Some sex differences that look biological are really cultural

Re:Some sex differences that look biological are really cult... by mhartl on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @11:00PM (#54117)

You're absolutely right, though I think we're talking about slightly different things. Continuing with my example, men throw better than women mainly because men throw more than women; men throw faster than women because men are stronger than women. You could say that they are "second-order" and "first-order" biological effects, respectively.

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Re:Some sex differences that look biological are really cult... by mattm on Thursday September 13, 2007 @07:32PM (#54438)

Men throw better (whatever the definition - I'm assuming you mean accurately) and faster than women because our muscles are stronger. You can take a boy and a girl who have never thrown anything and the boy would throw better than the girl.

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Re:Some sex differences that look biological are really cult... by mhartl on Friday September 14, 2007 @12:37AM (#54501)

My contention is that throwing well is a skill, dominated by practice, while throwing fast is an ability, dominated by talent. Girls who practice a lot can throw better than almost any boy, but they can't begin to compete in terms of speed with even moderately well-trained boys.

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