In all cultures, men are brought up to be “masculine” and to disregard and repress those aspects of their temperament that the culture regards as “feminine,” whereas women are expected to do the opposite. Creative individuals to a certain extent escape this rigid gender role stereotyping. When tests of masculinity/femininity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers.

Good point. Always should be someone you really love:

That's a great article, Geege. Thanks for sharing. When I think about it anecdotally I see how the most creative people that I know fit that description.  And I am enamoured  (in a be still my heart sort of way) the article on the Ursula K. LeGuin essay that links from your article. http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/17/ursula-k-le-guin-gender/  Now I have to go buy that book just to own a full copy of her "Introducing Myself" essay.

Thanks, Beth.  I need to spend a little more time in and around this article, too.

I don't get it. Le Guin writes:

I am a man. Now you may think I’ve made some kind of silly mistake about gender, or maybe that I’m trying to fool you, because my first name ends in a, and I own three bras, and I’ve been pregnant five times, and other things like that that you might have noticed, little details. But details don’t matter… I predate the invention of women by decades. Well, if you insist on pedantic accuracy, women have been invented several times in widely varying localities, but the inventors just didn’t know how to sell the product. Their distribution techniques were rudimentary and their market research was nil, and so of course the concept just didn’t get off the ground. Even with a genius behind it an invention has to find its market, and it seemed like for a long time the idea of women just didn’t make it to the bottom line. Models like the Austen and the Brontë were too complicated, and people just laughed at the Suffragette, and the Woolf was way too far ahead of its time.

What does it mean?

There's an awkward car metaphor in there that submits the female gender is an array of models in production: some models make it into the world and others fail because they don't adhere to an accepted concept of "woman".

Therefore, Le Guin is a man, or a failed woman.  Ha.

Le Guin is a human being. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

A fine example of when I should say "I don't know."

Not knowing gender engenders a feeling of not knowing anything.

It's a wonderful essay. The full essay is located here:http://mason.gmu.edu/~ataylor/dvd_project/Readings/LeGuin%20Intr%20myself.pdfIt's about how in her generation you had to be a man to be someone. That it was a man's world. I think I'm going to write a blog post on it.

Thanks Beth -- I'd like to see your blog post when you've published it.

Me too!

A conversation worth breaking Internet silence. 

In Tibetan Sun is female, moon is male.   This in and of itself is difficult to understand. Eons of western culture and religion are the opposite. 

Red is female representing egg/life blood. White is male representing sperm/seed. 

The joining created a new, which is gender neutral and sky blue representing the unlimited potential of space. 

Karma creates the path after birth in a realm.  In the human form realm, where we abide and will dissolve from, our karma creates the place we take in the mass delusion, starting with gender. 

The labeling of male/female is the first karmic event as a single self. 

If you just take the path and meditations of removing your gender from your self, you would be a Buddha. It is excruciatingly difficult as you are reminded of your "gender" constantly.  

Mark, thanks for your perspective.

Becoming genderless seems like it's on the path to becoming desireless.

If you can truly deeply 100% see how gender is a delusional perception, a creation of our own making and live in the space that I am not a man or a woman, almost by definition you will see the delusion of self. 

Staying home with the kids for the last two years is an astounding experience.  One day last week I was asked "babysitting today?" Three times by noon.  When a woman is with children they are doing what they are "supposed" to do and dads are baby sitting. 

If you were an alien following me around you would think "mr mom" was one of the most profound movies ever given the numbers of references.

It is obscene how solid the gender roles are and they still seap into my brain even though my mind rejects them in their entirety.