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Magical drug turns women into chatterboxes, walking virgin/whore dichotomies

Jill

Oxytocin — you know, that fabulous substance that sluts use up, leaving them unable to bond with long-term partners — is also the reason that chicks gossip and go to the bathroom in pairs. And here I thought it was only to escape that mouth-breathing dude who won’t leave you alone, or borrow a tampon.

At the very least, the good doctor appears to take back her initial assertion that women use 20,000 words a day compared to men’s 7,000 — no, as it turns out, women just use more “communication events”:

Your book cites a study claiming that women use about 20,000 words a day, while men use about 7,000.

The real phraseology of that should have been that a woman has many more communication events a day — gestures, words, raising of your eyebrows.

But my favorite part of the interview is this:

Are you concerned that you are rehabilitating outdated gender stereotypes that portray women as chatterboxes ruled by female hormones?

A stereotype always has an aspect of truth to it, or it wouldn’t be a stereotype. I am talking about the biological basis behind behaviors that we all know about.

Good to know that there’s an aspect of truth to the idea that blacks are lazy, blondes are dumb, foreigners are incompetent, men are insensitive and Jews are stingy.

Language Log has a great take-down. via Ann.

11 thoughts on Magical drug turns women into chatterboxes, walking virgin/whore dichotomies

  1. And, of course, that even if it were true that women used more words per day than men, it would obviously be for biological reasons, not because of social conditioning. I mean, it’s not like your upbringing influences the way you communicate with others or anything.

  2. I did a post about this a few months ago, too.

    So why is Deborah Solomon interviewing this person? Did the paperback just come out?

  3. Sounds like she’s mostly trying to sell books. I googled that “brain shrinks 8% during pregnancy” claim and came up with an interesting refutation (or at least, a “hang on a minute!”):

    http://www.science-writer.co.uk/award_winners/20-28_years/1997/winner.html

    It looks like the sample size was only 10 women, and their brain sizes were only observed after pregnancy–not during. So, a lot of assumptions must be made for that 8% claim.

    What’s the reputation of the Dept. of Neuropsychiatry and UCSF? I’m just wondering how she gets away with publishing this crap.

  5. I was a really bad female specimen throughout my teenage years, I guess, because it took me forever to figure out that we’re supposed to go to the bathroom together to talk about people, put on makeup, and share menstrual supplies.

    Of course, anecdotes don’t make data, but I guess stereotypes do!

  6. If I gossip and go to the bathroom with other chicks, will that leave me unable to bond with a long term partner?

  7. “borrow a tampon.

    Please tell me you don’t actually return them when you’re done.”

    It’s like borrowing money: you return *a* tampon, but generally not *the same* tampon.

  8. Whoa, I just saw this one:

    If women have superior verbal skills, why have they been subservient to men in almost all societies?

    Because of pregnancy. Before birth control, in the 1700s and 1800s, middle-class women were pregnant between 17 and 22 times in their lifetimes. All these eons upon eons, while Socrates and all these guys were sitting around thinking up solutions to problems, women were feeding hungry mouths and wiping smelly behinds.

    No, it’s because of Patriarchy, Duh. The ability to feed hungry mouths and wipe smelly behinds is not related to the ability to gestate a fetus.

    Pregnant 17-22 times? Can she back that up? I mean, even factoring in miscarriages and infant mortality, that’s a lot.

  9. Frumious B – I think that the fact women were pregnant that often (if it’s indeed true) and then spending years raising the kids *is* due to patriarchy. This website says that 85% of sexually active women using no method of birth control become pregnant within a year, so I’m guessing that pregnancy rates were probably fairly high in the pre-birth control era. Also it wasn’t uncommon for women to marry at 14 or 16, although I’d have to wonder that 17-22 times is incredibly high for the short average lifespan of that era (for women, often due to childbirth!). Margaret Sanger’s mother was pregnant 18 times. It’s worth mentioning that a fair amount of first trimester pregnancies spontaneously abort.

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