Neurosexism

Neurosexism is the claim that there are set differences between the female and male brains, often leading to judgments that females/males are better at stereotypical gender-based tasks based on biological factors (Rippon, 2016). Unfortunately the concept of possessing a “male” brain and “female” brain still exists today, and has historically impacted a lot of scientific studies. This theory dates back to the 18th century, in which the female brain was found to weigh less than the male brain, paving the way for a sense of gender inferiority. Theories began to develop that men were stronger, and more logical thinkers, whereas females were more nurturing and emotional. The more stereotypes built upon each sex, the more scientific findings were researched in an attempt to justify it. However, this binary segregation of male traits versus female traits cannot exist, and shows how there is still sexism in science. Studies have shown that there are no fundamental differences in the male and female brains. In fact, each brain has a different composition and skill based on a variety of factors. This can include nutrition, culture, environment, or past experiences (Fine, 2013). This is due primarily to the fact that a lot of these comparable traits are plastic, meaning that they change over time based on the environment or individual experiences. Our skills cannot fall under two categories, and over time, these ideas of tasks or characteristics that each sex was better at began to overlap in time. Moreover, culture and society played a large role on whether a task was considered a female or male duty. This may be more prevalent in certain cultures, in which a female adhering to her specific roles and males to their own are normalized and encouraged. In the past, neuroimaging has played onto these stereotypes, also using specific obscene data to come up with misleading research that promotes neurosexism (Rippon, 2016). Evidently, this shows the need for feminist criticism in sex-based neuroscience research. In today’s day and age more than ever, the idea of gender is fluid. Gender itself and gender roles are merely a social construct, and how an individual chooses to identify themselves plays a large factor in how neurosexism is false. Being so, it explains how a lot of traits can be modified and can vary from person to person and sexes. 

Another way people attempted to prove neurosexism was based on sexual size dimorphism. In which case, people argue that these differences are also based on a lot of external factors, such as race, nutrition, society, and how there are discrepancies between treatment of sexes leading to inequalities (Fine, 2013). Also, these studies are littered with false positives that claim there are innate sex differences in the brain, providing illegitimate support for stereotype-consistent binary neurosexism. Hence, it leads to a bias in the understanding and lens in which gender is viewed. This explains why individuals adhere to or feel satisfied with believing in neurosexism, as they feel as if they can gain or relate to this false concept. Being a male, it provides a misleading sense of confidence or pride and encourages being less emotional to receive the much greater reward of being “manly” or logical. As for females, it can be seen that adhering to these roles can make them seem inherently better as a mate.

Today, the idea of gender (roles) being fluid has made it a lot easier to understand how neruosexism is false. Although challenging neurosexism is not to say that there are no differences between the sexes; in some cases, this can be pivotal in other areas of research, such as mental health (Rippon, 2016). But, the idea of a “male” and “female” brain is an incorrect, and a sexist way to encourage binary approaches that feed into these long-held false beliefs.