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by esyir 2460 days ago
It shouldn't be controversial at all. There are sex differences. A good chunk of those differences are the effect of hormonal differences that stem from sexual dimorphism that in turn likely stem from some other evolutionary selection process.

Does culture play a role in behavior? Probably. But is there an inherent difference between the sexes? Yes.

2 comments

In the nature vs nurture debate, every time someone argues for all nature or all nurture it’s an ideological position. That biology has no influence on behavior is as absurd as that society has none. The division into nature and nurture is also not as clean-cut as people think it is. There are many things in human culture that are that way because of biology and our culture influences our biology over the long run.
Plus unless the person arguing is a biologist backed by some hard evidence, it is only ideology talking.
Unless it's James Watson, then shut him up, fire him, and take all his awards away.

Plenty of biologists see what happens, and toe the line so they can keep their lives and pay their mortgages.

Hopefully we can just all agree that no amount of nurture will turn a duck into a swan or vice versa.
Finding out which things are more affected by culture is still interesting and worthwhile.
Sure, but that's the point. Paraphrasing brodo's reply, anyone who says outcomes here are all culture or all nature is full of it. However, we've swung all the way to the other end where to imply that nature might play a role in outcomes here is grounds for excommunication from many circles (see Damore and Empathizing–systemizing theory).