It has become a tenet of a certain kind of social constructionist theory that the
world would be much improved if boys were socialized like girls. Those who
put forward such theories assume, first, that aggression is a learned
behaviour, and can therefore simply not be taught, and second (to take a
particular example) that, “boys should be socialized the way girls have been
traditionally socialized, and they should be encouraged to develop socially
positive qualities such as tenderness, sensitivity to feelings, nurturance,
cooperative and aesthetic appreciation.” In the opinions of such thinkers,
aggression will only be reduced when male adolescents and young adults
“subscribe to the same standards of behavior as have been traditionally
encouraged for women.”^194
There are so many things wrong with this idea that it is difficult to know
where to start. First, it is not the case that aggression is merely learned.
Aggression is there at the beginning. There are ancient biological circuits, so
to speak, that underlie defensive and predatory aggression.^195 They are so
fundamental that they still operate in what are known as decorticate cats,
animals that have had the largest and most recently evolved parts of their
brain—an overwhelmingly large percentage of the total structure—entirely
removed. This suggests not only that aggression is innate, but that it is a
consequence of activity in extremely fundamental, basic brain areas. If the
brain is a tree, then aggression (along with hunger, thirst and sexual desire) is
there in the very trunk.
And, in keeping with this, it appears that a subset of two-year-old boys
(about 5 percent) are quite aggressive, by temperament. They take other kids’
toys, kick, bite and hit. Most are nonetheless socialized effectively by the age
of four.^196 This is not, however, because they have been encouraged to act
like little girls. Instead, they are taught or otherwise learn in early childhood
to integrate their aggressive tendencies into more sophisticated behavioural
routines. Aggression underlies the drive to be outstanding, to be unstoppable,
to compete, to win—to be actively virtuous, at least along one dimension.
Determination is its admirable, pro-social face. Aggressive young children
who don’t manage to render their temperament sophisticated by the end of
infancy are doomed to unpopularity, as their primordial antagonism no longer
serves them socially at later ages. Rejected by their peers, they lack further
socialization opportunities and tend towards outcast status. These are the