Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross

Better Orgasms. Better World.

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When I was a girl, I was a math whiz.  I loved algebra, calculus, and physics.  People would walk up to my parent's fridge and assume my report card was in fact my brothers. I was told god must have made a mistake in making me a girl (the implication was that I was too smart NOT to be a boy).

Well, it turns out that girls are just as good at math as boys:

"In many countries, there's no gender gap at all both at the average and very high levels of performance. Some countries, including the United States, do show a gender gap, but that gap has decreased substantially over the last few decades, and some test scores suggest American girls have already caught up to their male counterparts."

In the Illusion of Sex, two faces are perceived as male and female. However, both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face.

One face was created by increasing the contrast of the androgynous face, while the other face was created by decreasing the contrast. The face with more contrast is perceived as female, while the face with less contrast is perceived as male. The Illusion of Sex demonstrates that contrast is an important cue for perceiving the sex of a face, with greater contrast appearing feminine, and lesser contrast appearing masculine.

I think this says a great deal about our perception of gender - it's more fluid then we'd like to think.  1 out of every 2,000 babies is born intersex (ie ambiguous genitals).  I out of every 2,000 babies is born a red head.  If you've seen or met a red head, you've seen or met someone who's intersex.  Something to think about. 

Russell, R. (2009) A sex difference in facial pigmentation and its exaggeration by cosmetics. Perception, (38)1211-1219. Third place winner of the 6th Annual Illusion of the Year Contest.

This piece from ABC News is exactly what we'll be talking about in our Valentine's Day video podcast this Friday. There are many different kinds of love and gender/orientation/sexuality have very little to do with any of it.

In a society obsessed with sex, David Jay wants no part of it. Jay, a 26-year-old graduate student at the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, acknowledges that his lack of interest in sex may seem unusual to many who view intercourse as the epitome of intimacy.

But research suggests that about 1 percent of the population may share Jay's view on sex. And he said that for many of these people, coming to terms with their feelings about sex can be a major challenge.

I watched the movie "Wanted" recently. It had its moments that appealed, but what stood out was how often they used the word "pussy." Its usage was not the one referring as an all-encompassing term for the female genitals, inside and out, like the sanskrit term "yoni" is used. The usage was the one in slang (but apparently not vulgar slang) for a weak and cowardly man. I would add to that a low pain threshold. This had crossed my mind before seeing this movie, but the repetitive usage rang out loud and clear to me. If pussy refers as vulgar slang for the female genitals and also weakness and cowardice, is this an instance of vernacularized misogyny claiming that women are inherently cowardly and weak?