fun test: do women concentrate better than men?

Below is a video of a one minute concentration / perceptual test

from the research of Daniel Simons, Ph.D.*

at the University of Indiana.

See how well you do on the test.

But before viewing the test, take this poll.

Now test your concentration. View the video clip, below.

Now comes a second poll.

Complicated, multi-part blog post, I know.

Try to keep up.

According to one source, and I can't verifiy it's reliability, about half of people who view this video do not see the gorilla due to the phenomenon of "inattentional blindness." My husband SAM said "put a nekkid woman in there and I bet people wouldn't miss it." Ah. He'd sweep up the research grant money with that proposal.

Inattentional blindness may help explain the higher rate of car accidents by cell phone users. It may also explain why lifeguards have trouble seeing bodies at the bottom of the pool. Finally, and I have no reference for this, it may explain why my daughters never see their dirty socks strewn in the middle of the playroom floor.

To learn more about inattentional blindness, read a summary written by Daniel Simons here.

*Simons, D. J., & Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28, 1059-1074.

manly marketing

College students majoring in marketing must have to take an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the masculine ego." Or that's what I assume when I see marketing strategies designed to mask the feminine side of grooming for the sake of the macho psyche.

For instance, there's Maneuver Working Wax. Sounds like a car wax, right? Wrong. It's a hair styling product for men.

Because as we all know, men don't style their hair, they maneuver and work it.

Likewise, men don't soften and moisterize their skin with silky-feely lotions like we delicate ladies do. No. They use Industrial Strength Hand Healer.

You know, a manly medicinal cure for those rough, raw, overworked hands.

The latest that caught my eye, thanks to SAM pointing out an ad in the Sunday newspaper, are "compression shorts. " Have you seen these?

Women wear girdles, or if you are modern and adventurous like Mrs G, you wear Spanx (not to be confused with kinky sex acts).

But not our masculine counterparts. Nuh-uh. Men don't don shapewear to tuck their tummies. They compress their thighs, elevate their groins and tame their torsos with legwear that sounds more like a computer data procedure than a body fat minimizer.

I must suppose it's all in the service of maintaining the image that men are tough and strong where women are soft and weak. At a time when women are putting windshield sized cracks in the glass ceiling and consistently outperforming men in colleges and universities, Madison Avenue is busy catering to the side of men that seems to require reassurance that they'll still be king of the hill. It's as if the more a society approaches gender equality, the more it resorts to contrived differences.

Mir Kamin at blogher tries to understand and explain a recent study that talks about this rising gender disparity in modern societies. Read it here, if you're as amused and confused as I am about this trend.

boy 2 girl

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There was a guy in my hometown named Bobby who joined the cheerleading squad - as the mascot. He dressed up in a furry animal costume at football games and was voted as "most school spirit" by his high school classmates. He moved away shortly after graduating. Several years later he returned with a new name: Crystal.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), transgender broadly refers to "anyone whose identity, appearance, or behavior falls outside of conventional gender norms."

More people are familliar with the term transsexual, which may describe Crystal. The APA defines transsexuals as "transgender people who live or wish to live full time as members of the gender opposite to their birth sex."

We typically hear news stories about adult transsexuals who have "transitioned" to the opposite sex,meaning they have undergone hormonal therapy and surgery in order to officially become and live as the gender of their choice.

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The above photo is Mianne Bagger, a professional golfer who transitioned to a woman when she was 29 years old. She is the first (known) transsexual to play in a professional golf tournament.

What we don't hear much about is young children who solely identify with the opposite sex gender - young children diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, for example.

What happens when a young boy wants to wear dresses, play exclusively with dolls and other traditionally "girl" toys, and rejects typically masculine interests? Or a girl who insists she is a boy, who refuses to wear dresses, who wants only to play with the boys in her neighborhood, and who feels disgusted by the idea that she should "act more like a girl?" And what happens when parents pressure these kids to conform and they start acting out in extreme ways?

How do psychologists advise the parents of children such as these? Make the child give up their favorite toys and force them to conform? Or allow the child to go to school as the opposite sex gender?

According to a two-part news story aired by National Public Radio, each of these might be recommended, depending on which psychologist is consulted:

Part 1 : Two families, two treatments

Part 2 : Treatment to delay puberty



I occasionally treat people with transgender issues. I don't have an opinion as to which treatment is better for children, however. I think it is a highly individualistic decision that depends entirely on the child and the unique circumstances (as should all treatment decisions).




I do, however, have a wish. I wish that people could learn greater tolerance of gender identity differences. That little girls who want Tonka trucks are embraced. That boys who want to wear dresses, pink frills and tap shoes are accepted.


Maybe if society deemed gender as a fluid concept rather than a "set in stone" assignment, fewer parents would need to give hormones to their children. Fewer adults would feel the need to surgically alter their bodies.

Let boys be feminine. Let girls be masculine. It can all be good.

I know I'm looking at this in an overly simplistic way. I know it's idealistic. It won't solve every transgender problem, of course. But it sure couldn't hurt.

For a moving video clip on transgenderism, click here.

Have questions about gender identity and transgenderism? The American Psychological Association webpage answers some of them, here.

Thanks to feministgal for posting the links to this NPR piece here.

Side note: You probably noticed that my blog post just boomaranged from the rough and tumble rawhide story of Texas barbeque to accounts of boys who choose to live as girls. Please be tolerant. My blog is experiencing identity confusion.