Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Saturday 24 May 2014

A throw-away remark I heard on the wireless this morning:

"Boys are less inquisitive than girls."
Hmm.  On reflection, I think that this is true.
Males are enquiring only in narrow fields
(agronomy, engines, Sanskrit, stem-cell research...)
while females are more generally curious.
Certainly, my own enquiring mind
popped out of my brain-womb only after I left university.

5 comments:

Marcus Billson said...

After years of observation of five year olds, as a school administrator, I would say that boys are just as curious as girls but on a different register, For example, they love to test and experiment on things, people being one of them; for example, can I pee in public, can my friend and I pee on each other and get completely wet, what is it like to have a spit contest all over my friend, who wants to see my willy, what is it like to touch a girl's chest, her private part even with her clothes on, how much effort does it take to break something (a pencil, a friend's crayons, a twig off a bush, my friend's elaborate Lego city?), how much can I ram something, how fast can i run, how much can I kiss and hug my friend until stopped, who can I push around and who can I not, how long can I pretend not to hear a command, how often can I test any limit? You get the idea. With boys their curiosity is action-oriented, reality testing, and always cathected to a performance energy.

Wofl said...

Wow! a new word : CATHECTED. Must look it up (muyI don't have an English-English dictionary here in France)...

When I was a kid (I suppose about 5) I was very curious about girls' groins. I used to chase them so as I could look up their skirts. But I also preferred their company (always the ladies' man). I remember putting my finger in a little friend's vagina and being amazed. And of course it ended there. Nowadays that would be seen as psychotic behaviour, and it wouldn't have ended there...

But little boys are like that - interested in penises, vaginas and mechanisms - as you say: in what things do and how they work. Little girls are much more aware of social interaction, roles and so on. This is why women are likely to be wiser than men, but treated as cogs in a machine by them !

Jindra K. Hrdlička said...

Three Wise Men is, of course overstatement.
Four Wise Women is just science fiction.

Wofl said...

Jindra, I simply don't understand why you are misogynist. I have a feeling that most 'straight' men have misogynist tendencies, but even with the help of Jungian psychology I don't understand it. Women are, generally speaking, emotionally intelligent, whereas men are (generally) emotional morons.

Jindra K. Hrdlička said...

Misogynist. a person who hates, dislikes, mistrusts, or mistreats women.
Only one applies. And still I am very selective. I dislike stupid women. Especially those in power.
Women can be a great medicine, some a poison.
I hope I explained myself to you since your opinion of me matters.