The Myth of the Left and Right Brain

One of my all time pet peeves is how people have been led to believe that their behavior is the result of being left brained or right brained. If the left hemisphere is the more logical hemisphere then would most men want to be left brained or right brained? Probably left brained. If men are supposedly better at math than women, wouldn't they want to be associated with the side of the brain that is good at math? I would think so. The right brain is the side of the brain that is better at performing spatial and abstract reasoning like math. So, would a guy want to be left brained because that's the logical side or right brained because that's the math side? Women have historically been thought of as better at language than men. The left brain happens to be the language side. So, women are more logical than men. The right brain is also the place where emotions are processed. So, if men are good at math they are also very emotional. The whole thing becomes convoluted real fast. There are more right handed people so they must all be bad at math since they are left brained. Only left handed people should be good at math, while right handed people would be good at language. Lastly, unless somebody had a brain scan they would only be guessing whether they were left brained or right brained. You need both hemispheres communicating with each other to do most of the things we do. While it is true that both sides of the brain are specialized for different functions, much of our behavior is learned. Whether a boy is encouraged to be good at math or a girl is encouraged to be nurturing is largely culturally and socially reinforced.