The Female Brain

“Women may remember the smallest details of their first days, and their biggest fights, while their husbands barely remember that these things happened. Brain structure and chemistry have everything to do with why this is so.”

Brizendine reinforces gender stereotypes and introduces the book’s bias toward traditional heterosexual relationships between cisgender women and men, which is maintained throughout the text. The second sentence uses a declarative statement intended to emphasize the bio-essentialist idea that neurology causes gendered behavior. The statement is both unethically misleading and, according to modern gender studies, incorrect.

“This book is a user’s guide to new research about the female brain and the neurobehavioral systems that make us women.”

The book’s intended purpose is to help female readers better understand the connection between their neurology and their behavior. The author uses relational language—“us”—to generate a connection between the reader and herself, which creates a sense of comradery and which encourages the reader to trust Brizendine’s information.

“This isn’t socialization. This little girl didn’t cuddle her ‘truckie’ because her environment molded her unisex brain.”

The idea that gendered behavior results from socialization is now accepted as correct. Rather than supporting the incorrect argument that socialization does not cause gendered behavior with scientific information, the author makes a condescending remark that implies that bio-essentialism is common sense. Brizendine’s confident condescension discourages skepticism and primes readers to accept her assumption as fact.