beings have shared potentials that may or may not be developed by the social context in which they grow up and live. The problem with Konner’s point of view is that if focuses on differences between men and women which are minor, compared to both men’s and women’s capacities for nurturance and aggression. Konner’s view, while apparently pro-woman, is not a liberating one. Our supposed natural propensity for emotionality and nurturance is much Our supposed natural propensity for emotionality and nurturance is much more likely to be used to deny women a place in public life than to hand over to us the reigns of power. more likely to be used to deny women a place in public life than to hand over to us the reigns of power. But more destructively, Konner’s view assumes that aggression, including its expression in economic, political, or military conflict, is the result of individual characteristics of the people in power. He does not see that aggressive and destructive behavior is often built-in to social positions, required by anyone, male or female, who holds them. Would a woman president of Georgia Pacific, for example, be less constrained than its previous chief executives to put company profitability ahead of natural preservation? Is Margaret Thatcher, wife and mother, some kind of genetic anomaly? Is Indira Ghandi, who regularly jails her political opponents, “masculinized” hormonally? The solution to our problem may not lie in putting the average woman into government because we are more gentle, but in encouraging women to be far more aggressive in fighting for the fundamental changes necessary to create a more just and humane world. Maureen McGuire Ihave no argument that sex hormones affect the developing brain pathways of the human fetus. My concern is that Konner implies that this affects many things although he never commits to what those many things are. His argument smacks of sociobiology which would like to explain the inequities between men and women in our society and others on the basis of biology. Men are more aggressive, more powerful, because of their range in testosterone, while women are more nurturant and therefore should stay home and take care of men and babies. The problem with sociobiology is not that there are no biological or hormonal differences between men and women, but that these differences are not sufficient in explain the status of men and women across cultures. Margaret Mead said once, quite aptly, that in all the cultures she studies, the tasks that were assigned to women were considered less important. I recall specifically her example, which was that she actually found a society in which men sat in the corner of their little houses and carved wooden dolls while women farmed, gathered and provided sustenance, as well as doing the building. In that society, too, men’s jobs were considered more important. Men were more powerful. This example had little to do with the range in testosterone. However, it has. a lot to do with the lack of power women have across cultures. Until recently in our country, it had been suggested that a physician should be a male because of the kind of work, the trauma in being exposed to death and involved with blood ... and in the fact, “that patients wanted father figures not mother figures when ill.” There are some who may still say this. When I visited Russia, I was thrilled to find that the majority of physicians were women. That is, until I found that in Russian society, doctors, unlike in our society, don’t have high status or high salaries, scientists do. Therefore, in Russia, the attributes of the physician, nurturing, healing, and so forth, are considered feminine. Women can do it and they are paid very poorly for it. I guess from my point of view, economics is a major detriment in the inscription of many things to either male or female. We no longer live in a culture in which men need to be big or stronger or more aggressive to hunt and to defend their homes and to ward off sabre tooth tigers. No more are infants totally dependent on their mother’s milk. I think as a society we need to relax stereotypes and work together. Katherine Dunn Myself, I was brought up on Kipling . . . “The Female of the Species is more Deadly than the Male.” ... and my mother’s stern command that, regardless of provocation, I must never kick my brothers in their nut-sacks. Konner’s gushy little montage reminded me of a recent study of adopted children aimed at discriminating between inherited and environmentally developed traits. The central findings were that (A) verbal ability is inherited, and (B) attitudes toward authority are linked directly to verbal ability in inverse relation. Thus, the higher the measurable verbal ability, the more negative (and resistant) the attitude toward authority. If, as “She and He” states, “There is good evidence for superiority in girls and women in verbal ability ...” we may How many moms would take their favorite child to the top of a mountain and slit its throat just because God told them to? We don’t consider them heroic figures like Abraham with Isaac. We consider them totally batso. then speculate that females as a whole have less respect for authority than males. How many moms would take their favorite child to the top of a mountain and slit its throat just because God told them to? A few, certainly, but we don’t consider them heroic figures like Abraham with Isaac. We consider them totally batso. Job was definitely not a female. I have a hunch that, on specific levels, women are every bit as fierce as men. Men are abstractly and generally fierce just as they are abstractly and generally honorable. Ideas (insert Authorities) govern males to a THE Dolmades ^Mediterranean an unusual place featuring Greek Wines Spanakopita Greek Olives Souvlaki Tyrobita Open for Lunch at 11:00 a.m. Luncheon Specials Wed. night is poetry night—host Walt Curtis 1650 W. Burnside 222-1507 GRAPHICS Layout • Design Illustration 852 SW 21ST AT TAYLOR N PORTLAND, OREGON 97205 225-0545 Portland’s Community Radio Station presents Theaterscene: a weekly review of community theatrical productions Host Glennis Forster Tuesday mornings at 11 SO.7 FM COMMUNITY RADIO For weekly listings see the KBDO Program Guide Sponsored by KBOO & The Metropolitan Arts Commission Clinton St. Quarterly 31
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