Why Men Don't Listen

I just found another article that relates to the last post that I made. The last one was about how women’s voices are melodic to men’s ears. This article that I found on the BBC news website, talks about how there may be truth to the well known women’s complaint that men never listen. The reason for this being that men only listen with half of their brain, whereas women listen with both halves. Even so, women may not necessarily be better listeners. Dr Joseph T Lurito explained that “women may need to use more of their brain to listen to conversations, but said it could show women could listen to two conversations at once.”

Men Hear Women's Melodies

I recently read an article by David Epstein called “Men Hear Women’s Melodies.” In the article, the Epstein explains that “Women's voices stimulate an area of the brain used for processing complex sounds, like music. Male voices activate the "mind's eye," a region of the brain used for conjuring imagery.” I thought that the second sentence regarding men’s voices activating the part of the brain used for imagery was interesting because as we have learned in class, men use the right side of their brain the most, which is the side of the brain related to spatial abilities.

The article also had other interesting quotes. “[Michael Hunter suggests that] women generally have shorter vocal cords and a smaller larynx, giving them higher-pitched voices. Women's voices may also have more ‘natural melody,’ he adds. Qualities like pitch and volume vary more during speech. ‘There's more prosody in female speech.’ Newspaper articles about Hunter's research said that men find the female voice more difficult to hear and understand. But Hunter thinks the opposite is true. Because the brain is apparently deciphering the modulation in women's voices, a female voice might be able to communicate more information per sentence than a male voice.”

Not Just Filler

I just read an article called “Not Just Filler” written by Kathryn Garfield. In it, she explains how semen can cause a woman to release her eggs earlier than normal. In the semen, they found luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone, which apparently both can cause this reaction in women.

One quote that I found very interesting states that, “Sexual evolution is like an arms race, [Rebecca] Burch says. When women evolved concealed ovulation, men most likely developed semen full of hormones to wrest back control of paternity.” Concealed ovulation is the lack of external signs when a woman is ovulating.

This article relates to the psychology of sex and gender because it talks about the biological make up of men and women, how they differ, and also how they interact.