Male or Female Essay - 1392 Words

In this piece the author, Deborah Blum, explores the relationship that gender plays both in our biological make up and in society. Blum is a Pulitzer Prize recipient who is well known for her scientific journalism. Working for the Sacramento Bee Blum she has published a wide verity of pieces but is most known for her book The Poisoner’s Handbook. In this piece titled â€Å"Gender Blur† she asks the astonishing question of: do the gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology, and, in turn, does the way we behave influence that biology? This is her central topic and does a good job at identifying different aspects that can be examined within the issue, giving specific examples and a wide variety of them. The article starts†¦show more content†¦In this she gives crime reports both in the United States as well as in Europe, and domestic violence statistics. In both of which she claims that there is evidence to support that men are more aggressive. Fo cusing on the domestic issue Blum claims that in conflicts in which a woman killed a man, he tended to be the one who had started the fight – in 51.8 percent of the cases, which is exaggerated in the text to seem much bigger. This was a very bad use of the report because this number is just about where it should be. There is no significant difference to show that men are more violent because this percentage states that men are about as aggressive, 1.8% more than expected. This detracts from the article as a whole because it distorts the actual number in an attempt to persuade readers. Blum than proceeds to give more biological support to show that testosterone enables a certain degree of aggression. She discusses the genetic makeup of humans and how flexible our physical make up is. Giving evidence to explain how testosterone impacts the embryo of humans then citing an actual experiment to drive home the point. To further examine the genetic makeup specifically affecting gend er Blum explains a particular genetic defect that affects citizens in a small group of villages within the Dominican Republic. This defect is the result of a failure to produce a specificShow MoreRelatedFemale And Male And Female1325 Words   |  6 PagesMale and female. Two words, that define our entire lives from the day we are born. Binary classifications of sex and gender have always been the norm in society. The entrenchment of those categories in identification documents, expose individuals who do not correctly fit into the status-quo of these two categories. Among them, intersex people are especially vulnerable. In recent years, the LGBTQ community has had strong pushes for more rights and societal recognition, however there is still one holeRead MoreFemale Male And Female Language Essay1564 Words   |  7 PagesWhen you think about male and female language in this generation it delves down to power. 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