At 02:26 am 24/01/2000  Monday, Steve Schwartz:

>Mats writes:
>
>>This thread (that also has appeared on CLASSM-L) gives me a haddock!  I
>>can well be ready to believe that there are some (theyre not many) great
>>male composers/chessplayers etc and almost no female such due to that the
>>sexes brains are differently structured.  It makes me irritated when I see
>>everybody ensure that this can impossibly be truth, and ensure that it has
>>to do with longtime discrimination and so on, as they seems afraid to take
>>any other standpoint.  I wonder; if it now is so that the female brain (in
>>most cases) is not successful in composing music; does this make women
>>lesser worth humans for you? Not to me.
>
>Do you think anybody knows enough about the brain and how it creates art or
>how DNA leads to works of art to make a meaningful statement one way or the
>other?

The answer to this Steve's question is, of course, no. But while the
question of why women are under-represented as well-known composers is
being discussed, do you really believe that one real possibility, that a
biological difference  in the brain or elsewhere is involved, should be
forbidden territory.

Personally I believe it is likely that the traditional discrimination
against women is to blame, but I do not believe the possibility of some
innate inability can be dismissed as easily as, I am sure, most polite
people will to-day dismiss it.

I believe that all possibilities should be considered and that no
possibilities should be considered impolite.  After all, it is not so very
long since the idea of women having a political say was the subject of
ridicule, and by women as well as men.
Alan Dudley
<[log in to unmask]>