Hair, personality and gender

[Tabouli]

Elkins:
> (I let it all grow back.  I've had long hair my entire 
life, and I...well, I just couldn't adapt to the short-hair thing, 
I'm afraid.  I'm far too set in my ways.) <

Ah!  For some reason, I've *always* pictured you (Elkins) with long hair!  Is it brown and somewhat wavy as well?

Barb:
> Where did anyone get the idea that personality and gender are in ANY 
WAY related?<

I'm inclined to disagree with this.  Related in the inborn, genetic sense, perhaps not (although even that's debatable - women are born with a bigger corpus callosum linking the hemispheres of the brain, significantly different biological equipment, etc.)  In terms of socialisation, though, girls and boys are raised *so* differently, and get *such* different messages about how they're expected to behave, I think gender and personality are inevitably going to be related (though not, I imagine, in a way which would show up on an HP quiz!).  I don't mean to say that men *can't* exhibit stereotypically "female" behaviour and vice versa, it's more that men and women are having their behaviour measured on gender-specific scales.  The sort of behaviour which might be acceptable for a woman could easily be unacceptably far from the norm in a man, and vice versa.  And as anyone who's been marginalised knows, it affects the personality a lot.

Hmm.  Thoughts?  Counter-arguments?

Tabouli.


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