From Aeon: Although many misogynists justify their prejudice by arguing that men and women are biologically different, the evidence shows that our brains are neither completely masculine nor completely feminine. Instead, every individual has a unique combination of masculine and feminine traits shaped by hormonal, developmental, and social factors.
“This dual process of brain and gonadal development requires billions of cells and hundreds of molecules guiding, signalling and shaping those cells into their final locations and forms. Now add in the genetic codes for many of these molecules, sequences with thousands of units that also can vary from person to person. If genes vary, the proteins they encode can vary, too. Is it any wonder that, with all these bits, pieces and participants, human brain development defies strict categories? Nature hands us more than 7 billion individual puzzles each made from billions of pieces and, somehow, we think they’ll fit into a two-category system.
Indeed, a simple two-category system seems impossible and almost silly given this underlying complexity, and intriguing scientific evidence points away from a dichotomy and toward a three-dimensional spatial continuum of variations that defy any categorisation.”
