"What's SEX got to do with it?"

The Second Life Brain and Behavior Seminar:
Part I: "What's sex got to do with it?"

Where:
secondlife://Crooked/42/41/100

When:
Tuesday, January 31st, 18:00 Linden Time / 6pm Pacific

Who:

Malachi Petunia

Moderator: Chance Abattoir
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"There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody." - Florynce Rae Kennedy, Esq. circa 1970

While Ms. Kennedy's pithy quote is undeniably true from a social policy perspective, it is certainly the case that there are deep differences between the sexes that go far beyond the shape of one's genitalia. Older theories declared these differences to be purely social constructions which could - in principle - be altered or even swapped given sufficient cultural engineering.

These older theories have been shown to be utterly incorrect: that there are indeed fundamental differences between the sexes not just in shape, but in brain construction, behavior, division of labor, mating strategies, tendency to violence and just about any other aspect of human behavior one cares to look at.
A very good question is "why should this be so?" and the first session of the SL Brain and Behavior Seminar will attempt to answer this question. There are strong reasons why, given the biological definitions of "female" and "male" we should positively expect these differences to exist and our explanation will begin with experiments conducted in 1948 on fruit flies and work from there.

Because Second Life allows players to choose an avatar with a sex other than their own (or no sex at all) the ability of people to experiment with alternate sexes is largely unprecedented. In this first seminar, we will touch on ways in which toggling the 'Gender' bit may or may not afford insight into how the 'other half' lives and whether one can change their nature as easily as changing their clothes.

This seminar is intended for people who accept evolution by natural selection to be essentially "true" and would like a better understanding of how contemporary sciences are applying this theory to psychology. However, this seminar is explicitly not for the debate of the validity of evolutionary theory and that topic will not be addressed at all. Anyone interested in the subject is welcome to attend regardless of your beliefs about evolutionary theory, but debate on the matter will be politely ignored. The seminar assumes a basic high-school level understanding of evolutionary theory and will concentrate almost exclusively on the non-technical "whys" rather than the complicated biological "hows".

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Count me in Chance, I'll try to bring a few more interested people along.

I dont' know if I'll be able to make it though I'm going to try. If I'm not there would someone mind bringing up the point that it's not always what's expected that causes the problem, but how you deal with the exceptions.

For instance I think some (not all or even most) gender roles may have started because one gender prefered not to fill the role. At some later time, maybe even a single generation later, that preference became social rule and should someone of that gender decide they want to now fill that roll, they are now fighting against custom and biased. not a major point but one that I think deserves lip service.

I don't think I'll be able to make it, 2am here, but I'll see how tired I am

Interesting. I'll try to make it, but I never make anything.

Fascinating!!

Unfortunately, RL has gone mad on me (conjunctivitis, anyone?). Would it be possible to chat-log what will be, I am sure, a fascinating talk? The transcripts, though a pale second cousin to actually being there, will prove a great read!

Kate, Mal., and Chance--it is an intellectual trifecta!!

When are you doing it again?

As interest warrants, Roo. Chance could answer that best...

Is there a thread discussing this event and when is the continuation?
I enjoyed the presentation so far, but we didn't get to the two points I quoted above. Hopefully the follow-up sessions will get to address these points.

I missed this meeting. I'm definitely interested in a transcript.