WHAT is the difference between men and women?
Rather the question must be coined as what is the difference between males and females among the human, animal and plant species.
This is because a specie is, in all respects, equal to its partner.
An equal contribution of chromosomes is required from both sexes for procreation to take place.
In humans, 23 chromosomes from the male join together with 23 chromosomes from the female to make one pair of 23 chromosomes (46).
Protein synthesis then begins to take place; less or more than this causes down syndrome.
Being a man or woman is a result of one assuming a regime determined by his or her God-ordained sex. This happens seven weeks after conception, when the pineal gland, which is the first organ to manifest, first appears.
At this stage, the selection of what regime the unborn child will take — male or female — would have been made.
This trait is shared to varying extents among animals, aqua life, birds, insects and even plants. As a result, organisms are often born with defining male or female traits determined by their sex.
In humans, male babies are often more adventurous, active and daring than female babies who are often less notorious and into dolls and cooking, among other activities. The difference in regimes also largely determines choices of colour, partners and so on.
These regimes are femininity and masculinity. The former is meant for females and the latter for males in humans and other species.
The lion has a definitive dark mane and the cock a bright red cap.
They are both equipped with size and strength.
These traits are masculine and consequently attract lionesses and hens that lack these attributes.
The opposite is also true as males are attracted to the feminine attributes of the female, namely beauty, gentleness and curvy features.
The lion’s mane and the cock’s red cap, along with their relatively large size and strength are not only means to attract their female counterparts, they serve as means to draw danger towards them and away from their spouses and offspring.
They are better equipped for fighting or fleeing.
This is true for humans as men are often taller, heavier and have a bigger foot size than their female siblings and counterparts.
Likewise, the curvy features on females are not there to attract males but to facilitate child bearing, feeding and nursing. In humans, the woman’s wide and flexible hips are the most definitive female feature after her breasts and sexual organs. Thus, women are often better at doing 180 degree leg splits than men.
Their strongest body part is also the hip and buttock area.
Women also have relatively softer skin and body texture, owing to lower muscle and bone mass and this is done to cushion children.
The female has, within her, a baby making factory, be it a baby in a woman’s womb, an egg in a hen or a seed in a flower.
They are delicate and must take less risks than males throughout their lives to prevent injury and bareness.
Female humans have better dexterity than males owing to relatively thinner fingers.
The index finger of a female human is typically longer than that of the male. Women therefore have better hands for putting a thread through a needle’s eye, sewing, knitting and other activities that need finesse and technique to carry out.
Females are altogether more graceful in carrying themselves than males.
Along with the God-given ability of females to multi-task, these physiological variations to their male counterpart gives them a better skills set hand-wise.
This explains how women can take care of multiple children while cooking, talking and cleaning at the same time. Men do better focusing on one activity at a time.
Females often gain fat on their hips and buttocks as opposed to males who gain weight on the belly and chest.
Most mammals are predisposed to producing females. Perhaps this explains why there are more females than males among humans and other species which are often polygamous, with one male having more than one female partner.
Women have a steadier neck and head than men. African women can carry a third and up to over half their body weight on their heads without difficulty.
Males find this task almost unbearable.
The strength males lack on their heads is compensated for by shoulder and arm strength.
Thus the tasks men do with their hands such as cutting trees, pulling heavy weights, carrying heavy loads, hunting game and slaughtering beasts, among others, are found extremely difficult by women.
With the exception of the sea horse, almost all forms of life delegate the baby or egg carrying to females. Even in the unusual case of the sea horse, it is the woman that receives the sperm and produces eggs. It is after conception that she hands them to her male partner who incubates and protects them in his chest.
Penguin females similarly hand the eggs to their male partners when they go feeding and they place it in-between their legs until they hatch.
Femininity and masculinity are coupled with maternal and paternal instincts respectively.
These at times kick in before the organism in question reproduces.
Girls tend to idolise and imitate their mothers from an early age and boys, their fathers.
This is seen when girls voluntarily partake in play cooking (mahumbwe) and boys in football.
Girls often mature faster because they instinctively mimic their mother’s daily chores.
Also coupled with the opposing regimes are hormones.
There are female hormones and male hormones and a hormonal balance needs to be maintained if one wishes to remain with the physical and behavioural traits that ought to be expressed by his or her sex.
For example, estrogen is a female hormone which is abundant in women and limited in males. It is very much behind the light voice, soft skin texture and limited androgenic (body) hair on women.
In males, the hormone testosterone is abundant and limited in women. This is behind beard growth, androgenic hair, hoarse voice and muscle mass.
Hormonal imbalances can cause a female to seem more male than ought to be and vice versa. These are often caused by genetically or hormonally modified foods such as the modern soya bean which has too much estrogen.
The two regimes are so firm in their nature that male and female platonic attraction goes beyond commonality of species.
For instance, women tend to go along with male dogs than female ones and men with female dogs than male ones.
This is because the attraction of opposite regimes is at play, with the female being curious and thus attracted to the males masculinity, though their species are completely different.
Bulls, among cattle, tend to only tease or bully women or children and avoid interaction with men. Cows, and hardly ever male ones, approach male humans to interact, get rubbed and scratched.
Mammals are warm blooded and thus they all enjoy physical contact for warmth, removing bugs and bonding. However, females tend to be much more needy of physical contact than males among all warm blooded species, including humans.
Male humans do not respond well to being touched but prefer to touch females and the opposite is true.
In conclusion, males and females among humans, animals, birds and plants are equal to each other, but belong to one of two different regimes which complement and complete each other.
It is unnatural for one to alter his or her God-ordained sex and regime. This will upset the natural order of the family unit and threaten the survival of that specie.