Exposition-+Shi+Cheng

media type="custom" key="4379909" The turn of the 21st century saw the rapid rise of feminist movement, which sought for the emancipation of women, for women to acquire equal rights as men. This once again raises a contentious and controversial topic—how different are men and women? Indeed this question and permeates deeply into society today, as lines between gender roles are slowly but steadily blurred. “Women are from Venus and men are from Mars” likens men as hailing from Mars and women from Venus and uses it as a metaphor to illustrate the massive difference between men and women. I believe that men and women are essentially different on the grounds that they have different biological systems as well as different societal roles and expectations. Perhaps the most glaring reason for the fundamental difference between men and women would be the predetermined biological systems of each. It is common knowledge that humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes within each cell, 22 of which are similar in both male and female. However, when it comes to the 23rd chromosome, women have 2 of the X chromosome, while a man only has one. Consequently, the prevalence of testosterone and estrogen is also more evident in the male and female body respectively, signally a difference between man and women at the basic cellulose level. However, the biological difference between man and woman transcends mere structural divergence—it extends to behavioral differences as well. Men are often shown to be more aggressive than women, with women being shown as more nurturing and passive. This is not unfounded, in an experiment by Child psychologist Michael Lewis, where he conducted an experiment with one-year-old boys and girls to see how they would react to being separated from their mother by a barrier, the boys tried to knock down the barrier while the girls stood passively, crying for help. This acutely illustrates the behavioral deviation between males and females, where males are undoubtedly more aggressive, while females are more passive. It has been argued that biological difference does not have a direct correlation with social difference. Indeed, various feminist movements have denounced the argument of biological difference, with third-wave feminists like Judith Butler, French feminists like Monique Wittig, and social constructionists within sociology disputing the biological-natural status the distinction imputes to sex, arguing instead that both sex and gender are culturally constructed and structurally complicit. Society today has moved away from the apparent biological differences between men and women, but rather, emphasizing more on the cross-gender similarities. According to Dr Janet Shibley-Hyde, women's studies specialist from the University of Wisconsin, males and females are actually similar in terms of cognitive abilities, verbal and nonverbal communication. Synthesizing data collected on more than three million participants between 1967 and 1987, Hyde found no large, overall differences between boys and girls in math performance. This revelation shows that men and women are equal and similar in terms of cognitive ability, and suggests that social and cultural factors influence perceived or actual performance differences. However, this is a false argument. This argument places much emphasis on the existing similarity between men and women, but it has missed the point. It is not denied that men and women possess certain similar attributes, but rather that there are more differences than similarities, and this line of argument has failed to address this point. Biological differences are just a fraction of the multitude of distinctions between men and women, and there exist other prominent differences such as societal expectations and roles. Different societal roles and expectations for men and women have been deeply entrenched in our society—men are often expected to be the financial providers of the family, while women are pushed back to domestic, nurturing related work and discouraged to pursue further education. Since young, such recognition of gender roles in society has been most acutely inculcated into us, and this influences our foundational beliefs with regards to gender roles. From the way we dress to the way we act, such gender differing ideas prescriptions reinforces the divergent gender identities present in our current society, and aids in the distinction between males and females. Research by SIGI (Sisterhood is Global Institute) revealed that women account for only 11 to 12 percent of corporate officers in the 500 largest corporations in the USA in 1999, and the fact that two thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterates are women. These statistics corroborate the idea of profoundly ingrained differing gender identities between men and women. The opposition often argues that such a difference is merely due to the different socio-cultural environment in which each gender is raised up in. However, this is an assumption that ahs been proven false. The different societal roles adopted by men and women goes beyond just traditional expectations, it is something innate. In the University of Wisconsin, researchers conducted an experiment whereby they injected testosterone into unborn female monkeys. According to Stossel, monkeys engage in very sex-stereotyped behavior—the males are aggressive and fight, while the female monkeys typically groom and nurture the young. When the testosterone- injected females were born, they didn't groom or nurture their children, rather they acted like male monkeys and fought and behaved like males. This confirms how the different roles played by males and females are not just due solely to societal expectations, but is something found innately in each gender. In the light of this discussion, it can be concluded that to say that men and women are the “same” is to deny physical reality. The contention lies in the degree of difference between the two genders. Given the basic biological differences, as well as the differing societal expectations and roles played by each gender, perhaps a more accurate verdict would be that “Women are from Venus and men are from Mars”. __ Bibliography __ SIGI (2003). Statistics on Women. Retrieved 13 September, 2009 from googledocs website: [] York F. (2008) Gender Differences Are Real. Retrieved 13 September, 2009 from Narth website: [] BBC(2005). Men and women ‘not so different’. Retrieved 13 September, 2009 from BBC website: []
 * 1) “Women are from Venus and men are from Mars.” Are women and men truly from different planets?