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Q&A: Women and Men

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Women and Men

Question

Hello,
I wanted to ask your opinion regarding the differences between men and women. Do you think the difference between them is created only by social constructs and patterns of thought built up over many years (the implication of such a view is that everything can be changed, meaning that a man could completely become a woman in terms of consciousness, emotion, etc., if only we changed our patterns of thinking)? Or is the difference "built in," meaning that there is an essential difference between the man's soul and the woman's soul, a difference that was not created over time but is ingrained in us from the very moment we receive our gender identity?
I would be happy to hear your opinion, and if possible also sources (not necessarily from Judaism).
Thanks in advance.

Answer

I think that before getting into sources, the question needs to be defined. In my opinion, it is hard to define it, to the point of being almost impossible. What does an essential difference mean? Is every woman different from every man? Is the difference greater than the difference between one man and another, or one woman and another? Or are we talking about an average difference? But then there is no point speaking about essentiality. Bottom line, the question is not defined, and even if someone manages to define it in a reasonable way, it still is neither important nor interesting. It has no practical implication whatsoever.

Discussion on Answer

YA (2017-09-18)

Let me phrase it differently. I think one can assume that the difference between the sexes in present reality is greater than the difference between members of the same sex. So my question is this: is that difference changeable or not? In other words, can a man, for example, through self-work, become completely a woman (aside from the physiological aspect)? Or no matter what happens, will a man remain a man and a woman remain a woman?
In my opinion, this question does have implications, and it interests me. So I would really appreciate it if you answered it.

Michi (2017-09-18)

The question is still undefined and has no shred of practical implication. You didn’t answer my questions from the previous message. An average difference? An essential difference for every man and every woman?

YA (2017-09-18)

I’m talking about an essential difference between every man and every woman.

Moshe (2017-09-18)

An average difference. Like there is an average difference between the thinking of a ten-year-old child and that of an adult of forty.

Yishai (2017-09-18)

What does “everything except the physiological aspect” mean?
One could ask whether there is a difference in the soul or only in the body. If there is a difference in the soul, then of course the soul can’t be changed. But it doesn’t seem to me that there are two different kinds of souls. What remains is a difference in the body—genetics, reproductive organs—which is what defines sex. From those differences other differences are derived, most of which are not dichotomous differences, for example brain structure (which, incidentally, is also physiological; with hormones there are dichotomous differences that it seems to me one really can change to the other side).
I don’t think it is at all clear what it means for a man to be like a woman apart from the physiological aspect.

YA (2017-09-18)

It means that a man would take on a woman’s way of thinking, the mental and emotional consciousness of a woman, for example. I mean that a man would really become, inwardly, a woman. My question is whether you think this is possible, or whether there is something such that no matter how many psychological and conscious changes a man undergoes, he will never be like a woman.

Michi (2017-09-18)

Dear friends, as long as you don’t define the question, I can’t address it. If you are asking whether there is a non-physiological difference between every man and every woman, as distinct from the differences that exist between any two human beings, I don’t understand in what sense that is “different.” In short, the question has no content and no implication. If no real clarification is given (not like what has been done so far), I won’t respond anymore.

Moshe (2017-09-18)

What’s unclear? The question is whether there is a correlation between a person’s sex and psychological phenomena and traits (fear, courage, violence, etc.). If there is, one still has to ask whether it really stems from the person’s sex and not from secondary factors (for example, society’s attitude toward men causing them to be more violent and courageous).
In other words: if we were to raise a hundred pairs of baby boys and baby girls under completely equal conditions (the same toys, and not Barbie for the baby girl and a soldier for the baby boy; the same characters in movies, and not the man as the knight and the woman as the delicate princess, and so on), would we get men who are wilder than women, men who look at their appearance in the mirror less than women, and so on?
It seems to me that I’ve defined the question well.

Michi (2017-09-18)

Now everything is clear. I suppose there will be things that change and things that won’t. Trivial? True. What isn’t clear to me is why this matters. Why would these averages interest anyone? No interesting implication.

Moshe (2017-09-19)

A practical implication would be hanging the reasons for commandments and their applicability on gender differences. For example, women are exempt from war because their nature is more delicate. Women are exempt from (and perhaps even forbidden to study) Talmud because their nature is less inclined toward dialectical argumentation. Even so, even if this is a social construct, seemingly such reasons could still be used, and this requires further analysis.

Michi (2017-09-19)

That’s not a practical implication. An average is not supposed to determine anything. Beyond that, even if there is a different nature, then if they succeed in changing the nature, the commandments will change. Why is there a need to discuss now whether the nature can be changed?

Moshe (2017-09-19)

An average isn’t supposed to determine anything? I take it that if you were appointed Minister of Transportation, you’d give a license to every child based on the maturity assessment you conducted for him. In laws you have to draw a line.

Michi (2017-09-19)

And if you were Minister of Transportation, you wouldn’t give women a license because on average they reverse less well than men?
This discussion is pretty bizarre. Forgive me, but I think we’ve exhausted it.

Yishai (2017-09-20)

Someone here got confused. He isn’t saying that an average is supposed to determine everything (not that I understand what such a claim could even mean), but only that it’s impossible for an average not to be supposed to determine anything. The example he gave, if one accepts it, proves his claim. The counterexample, with all due respect, does not prove the opposite of his claim, and I’m debating whether it counts as demagoguery or nonsense.

Michi (2017-09-20)

Maybe someone got confused, I don’t know. If the average comes without a standard deviation, then maybe it should be taken into account. But averages by themselves determine nothing. I think I’ve exhausted dealing with this nonsense.

Yosef (2018-02-11)

The question is probably this: is the essence / idea / etc. of men different from that of women? Aside from the physiological difference, of course.

Yoav (2018-02-11)

One could discuss the question from a theological point of view, meaning: are there differences between a woman’s service of God and that of a man?
And do the laws of modesty stem from those differences?
And what is the Torah’s position—if it even has one—regarding feminism?

From that angle one can express an opinion. The factual question is not relevant.

Michi (2018-02-12)

One can of course discuss it, although the problems I raised still remain. In any case, I don’t know how to do that, and in my opinion others don’t either, and it also doesn’t seem interesting to me.

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