Do Brains Have a Gender? Gina Rippon Debunks the Myth

In this episode of Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady, Gina Rippon joins Roxanne Coady to discuss her new book, Gender and Our Brains, out now from Pantheon.

From the episode:

Roxanne: As I was thinking about the role of the media, do you think that as a way of playing to what people want to hear that people buy into it because it provides excuses, like me joking that I give my husband slack because he can’t multitask since his brain isn’t wired that way? What do you think is causing the media to play on that?

Gina Rippon: I think a lot of it has to do with what people want to hear. They like to have their beliefs confirms, and if it confirms something affects them personally it’s even more popular. It’s a better story. People want to hear what they want to hear, and the media gives that.

The other aspect is social media and what I call the “gender bombardment,” where they are not only reporting the newfound differences, but the marketing, video games, and social media are also emphasizing those differences and making them important. Those two going together is why we get these untruthful headlines.

Subscribe now on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever else you find your podcasts!

________________________________

Gina Rippon is Honorary Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at Aston Brain Centre at Aston University in Birmingham, England. Her research involves the use of state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to investigate developmental disorders such as autism. In 2015 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association for her contributions to the public communication of science. Rippon is part of the European Union Gender Equality Network, belongs to WISE and ScienceGrrl, and is a member of Robert Peston’s Speakers for Schools program and the Inspiring the Future initiative. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Roxanne Coady is owner of R.J. Julia, one of the leading independent booksellers in the United States, which—since 1990—has been a community resource not only for books, but for the exchange of ideas. In 1998, Coady founded Read To Grow, which provides books for newborns and children and encourages parents to read to their children from birth. RTG has distributed over 1.5 million books.