If you hook up a group of men and another group of women to an MRI machine and then look at their brains while they play a video game you learn something interesting. The brains light up in a different manner.

Specifically the part linked to reward and addiction reponds a great deal more in men than it does in women, leading researchers to the obvious conclusion.

Men seem to like playing video games more than women do because men like playing video games more than women do. Ain’t science useful?

(CBS NEWS) 14 February 2008:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that at least 82 American youths have died from “playing” the “choking game.” The kids used various household items including dog leashes to wrap around their neck to temporarily cut blood flow to their head. “The goal is a dreamlike, floating-in-space feeling when blood rushes back into the brain.” The CDS estimates that 20 percent of teens and preteens play this “game.” Nearly 90 percent of the deaths were boys and the average age is 13.  Warning signs that a child is engaging in this activity include bloodshot eyes, marks on the neck, frequent and severe headaches, disorientation after spending time alone, and ropes, scarves, or belts tield to bedroom furniture or doorknobs or found knotted on the floor.

(TIMES LEADER) 25 November 2007:

A recent finding reveals that gender separation leads to greater flexibility about gender roles. The study revealed that students from single sex high schools choose more gender neutral majors in college.

You would expect it to work the other way: that those used to the presence of the other sex through school would be more open to thinking about non-traditional roles. However, it seems that the socialization pressures in the teenage years work the other way: both boys and girls are pressured by their peers into the stereotypical methods of thinking about gender roles.

(REUTERS) 09 April 2007:

There’s the sometimes true cliche of mothers-in-law and their son’s wives. Having brought them up it’s always a wrench to see the little boys (which sons always are) creating a home with another woman. But letting go is indeed part of the cycle of the generations, something the Italians seem to have forgotten.

They now have a reality show where the mothers of young men interview potential wives for them. Yes, this does include a section in a “Big Brother” style house, where they can monitor their domestic abilities in detail.

Come to think of it, that’s even more of a cliche than the tensions, isn’t it?

(MSNBC.COM) 5 March 2007:

The United States leads the way in the number of babies circumcised each year. Estimates vary widely, ranging from 50 percent to more than 90 percent of newborn boys circumcised, depending on the region of the country and religion.  In Europe, Asia and Latin America, baby boys are not routinely circumcised, and the circumcision rates there have been dropping steadily over recent years.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has maintained a somewhat neutral policy, saying that while circumcision has some health benefits associated with it, along with surgical risks such as bleeding and infection, the procedure is not medically essential. However, recent studies have prompted the group to review its policy on circumcision, with a decision expected within the next several months on whether changes need to be made.

Last month, the National Institutes of Health published a surprising report in The Lancet showing that circumcision reduced a man’s risk of contracting HIV, the AIDS virus, through heterosexual sex by 51 to 60 percent compared with men who were not circumcised. The findings were based on two trials in Africa involving more than 7,500 men and were halted early because the preliminary results were so striking.

(REUTERS) 12 January 2007:

Taiwan is considering a bill addressing the sex education of teenagers. The feeling is that in a society that hopes to foster gender equality, sex education should not place the onus of refusing to have sex upon teenage girls. Boys should be equally responsible.

A possible response to that idea is that those complaining have never actually met a teenage boy in full hormonal rampage but that in itself would be a sexist comment.

One further controversial suggestion by school headmasters is that sex education should promote chastity and abstinence. The response from one first year high school student was instructive. Why teach us about abstinence when our parents already say that all the time? Which rather proves the point about teenage boys, wherever they hail from.

(USA TODAY) 17 August 2006:

The US Department of Education is preparing to release final regulations on how public schools can set up single-sex classes and schools without being open to lawsuits.

While a growing body of research reveals that boys and girls learn differently and may do better in a single-sex classroom, the ACLU is poised to attack single sex classes and schools.

Although boys seem to be gaining most from the single-sex classroom, girls may also benefit.  Researchers are looking into ways to boost girls’ math and science performances with single-sex classrooms.

In order to be successful, the single-sex classroom or school must focus on adjusting for different learning styles, not reinforcing sex and gender stereotypes.

(NEW YORK TIMES) 4 September 2001

In response to the notion that girls are more nurturing than boys, Susan Gilbert cites the discovery of a gene in mice that promotes maternal behavior, but adds that although female mice are responsible for nurturing the young, their maternal instinct depends on the copy of the gene they inherit from their fathers. In any event, she says, in humans the desire to nurture seems to depend as much on opportunity as it does on biology. Natural differences between boys and girls are well documented. But while sex hormones shape the brain of a developing fetus and are linked to sex differences in behavior, temperament, interests and sometimes health, it is also clear that a child’s experiences are also the shapers.