Dr. Widman and the Throwdown.

I'm not really one to talk about Psychology, but Dr. Widman sure did a good job at intriguing me with linking gender to the discipline. The only other time I've been really interested in Psychology is on the subject of Linguistics within Cognitive Psychology, mainly because I love languages so much. However, talking about Psychology goes over my head a lot (no pun intended), so I had to focus pretty hard on everything he was saying.

Thinking about the brain just confuses the heck out of me. It's one big mystery, and Dr. Widman confirmed that we only know an extremely small amount of what the brain does. It makes me think that maybe we have the answers to life itself, but we just don't know it.....
Anyway, one thing that really struck me while he was talking was the part about corpus callosums and how they are different between males and females. I feel like there is some deep meaning behind it that we haven't figured out yet. I mean, whether some people like to admit it or not, there are some differences between males and females that just happen. We are somewhat different. That doesn't mean that I can't be masculine--it just means some things separate our difference that we cannot control, as in the sex in which we are born.
Women and men also differ, according to Dr. Widman, with which parts of the brain are used. Women tend to use both lateral sides of the brain, whereas men do not. In my opinion, I believe that women do think about things with a much fuller view than men do (of course there are exceptions to this, we're not robots after all). But it seems clear to me when I talk to my guy friends how different they think, even with like comparing a man and woman's outlooks on life itself. We just naturally seem to go about things differently; it doesn't mean one is right and the other is wrong, though. It's not surprising to me that women are "scatter-brained" and men are more structured. It just adds to the patriarchal society....sigh. 
The most interesting part of Dr. Widman's lecture for me was, to no surprise, about homosexuality. Although I didn't understand a lot of it, I do remember Dr. Widman talking about the nuclei in the brain and how for homosexual males seem to be right in the middle between heterosexual males and heterosexual females. HOW NEAT IS THAT? It's nice to know that homosexuality, although still puzzling to many, is somewhat support through psychology. It's not a disease after all, folks. It's just a different setup in the brain, which is so cool to me. 
I'm very glad Dr. Widman came to class to talk to us. It was nice to have a totally difference perspective on things. Although I wished the discussions were more productive, I enjoyed it. I would love for him to come back again.