Gender and Religion: Getting in Touch with the Feminine

[fringekitty]

While doing some research on autism spectrum disorders, I happened to notice in several sources that although such conditions, which include autism, asperger's and other developmental disorders, appear more predominantly among men, women who had the disorder seemed to have some variant of the x chromosome, one of the pair was damaged or was missing

Comments

[madscience]

I'm afraid I'm not following your jump from autism to religious inclination. Are you suggesting that the higher incidence of autism spectrum disorders in males is the origin of the gender stereotype of femininity equating to empathy? And that empathy leads to religion and ritual?

[fringekitty]

Forgive my tired brain. In answer to your questions, perhaps, but not exactly. Religion seems to be composed of rules/dogma/systems which are often associated with the y chromosome and symbolic/creative/participatory ritual and community service, which is often associated with the x chromosome. (I'm not saying these assertions are necessarily correct.) It would make sense, along this line of thinking, that impairments to empathy would influence the importance, direction and tone of religious participation towards more rules-oriented forms of expression. I know this is an over-generalization, but with impairments to the x chromosome leading to impairments in empathy and socialization, the more ecstatic and community service elements of religious ritual might also be impacted and may even be maligned.

Even outside of religious considerations, one might see similar dynamics play out in preferred treatment methods for physical and mental health services-a preference for Freudian psychotherapy vs. art therapy for example.

[madscience]

I understand what you're saying now, but I'm skeptical that these supposed chromosomal personality traits are significant enough to have such a large influence on our society. I think the prevalence of male-dominated societies and the emotional tone associated with them are better explained by theories like this one.

[fringekitty]

If I'm reading it correctly, the hypothesis in that theory is that passive females (those who aren't warrior women) were selected for in evolutionary terms; the idea being that assertive women would be killed off, leaving their children without caregivers. So the optimal arrangement, in terms of evolution, would be aggressive males and passive females, according to that theory

[fringekitty]

See if my reply to madscience helps at all. I'm very guilty of taking flying leaps in my thinking, so let me know if it seems I'm still spewing nonsense.

[andjay]

too broad a topic to comment.

[aphenine]

I am transgender and recent experience has shown me that gender and religion seem to be very strongly linked. At least, I've had some cool religious experiences since coming to the realisation and if I was more more religiously and not scientifically minded, I'd have become a priest instead of deciding that I'd been born in the body of the wrong sex. It doesn't seem to me to be too far a leap to suppose that's where priesthood started off in the first place. Abrahamic religions are notable for their complete lack of transgendered people, despite their existence in virtually every other culture in existence. Most cultures that have a well defined priesthood seem to lack transgenderism

[fringekitty]

Outside of the Abrahamic faiths, other religious traditions even celebrate androgyny and gender in a variety of forms.

[urwen_sakurafu]

The research sounds interesting. Have you got a paper reference?

On the actual question, it seems to be a cultural thing. Some genders seem to be considered more or less sacred depending on where you are.

[fringekitty]

I'm still searching for a couple of references which I thought I bookmarked, but until I find them, here are a few related links:

The Neuropsychology of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders -- The Extreme Male Brain Theory: An Expert Interview With Simon Baron-Cohen, PhD, MPhil

12/14/2005 Medscape interview with Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen on systematizing and empathizing which he loosely attributes to the male and female brain (chromosomes) respectively.

Note: you may have to log in and scroll down in order to find/read this article.

Sex-Linked Neuroanatomical Basis of Human Altruistic Cooperativeness
Hidenori Yamasue et al. 2008 Oxford University Press

Imprinting, the X-chromosome, and the male brain: explaining sex differences in the liability to autism
D.H. Skuse et al Pediatric Research January 2000

Evidence from Turner's syndrome of an imprinted X-linked locus affecting cognitive function Nature. June 1997.
D.H. Skuse et al.

[urwen_sakurafu]

Thank you!