Hyde is concerned about the costs of scientifically unsound gender stereotyping to individuals and to society as a whole.

Sources & Further Reading
Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (1988). Gender differences in verbal ability: A meta- analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 53-69.
Hyde, J.S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 139-155.
Hyde, J.S. (2005) The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6), 581-592.
Spelke, Elizabeth S. (2005). Sex differences in intrinsic aptitude for mathematics and science?: A critical review. American Psychologist, 60(9), 950-958.
Spencer, S.J., Steele, C.M., & Quinn, D.M. (1999) Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 4-28.

Retirado de:
American Psychological Association, January 18, 2006 (www.apa.org)

Por isto já não sou sócia da PETA ....

PeTA - Where Only Women Are Treated Like Meat

by Nikki Craft

Historically, sexual stereotyping, exploitation and objectification have harmed women. The women at PeTA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have the right to use their bodies. Do they pose nude? No, they're fake nudes. Do they even portray liberating images of women and nudity? No. They work with Playboy Magazine where women are herded like cattle in limiting, stereotypical mass media presentations; or PeTA covers the body of the Go Go's cowering in shame behind well placed banners. These advertisement campaigns are not any expression of courage expressed by the Go Go's or by PeTA or any of their members, either. Sure PeTA ought to be able to portray sexual images, though we hope they'd do a better job of it; and when they place one of the harem of pimp Hugh Hefner (the Afghani/Saudi men's sexism has nothing on him) in the public domain to promote their organization they will have to take responsibility for how it will impact all women.

Imagine instead their ad agency hunts up a "contrarian" African Amerikan to get on his knees before a white man, shine his shoes while shuckin' n jivin' with an Amos/Andy grin to make some message about vegetarianism. Should we be duped into taking such an advertisement seriously? Should we be expected to take it as "liberating" because it's framed as "protest" yet upon looking deeper it's just jacking up racial stereotypes and white privilege? Would we be expected to, could we take PeTA seriously? Yet some insist we ought to when they are jacking up sexual stereotypes, male privilege and conservative politics.

Retirados de http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/PETA/peta.html

Subvert the Dominant Pimpiarchy

óptimo artigo sobre o papel das mulheres no tradicional Hip-Hop da MTV

By Rachel Bell (versão completa em http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/fashion/Subverting-the-Pimp.html)

"Being a pimp is the epitome of cooldom. If you want to be somebody in this white world, to be the main man and have serious street cred, you've got to be a pimp. Or at least call yourself a pimp. This is the message from MTV. It's the message from hip-hop culture. It's a message that's been around for a while, but I'm pissed now because the media are letting it seep into our casual vocabulary without question.
"Nelly: Pop star, pimp or gangsta?" asks VIBE magazine this month. The wannabe gangsta rapper whose ubiquitous hit Country Grammar (Hot) sealed his status as a pop (super)star certainly likes to come across all bad boy and pimpy. His video for Tip Drill features scores of strippers lap-dancing for Nelly and his chums. We’ve seen this before but what made this video particularly charming is the chorus line, "It must be your ass cause it ain't your face'' and Nelly swiping his credit card down a dancer's arse crack. Nice.
According to VIBE, Nelly argues that the women in Tip Drill were paid workers who willingly participated in the video. I should hope so Nelly.
Many prostitutes are willing, paid participants but this does not make colluding in the degradation of women right. The male tendency to shift all responsibility onto the women involved speaks volumes about these men's attitudes to women.

To confirm his supreme pimpiness to the kids, Nelly got his own soft drink and called it Pimp Juice. He says that PIMP stands for Positive Intellectual Motivated Person. Hmm, let me think about whether I'll buy that? The thing is Nelly, I'm really not getting that intellectual vibe from your contribution to art. Please explain it to me.
A representative for Pimp Juice explained to VIBE that 'The meaning of Pimp has changed. To most people on the streets, if you say pimp, they wouldn't say it is someone who pimps out women. It's more like mojo, or your 'it' factor.' Ok, let's see. Nelly's videos tell us that he loves to lord it over scores of gyrating, stripping women. In his latest collaboration with Justin Timberlake, Work It, he and the 'teen sexgod' set themselves up as a pair of Hugh Heffners. They give Hugh the nod of respect by donning Hugh-alike silk robes, flank him on thrones in his playboy mansion while the camera hones in on tits, arses and the stripping playbunnies gyrating strangely on the snooker table. Nelly, your 'it' factor is wholly about being a pimp, a playboy and now, it appears, a bit of an old perv in a dressing gown.

If a twelve year old boy looks up to hip-hop 'artist' 50 Cent (who brags about being a pimp on Top of the Pops), drinks Nelly's Pimp Juice to get Nelly's 'it' factor, sees Ice T's video, How To Pimp Girls advertised on the street, if his only role models are artists such as Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule who tell him it's cool to disrespect women, if he watches rap videos that portray his sister, mother, girlfriend, future wife and future daughter as nothing more than gyrating body parts, what values will he develop?

If music videos are full of women who look and behave like porn stars, if every young famous female who is photographed has her mouth open ready to give head, if advertising continues to use young women's bodies to sell ANYTHING, if 'cool' celebs say porn is cool, then boys and girls evolving identities will be under pressure. Bombarded with these stereotypes of men and women, what messages are they absorbing? It will take a young mind of some strength not to conform.

Despite what Nelly's representative says, in the real world, on the streets of any city, 'pimp' still means what it says in the dictionary. But as the fantasy world of MTV and hip hop culture co-exists with the real world it also means many other things, too. In hip hop, and more recently pop culture, 'pimp' has become synonymous with 'bling'. In DBC Pierre's cult novel, Vernon God Little, the 15-year-old anti-hero Vernon pimps out his school friend, Ella. He knows only too well that, "pimps are already an accepted thing these days, check any TV-movie. Lovable even, some of them, with their leopard skin Cadillacs, and their purple Stetsons. Their bitches and all." (p134)

Nelly is the father of a little girl, who according to VIBE magazine is a 'baby-doll cute daughter'. I wonder what his aspirations are for her. I wonder what he would think if she decided to become a dancer and got her bottom 'swiped' by a man calling himself a pimp? So long as she was a 'paid worker who willingly participated' would he be well up for it?

Hundreds of thousands of girls and women, many just children as young as 13, are being forced into prostitution by traffickers every year. The US State Department believes the figure to be between 600,000 to 800,000 people. Demand is high all over Western Europe and men are raping trafficked children here in Britain.

Threats to kill their families, brutal beatings and rape keep them enslaved for years on end. Some of them are in legal and therefore 'acceptable' brothels in Amsterdam, most in criminal syndicates all over the world. Last year, The Guardian reported the harrowing story of a trafficked Albanian teenager who was forced into prostitution in Britain. For around three months she was made to work in a grimy Paddington brothel, enduring up to 16 hours of sex each day. "One night I had 26 customers," she recalled. "After work," the story depressingly revealed, "the pimps would rape her one by one, tie her down and use her naked belly to snort cocaine." I read this and felt a deep, deep hatred for the men who dare to treat another, more vulnerable human being in this way. I felt a deep fear for the future of all girls and women.
Last month, the Observer magazine's special report on human trafficking told more stories of children kidnapped from the villages of Albania and Moldova. Now another girl's hell has come to haunt me, too. She was an orphan who was abandoned by her boyfriend when she became pregnant. With the promise of work, she agreed to go to Moscow. There she was enslaved and forced to work beneath a railway bridge, for which her traffickers paid local police. Some 'clients' kept her for several days and brought their friends. One man kept her for three or four days in a basement and invited 20 men. When she objected, the pregnant girl was called a 'bitch'.

Do I make my point? "

Leituras

“O Longo Caminho das Mulheres – Feminismos 80 anos depois” percorre o feminismo português desde o seu despoletar, em 1920; e dá a conhecer as suas apologistas, integrando a actuação do movimento na História do nosso país.
Destaca as temáticas que os feminismos da viragem do século enfatizavam, designadamente as sexualidades, a luta pela despenalização do aborto, a violência exercida sobre as mulheres, os «estudos sobre as mulheres», a agência e o sujeito feminista, as mulheres nas esferas «pública» e o «privada», o “ciberfeminismo”, entre outras.
O livro é ainda recheado com a última entrevista concedida pela única mulher que desempenhou o cargo de primeiro-ministro em Portugal, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo.
A autoria é de Lígia Amâncio, Manuela Tavares, Teresa Joaquim e Teresa Sousa de Almeida.

(retirado de http://feministactual.blogspot.com )

um óptimo site : One Angry Girl

Imagens que dão muita vontade de estampar em muitas t-shirts :-))

Retirados de http://www.oneangrygirl.net/