John,

(Warning: gross generalizations ahead -- proceed with caution.)  
This is really interesting, regarding how boys and girls may differ behaviorally.   Before having children, I had an idea that stereotypically "male" behaviors (aggressive, physical, plays with trucks, etc.) and stereotypically "female" behaviors (less aggressive, plays with dolls, etc.) were just that -- stereotypes with little basis in reality.  And that any reality these stereotypes might represent is learned and reinforced through culture, rather than having any biological basis.

Now that I have two daughters (ages 5 and almost 7) and significantly more experience with kids, I can say that (and here I go into hot water) there's gotta be a biological component.  Yes, much of our behavior (probably even *most* of it) is learned.  But there's something about boys and girls (apart from the obvious) that's just different.

Reminds me of a column I once read, maybe it was Dave Barry, where the writer talked about a shop class in which the teacher split the class into two groups -- boys and girls -- and gave each an engine to work on.  The assignment was to do pretty much whatever you wanted with the engine, as long as you learn something.  The girls painstakingly took the engine apart, cleaning all the pieces, and seeing how everything fit and worked together.  The boys, who claimed to know already how engines worked, decided to perform an experiment: drain the oil from the engine and see how long it ran before it seized up.

Since we're now talking biology, maybe we'll hear from Wirt...?

Art Frank

>>> John Korb <[log in to unmask]> 02/13/03 06:56AM >>>
After this thread and the "Terry Jones" thread and then watching my son
play a strategy game on the computer last night (Empire Earth, with the
expansion), I began thinking about the many times he has played the game and the implications of the way the game plays out on the internet, an how civilizations and wars play out in the real world.
...
My son (who is the youngest) wasn't as good at developing a civilization.  The first few times he played, his civilization peacefully co-existed with those of his sisters.  Eventually, he reached a point where it annoyed him that his older sisters had these fantastic civilizations that covered vast amount of territory and he had a small, less advanced civilization on a small portion of the game map.

During one game a conflict arose over access to a natural resource.  He needed the resource and one of his sisters wouldn't grant him access to it.  He started building an army, a navy, and an air force.  He attacked his sister and as she was unprepared, his military forces wiped her out.  The he went after his other sister and he wiped her out.
...

John

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