Different brains, different realities? Most of us go about our days without wondering why separate aisles in toy stores are reserved for boys' toys, like puzzles and blocks, and girls' toys, like dolls and tea sets. We don't always consciously notice that men dominate certain professional fields while women occupy others. And why is there a higher percentage of gay men (or more “feminized” men) in the dramatic and passionate world of the performing arts? Are these sexual tendencies all inculturations? If we don't stop to explore the origins and implications of our observations, we make the mistake of glossing over them with an uninformative, "facts of life" explanation that neglects the why of the problem. "implies biological premises. Steroid hormones secreted by the gonads (mainly androgens in males and estrogens and progestins in females), for example, are not limited to the lower half of the body and are known to have effects divergent on the brains of different sexes Although the male and female brains may appear structurally identical (except that the male's is approximately 10% larger) (1), morphological differences abound. The absence of androgens at the neonatal level, well before having the opportunity to interact with its culture. In rodents, for example, testosterone masculinizes the brain to prevent ovulatory capacity and establish typically male behavior. is accomplished by aromatization, or the paradoxical conversion of testosterone to estrogen in the brain. Female rodents are protected from this estrogen-based masculinization by a protein found in the blood called AFP. However, a small amount of estrogen does leak into the brain, and this could be a response... middle of paper ... stupidity or "weirdness." It is useful to recognize that we can, in essence, experience different realities! As we learn to stop underestimating the power of a hormone, we can also learn more about ourselves, the opposite sex, and our interactions. And, just as we must sometimes “agree to disagree,” perhaps we must also be willing to “understand in order not to understand.” References 1) This article reflects the research and thoughts of a student at the time the article was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College. Like other materials on Serendip, it is not intended to be "authoritative" but rather to help others further develop their own explorations. Web links were active at the time the article was published, but are not updated.Contributing Thoughts | Search Serendip for other articles | Serendip Homepage http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/cgi-bin/comments