The Null Device

2005/9/19

The 13th of October has been designated John Peel Day; there will be more than 300 tribute gigs to Peel across the UK. (It remains to be seen what proportion of these carry on the spirit of Peel's eclecticism and championing of novelty more than, say, last year's "Future's Burning" compilation of "tight", "angular" NME/Xfm-formula "new-wave" "indie" "garage" "art rock", which was, perhaps rather opportunistically, dedicated to the then recently deceased Peel.) There will also be events in Europe, North America and New Zealand on the day.

The day before, there will be a tribute concert in London featuring New Order, The Fall, the Super Furry Animals and a reggae outfit named Misty In Roots.

carling-indie john peel 2

This just in: psychological studies find that differences between men and women are, for the most part, negligible. This includes in areas commonly considered to be gendered, such as communications, spatial reasoning and assertiveness.

Dr Hyde said gender differences accounted for either no or a very small effect for most of the psychological variables examined. She said only throwing distance and physical aggression showed marked gender differences.
It turns out that there are stereotypical male and female behaviours -- but they disappear as soon as the actor is not identified by sex:
Dr Hyde highlighted one study where participants were told that they were not identified as male or female nor wore any identification, which led to neither sex conforming to a stereotyped image when given the opportunity to act aggressively.
They actually did the opposite to what was expected - they did not stick to the stereotype of aggressive males and passive females.

gender nature vs. nurture psychology society 2