ARE MEN DUMB STUPID PIGS? YES!

In The Male Brain, Louann Brizendine, the American psychiatrist, follows up her controversial 2006 bestseller The Female Brain, which famously — and incorrectly — claimed that women use an average of 20,000 words a day compared with only 7,000 for men, and explores how the differences between the male and female brains often lead to the profoundest of misunderstandings and unintended consequences. Her conclusion that the male brain, “marinated in testosterone” since the eighth week of conception, is hardwired to cause men to lie, take risks and suppress their emotions, is equally controversial, appearing to suggest that men’s behaviour is devoid of personal responsibility and social conditioning. Is your teenage son bored and surly? Blame the hormones. If testosterone were beer, Dr Brizendine suggests, a nine-year-old boy would be getting the equivalent of half a pint a day but by the time he is 15, he is awash with the equivalent of nearly two gallons a day of the stuff. It blunts his ability to read facial expressions and heightens his sensitivity to criticism He doesn’t just look bored. He is bored. The testosterone-drenched reward centre in his brain now requires extraordinarily intense sensations to be activated — it’s why he likes all those shoot-em-up video games.

The Times
April 3 2010