AS HEARD FROM THE COUCH by Jim Redwine

Gavel Gamut

By Jim Redwine

(Week of 2 March 2015)

AS HEARD FROM THE COUCH

At least two people, Peg and my sister Jane, read last week’s article. People who read my column tend to fall into two categories, female and male. Should you be in one of those groups and should you have read my fair and balanced epistle, you may recall it reported on the science behind why women talk more than men.

Normally, either no one reads my articles or, if someone does, they pay them no heed. I find this rather convenient as it allows me to occasionally perform a public service, such as objectively pointing out the effects of the FOXP2 protein on human speech, without suffering for it.

Last week’s article has proven to be an exception. While the weather has been chilly, since last week, things have been downright frigid inside the JPeg Ranchhouse.

I am aware some people sometimes allow their emotions to override logic. But really now, I am to be blamed for Mother Nature’s peculiarities? What makes science science is any proposition is always open to being disproved. If one, say Peg or Janie for example, takes exception to a scientific study’s conclusion, all one needs to do is disprove it. Let’s review the data.

Dr. Luan Brizendine, a member of the female persuasion by the way, has published experiments on both rats and people that examined FOXP2. In her words, there are inherent differences between the male and female brain that explain why women talk almost three times as much as men. Dr. Brizendine actually uses the terms “communicate better”, but why quibble, right?

A few of my male friends, well about three actually, have mentioned they read last week’s Gavel Gamut. Collectively they said, “Uh, it seemed okay”.

So how did Peg and Janie respond? Well, loquacious does not cover it. Neither does vociferous. Vitriolic sounds about right. About the only rational retort from either wife or sister was their concentration on a part of the FOXP2 study that I found merely tangential.

It turns out that there is one area where men out pace women. According to Dr. Brizendine, the male brain thinks about sex about every 52 seconds while women contemplate that subject only once a day. Or as Peg pointedly said to me, “It’s no wonder men cannot communicate, they have only one interest”.

As for me, I refuse to wallow in a debate about debating. I will rely on another important finding from the FOXP2 studies. It turns out testosterone reduces the section of the human brain involved in hearing. Or as Dr. Brizendine concluded: “Men are ‘deaf’ to most logical arguments put forward by their wives (or sisters)”. I say, sometimes Mother Nature gets it right.