BewitchedSam

Hi so the reason that studies that find differences are more likely to be published is because those results are often considered more interesting. Thus publishers will likely sell more articles and make more money. This is a big problem in the social science community often referred to as the file drawer effect. It can lead to researchers manipulating their data by dropping outliers or participants to manipulate results. This is called p-hacking and has caused some publishers to change how articles are submitted. All researchers have bias. And often this affects methodology and interpretations of results as well.

There are size differences between male and female brains but this has always been found to correlate with body size (smaller woman = smaller hands, feet, heart, brains...larger man = larger hands, feet, heart, brains). There are also size differences in structures but again when controlling for overall size of the brain or person they disappear. It would be like me saying I measured pinky toes and found men's pinky toes were significantly bigger. Like duh men are bigger and have bigger feet.

It's not so much they are "identical brains" as much as it is being argued that neuroplasticy causes brains to develop/change based on use and environment. Brains are kind of like muscles in a sense because the more you use a part of the brain the more neuropathways develop in that area. In a sense what you're saying is true, men and women typically have different interest and hobbies but can be contributed to differences in social roles as well as other biological factors like muscle mass and hormones. But these differences in interest can affect where the brains develop.

The big problem with assuming they are inherently different is that historically brain science has been used as evidence to support sexist and racist ideas. Another problem with many of these studies is sampling. Most research is conducted on what we refer to as W.E.I.R.D. or White/western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic societies. Cross cultural research has been finding that a lot of research conducted in western societies often only apply to those who were studied aka the W.E.I.R.D. people.

Again you are correct there are many biological differences that explain the difference in behavior and abilities between men and women. However, the brain structure seems to be more subject to individual and environmental differences than sex differences. Most behavioral differences can largely be attributed to hormones.

Your final statement about getting rid of the notion that there is no difference strikes me as odd. Most libfems would argue that men and women are mostly the same and there's no difference. Radfems usually argue that men and women are greatly different thus why they don't believe men can know what its like to be women. I think most radfems don't support the idea of sexed brains because it's often used to enforce stereotypes, gender roles and discrimination against women. We're not big on sexist stereotypes and gender roles here. And I'm sure you can imagine how we feel about discrimination.