On Sun, 14 Jan 2001 Jh wrote:

 Do men and women really suffer differently? Or do people in general suffer
 over different things..... The suffering that is felt at the acute level must
 be the same if we are all human.  People in humanity (depending on culture,
 gender, education etc...)suffer and dorment themselves over different
 issues...
 Since one cannot be both male and female at the same time it is difficult to
 measure suffering...by the same method, one cannot be both Native Indian and
 British... therefore how does if men from different cultures suffer
 differently or the same just because they are men...?
 comments welcome

 
Subject: Re: suffering
Dear JH,
 You've asked a difficult question, and so I have delayed in answering it.
Please forgive my procrastination. As you might guess, there is a long
standing battle between "nature" and "nurture", between genes and memes,
between inherited characteristics and cultural training. My claim that men
and women suffer differently is weighing in on the "nature" side of the
debate, that it is in the genes. This, of course, is the argument of the
evolutionary biologists and many well respected scientists who are members
of the National Academy.
 However, in more recent years, I have had the counter argument brought to
my attention that there are clever ways in which "nurture" or environment
can directly affect the baby in its mother's womb, so that nurture is
often confused with nature.
  Recognizing that many of these arguments will have to await better
experiments and better biochemical understanding of the mind, nonetheless
I will go out on a limb and predict that the genetic differences between
men and women will be found to be responsible for this difference in how
the two suffer. That is, it will exist in every culture and every language
in one form or another. The exact expression might be clouded by cultural
accretions, but nonetheless, we need to understand the "maleness" of the
book of Job if we are to understand his suffering.
  This is not to say that 99.5% of the book could be understood even had
it been written by his wife, but there is a distinct flavor running
through the book that only makes sense in terms of gender differences.
Ultimately, it ties in to Job's Advocate and God himself. But that step,
of meeting Personal Truth, is for those who graduate from Job.
  - pax
    Rob Sheldon