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Anybody remember the movie, "A Beautiful Mind" ?

Nash: I don't exactly know what I am required to say in order for you to have intercourse with me. But could we assume that I said all that. I mean essentially we are talking about fluid exchange right? So could we go just straight to the sex.

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Originally Posted by Shawn Ishness:
I think we're all the ongoing result of our own unique experiences.

it would be nice to think that, but doing so would entail ignoring the vital role that society plays in shaping who we are. our world view is made up of three key elements. our personal experiences, societal norms, and our natural impulses. on a limited basis, your examples make sense, but not when taking society as a whole. societal norms change with the times, and from culture to culture. today, smoking is seen as a filthy and disgusting habit, while it was once viewed as attractive. interracial marriage was once not even considered, yet now, it's relatively normal. some cultures stress monogamy, others polygamy.

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Originally Posted by Sherry Holiday:
Actually I am counting my female professional Friends and clients that are  "just aren't hardwired for lifelong monogamous pairings" either and are raising their children as single parents.  They date men but rarely date one longer enough to meet their children.    

science shows that men and women's brains are wired differently, though of course there are exceptions to the rule. we have different chemical and thought processes. for some reason, a lot of women seem to have a problem with this. it doesn't mean that one is inferior or superior to the other, we're just different in more ways than our plumbing.

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i'd also like to point out that in today's culture, virtually no one is truly monogamous, as that would mean one sexual partner for life.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Shawn Ishness:
I think we're all the ongoing result of our own unique experiences.

it would be nice to think that, but doing so would entail ignoring the vital role that society plays in shaping who we are. our world view is made up of three key elements. our personal experiences, societal norms, and our natural impulses. on a limited basis, your examples make sense, but not when taking society as a whole. societal norms change with the times, and from culture to culture. today, smoking is seen as a filthy and disgusting habit, while it was once viewed as attractive. interracial marriage was once not even considered, yet now, it's relatively normal. some cultures stress monogamy, others polygamy.

I'm not sure how much we're disagreeing here. My saying "I think we're all the ongoing result of our own unique experiences" includes any aspects of unique individual reactions and responses to evolving and varying social influences.

But in taking society as a whole, I think this process tends to stereotypically group people under labels that distort or maybe even ignore individuality. In referencing back to non-monogamy, no two cheaters cheat for exactly the same reason(s). Sure, they've both cheated and are often referred to as 'cheaters', if labels are needed for superficial descriptive purposes, but they're both still unique individuals who do what they do for their own unique reasons that might not exactly fit the various reasons that psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, or whomever, have generally listed out.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Sherry Holiday:
Actually I am counting my female professional Friends and clients that are  "just aren't hardwired for lifelong monogamous pairings" either and are raising their children as single parents.  They date men but rarely date one longer enough to meet their children.

science shows that men and women's brains are wired differently, though of course there are exceptions to the rule. we have different chemical and thought processes. for some reason, a lot of women seem to have a problem with this. it doesn't mean that one is inferior or superior to the other, we're just different in more ways than our plumbing.

I think both genders are 'wired' differently only because of how we're socialized differently between the two genders. I do, however, believe that at a certain point of existence, there's very little, if any, difference between male and female at their most basic core levels before layer after layer of evolving personality is applied.

In referencing a book that was brought up elsewhere in this group, "The Way Of The Superior Man" by David Dieda (sp), Dieda suggested that gender polarity is reducing due to the general direction social evolution has taken. Granted, we still have stereotypical male and female ideas or roles, but more and more men and women are behaving more and more similar which I think indicates more and more similar brain 'wiring'.

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Originally Posted by Shawn Ishness:
I'm not sure how much we're disagreeing here. My saying "I think we're all the ongoing result of our own unique experiences" includes any aspects of unique individual reactions and responses to evolving and varying social influences.

But in taking society as a whole, I think this process tends to stereotypically group people under labels that distort or maybe even ignore individuality. In referencing back to non-monogamy, no two cheaters cheat for exactly the same reason(s). Sure, they've both cheated and are often referred to as 'cheaters', if labels are needed for superficial descriptive purposes, but they're both still unique individuals who do what they do for their own unique reasons that might not exactly fit the various reasons that psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, or whomever, have generally listed out.

i get what you're saying, but doesn't the question, "Are humans designed to experience short-term relationships?" also lump all people together? of course we're all unique, but it's only natural for us to speak in generalities.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
i get what you're saying, but doesn't the question, "Are humans designed to experience short-term relationships?" also lump all people together? of course we're all unique, but it's only natural for us to speak in generalities.

I think the question was designed to stir thinking.

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Men and women show differences in behaviour because their brains are physically distinct organs, research suggests. Male and female brains appear to be constructed from markedly different genetic blueprints.

The differences in the circuitry that wires them up and the chemicals that transmit messages inside them are so great as to point to the conclusion that there is not just one kind of human brain, but two, according to recent neurological studies.

But until recently, these differences were often explained by the action of adult sex hormones, or by social pressures that encouraged males and females to behave in a certain way.

Increasingly, however, these assumptions are being challenged, according to a review of recent neurological research appearing in this week's New Scientist magazine, and it is becoming clear that the brains of men and women show numerous anatomical differences.

Some of these divergences could explain a number of mysteries, such as why men and women are prone to different mental health problems, why some drugs work well for one sex but have little effect on the other, and why chronic pain tends to affect women more than men.

Although it has long been known that there were some male-female differences, it was thought they were confined to the hypothalamus, the brain region involved in regulating food intake, fighting and the sex drive, among other things. But it is becoming clear that the relative sizes of many of the structures inside female brains are different from those of males.

One study, by scientists at Harvard Medical School, found that parts of the frontal lobe, which houses decision-making and problem-solving functions, were proportionally larger in women, as was the limbic cortex, which regulates emotions. Other studies have found that the hippocampus, involved in short-term memory and spatial navigation, is also proportionally larger in women than in men – "perhaps surprisingly, given women's reputation as bad map readers" says the New Scientist review.

Proportionally larger brain areas in men include the parietal cortex, which processes signals from the sensory organs and is involved in space perception, and the amygdala, which controls emotions and social and sexual behaviour. "The mere fact that a structure is different in size suggests a difference in functional organisation," says Dr Larry Cahill of the Centre for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, at the University of California, Irvine.

One area of research concerns the brain's pain-suppressing mechanisms, and points to the fact that they may be organised differently in men and women. This would explain why women can suffer long-term pain more, and why there can be sex differences in response to opium-derived painkilling drugs. The study notes: "Women get more relief from the opioid painkiller nalbuphine compared to men, whereas in men morphine is more effective and nalbuphine actually increases the pain intensity."

Mental health is another area where real brain differences may offer explanations. Women are diagnosed with depression twice as often as men, and this may be linked to relative levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Boys, on the other hand, are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism, Tourette's syndrome, dyslexia, attention-deficit disorder and early-onset schizophrenia. The review reports that Margaret McCarthy of the University of Maryland in Baltimore believes that hormone-like substances called prostaglandins, which help masculinise the male brain around the time of birth, may be partly to blame.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/womens-brains-uareu-different-from-mens-ndash-and-heres-scientific-proof-870849.html

it's not just societal. we are physiologically different. if anyone would like to look into more research, google "men women brains" and you'll find a litany of stories.