I found a couple or three links to newspaper articles relating to lecture and to issues brought up in seminar.
The first (from the formerly Manchester) Guardian was found via the indispensible Arts & Letters Daily and relates to our discussion -- also the topic of Maggie Holland's class presentation -- of whether or not a non-sexed reading of fiction is possible. Its title is "How male or female is your brain?" and contains a link to a pair of elaborate tests of your own brain.
The second, from the New York Times, is scientifically-directed also, and specifically on Darwinism and the "Urge to Win" in men & women. This is obviously pertinent to the question raised in lecture of how relevant Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection -- with its assigning of aggression to males & calm power of decion to females -- is to an understanding of the genres of chick-lit and lad-lit.
The third is more whimsical: an article from the BBC that says in so many words that Rob Roy is dead, under the title "Chivalry is a no-win battle for men." This is followed by a good overview of the vestigal status of chivalry today, with some helpful itemised tenets of chivalry, taken from 14th Century texts.
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Similar to the the Guardian article, there is a BBC study on the SEX ID of your brain here. It's kind of a long test, but quite interesting, or at least I thought so.
My brain, apparantly, is quite female (and I did quite like Villette, but also Rob Roy).
I took the quiz...and I quite decidedly have an "S brain" (systemising). That would mean I have a more male brain. The results fit with my experience....I am intensely concerned with details. I really love this quote from the results page:
"A key feature of the theory is that your sex cannot tell you which type of brain you have. Not all men have the male brain, and not all women have the female brain. The central claim of this new theory is only that on average, more males than females have a brain of type S, and more females than males have a brain of type E."
It's one of those "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" type discussions. Why do these differences exist -- due to biological factors or socialization? I am strongly on the side of socialization, but playfully open to debate. Why do I keep talking about the same thing over and over again....because of my damn S brain. Ha ha.
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