Filters: Sex and Other Misconceptions 167
constraints—humans enjoy making life more complicated—males
stay involved and help preserve culture.
If we assume, then, that breeding is a finite task for males and
the beginning of a process for females, we can see there will be
differences in the way we approach nearly everything. The long-
term impact is that even when women of childbearing age are afraid,
there is a part of them that instinctively protects the Holy Grail of
the species: the egg. This behavior is all part of normal thinking and
reactions, according to neuropsychiatrist and author Louann
Brizenden: “The mommy-brain transformation gets under way at
conception and can take over even the most career-oriented woman’s
circuits, changing the way she thinks, feels, and what she finds
important.” (The Female Brain, Random House, 2006, page 98.)
Step back several thousand years and look at the behavior
patterns of our primitive ancestors. Males were the hunters out of
necessity, not only because of our physique, but also because the
females were either pregnant or tending the young. The male brain
is also better suited to this type of finite-task thinking. We make
wonderful long-range plans and stick to them. On the flip-side, we
are not quite as good at making a flexible plan and constantly tweak-
ing it to get a long-term result. Our male ancestors would have said,
“There is this animal, who is always here at this time. Let us go kill
it.” The females would say, “Somewhere out there are some really
good berries. I am not sure where they are, but they will be good
with meat so let us go find them.” This evolved into, “These berries
are really good. Let’s make sure that bush stays alive.” Does that
sound familiar? Is it any wonder that, through cooperation, the male
and female brain came up with agriculture? The male brain conquered