AUT: critiquing biological determinism/ideology of difference

[Michael Handelman <mhandelman1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Two recent incidents have sparked my curiosity, in
critiquing biological determinism and the
postmodernist ideology of "difference":

Recently, my brother told me, about this study in New
Scientist, which "shows" that there are a greater
number of male geniuses, than female geniuses, but at
the same time, there are also a greater numer of
male's who mentally challenged than females who are
mentally challenged. The study probably written by
good old, biological determinist who chalk it up to
biological determinist reasons (something to do with
left-brain, right-brain stuff).

In other words, it's saying that females are not by
nature "inferior" to males, but rather females are so
very "different" from males.

In Sara Diamond's "Not by Politics Alone: The enduring
Influence of the Christian Right", she notes something
interesting about the nature of mysoginy in late 20th
century/early 21st century. Instead of explicitly
stating that females are inferior to males, as what
would happen in the 50s, mysoginious would use the
ideology of "difference" (that females are so very
"different" than males, that it justifies traditional
gender roles) as a far more implicit ideology of mysoginy.

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