So reading this chapter, I thought of one of my friends who is expecting a girl this summer. . I think one of my favorite parts in this chapter is when Brizendine says that, no matter how hard a child's parents try, "There is no unisex brain." (12) "Girls arrive already wired as girls and boys arrive already wired as boys. Their brains are different by the time they're born, and their brains are what drive their impulses, values, and their very reality." (12)
It was so interesting to read about just how sensitive baby girls are to communication and emotion...in what I remember from Human Development classes, I was taught that all babies studied faces--but Brizendine says that this is not so, in fact, it's female infants that study faces while male infants will focus rather on objects. Which, considering the trouble I go to to catch the attention of my cousin's four month old boy--I'm very ready to believe.
Throughout this chapter, Brizendine focuses on the intense need that infant, toddler, and young girls have for communication and emotional calm, as well as validation. I found myself sinking into a fuzzy, pale pink blanket, hoping I never have a boy--but then, I called myself out of the book and looked at what girls that age are like in real life--yes, they are so cute in all their affection and stories and such, but cross them the wrong way and little girls, rather than physically fighting, they can be bossy, manipulative little brats. And really, I kind of wish that she had spent more than just two pages on a girl's "aggression in pink." (29) Because, I want to be able to understand that part of the little female brain a little better.
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3 comments:
i also really like that Brizendine focuses on boys as well as girls, and tries to not always paint them in a negative light :) i think it's interesting to understand how girls are different from boys, as opposed to just learning about girls by themselves.
I like how she looks at the boy vs. girl thing too. But I wonder how sensitive to the mother's stress a boy would be while still in the womb. It makes me think back to the situation at the time my aunt was pregnant with my cousin (the one who has been in all the trouble) and if that stress has anything to do with how he is behaving now... I just don't know. But this book is so fantastic!
i don't know how to reply to individual comments, so this is a response to emily's comment:
Babies, regardless of their sex, will almost always try to raise the mother's blood pressure (AKA strees level) because it causes more blood to flow to the fetus. they can also induce gestational diabetes. We learned about it in my anthropoplgy class last semester: the fetus will do whatever it can to get the maximum amount of resources from the mother's body. so really, at least to an extent, higher blood pressure/stress in the mother is good for the baby in utero because it provides more resources. which is kind of sick when you think about it.
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