The female - and extreme female brain

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Sorry if this is in the wrong section or if it's been posted before.

Ideas that one sex has an inherent genetic advantage over the other have long been held as taboo, lest low-level biological variance be unfairly and unscientifically used to prop up gender stereotypes. But new research finds that baseline genetic differences in the brain do affect a person's psychological worldview—creating specific real-world advantages and disadvantages for each gender.

What do you think about this article?

Basically, what I get from it is a stereotypical view on the male and female brain. The article goes into the research of Hans Asperger and pretty much sums up that the male brain is more autistic and the female brain more likely to be more social/empathic.

Personally, I find it a very archaic and simplistic view. It goes on to say that more males have autism and not even touches on that females show autism in a different way. I'm more logical and less social/empathic. Does that mean I'm not a female?

I have always absolutely DETESTED the fact that some people think that I have a male brain, I have always thought of myself as much more female than male.

Nope. It just means that people would be biochemically predisposed to be a different way. There's great variation in between.
I'm not all that empathic or emotional, either, but i'm pretty sure I have a vagina. Gender roles are cultural, but above culture is biology.
I guess cross-cultural roles would have to be examined, though women are generally caretakers. I say this generalization because it is my observation in research and daily life.

Really? That's interesting. I've always identified more with maleness.

I can't find a link to whole article, but it sounds like they're just regurgiating Baron-Cohen's hypothesis about the "extreme male brain." I think B-C knows that a theory like his lends itself well to newspaper headlines; I wonder if he publishes more in journals or newspapers?

B-C says that autism is some sort of (stereotypical) hyper-mascinization of the brain. But if you ask why aren't other typical male-brain qualities besides systemization also universally increased in autism, the counter-argument is "it's not masculinization of the whole brain, just systemization." But then I see B-C's name on studies looking at fetal hormone levels, which would presumably increase all (or at least more than one narrow) male-brain qualities.

I think that something as complex and currently little-understood as autism makes for an easy thing to make up pretty much any theory you feel like. Until there's some solid neurological facts to kick these ad-hoc theories out of the picture, we're stuck with whatever various theories people want to make up.

In the world of transgender/transsexual study, there's a small clique of people who have generated most of the ideas. It's that way because nobody really studied the area much for a long time, and then that small group of people made it their full-time job. So they became the "experts" of their field not because they've discovered much or have insightful, proven theories -- but because they were the first ones to show up and make a theory and there's not enough good science to disprove much of anything at this point. Anyway, it seems similar to me with autism theories.

I believe that gender is partially biologically determined, however that doesn't mean that everyone is going to conform to a high degree of gender stereotypes.

Every psychological/cognitive test that I have taken indicates I have a male brain, and I don't deny that I think in a way more similar to males, however I also don't deny that there is a very female part of my psyche.

I've also observed that testosterone has a very strong effect on the brain. When high levels are present, II believe it makes men take more risks, and causes a more dominance oriented way of thinking, in the sense that they are more likely to be less inclined to things like altruism, forgiveness, and patience. However I certainly don't believe most men are like this most of the time. A man's testosterone levels fluctuate and highly depends on age and many other factors.

There is no such thing as one sex having an evolutionary advantage over the other. The survival of the species entails that attributes of each sex compliment the other.