Daniel Roettger

April 25, 2008

AP Language and Composition

This quote generalizes that society as a whole interprets

the behavior of a group in entirety by the mean of their

so-called habitual behaviors. The belief that men are

simply and only wired for competition is as ludicrous as

the idea that women are wired simply and only for

conversation; both of these principles bring to light the

level of nativte to which the author wrote the quote, or at

leas the simple thoughts behind the reasoning. However,

this is not to dismiss the quote as utterly incorrect: men

and women do, in fact, pursue the interests and paths

outlined by the author. They do not, however, follow these

paths exclusively.

Firstly, I must admit that, in certain circumstances, the

author's words are as true as scripture. Sociological

studies commonly find that, overall, men act in a certain

manner, and women in another. For example, Dr. Deborah

Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University

in Washington, D.C., found through extensive study that men

seek to compete while women seek to align interests. The

female persona, according to Tannen, is spot on with Gray's

opinion: she cites a story in which little girls are

talking about how their mother bought them a dress; little

girl X walks in to the situation, and quickly acknowledges

that her mother, too, bought her a dress. However, her

mother was behind her, and quickly rebuffed her statement,

saying, "What dress?"

However, I must scorn her sweeping, broad generalization of

both the masculine and feminine genders, as it classifies

members thereof in narrowed, polar fields void of

intertwinement. Members of the masculine and feminine

genders, indubitably, have varying traits between them:

some men are interested in the humanities rather than the

sciences, and women are divided between the same academic

schools. Studies of the humanities vary drastically from

the sciences: the sciences encompass a great deal of

experimentation, while the humanities require a great deal

more research. However, unlike Grey's argument, even these

two poles of academia have common ground. In order to

achieve proper results from experimentation in the

laboratory, the student must first research the chemicals

or organisms he or she is dealing with; if they fail this

important task, the results could be haphazard. In the

research-dominated pole of academia, students conduct

research commonly for social experiments, especially

psychology-based fields. However relevant, this fails to

rebuff definitively Gray's argument that men seek

competition and results while women seek allegiances.

Fortunately, this same dichotomy between the sexes can be

applied: while some women seek personal academic growth,

others seek tangible growth, such as athletic competitions.

According to Gray's reasoning, men would be the only

competitors in athletic events; he could not be more wrong.

History has shown that women wish to partake in athletic

events in addition to their stereotypical involvement in

the associative events: title IX, for instance, granted the

right to athletic equality (by establishing separate sports

teams, of course, to allow for total feminine

participation) to women. On the other side of the

spectrum, men commonly seek professions which do not

directly yield results. Take a professor, for instance.

The belief that women are purely of a communicative and

associative breed is foolish, yet ignoring the fact that

the genders do, in fact, fall into stereotypes is as well.

The same can be said for men – I, for one, have defied the

stereotype that men are only aggressive and competitive,

and have had my best conversations with my roommates when

the lights were off, simply because we could not see our

opposition. However, by following stereotypes such as

these, we have damaged our society. Irrational reasoning

leads to tainted reason, which, in turn, morphs into

animosity, the bane of relations. While men might be, in

part, nothing more than vigorous, competitive souls, eager

to win to soothe their ever self-damaging egos, they are

more than that; women are more than congenial mediators,

vying to find similarities. While this quote makes sense

in the lowly book in which it was published, it does not

suit higher-level analysis, as it clearly is one-

dimensional and overly simplified. After all, people do

have free will.