Oh, please.
Aug. 25th, 2005 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oneirophreniaDipshits in the British Isles STILL think "men are smarter than women." And I bet there are plenty of likeminded dipshits here on our side of the pond as well.
Now, this is patently bullshit. Women's cortices are fundamentally wired up the same way that men's are--the human cerebral cortex displays NO traces of sexual dimorphism whatsoever--so there is no neurological basis whatsoever to the claim that "men are smarter than women." But studies like the above always bring up the question of why so few women are, say, Nobel Prize Winners, or ultra-clever scientists, and so forth. It's pretty obvious that this disparity has nothing to do with the basic circuitry of the human cerebral cortex and everything to do with one simple, but far-reaching and damnear global, factor: societal memes. Think about it...how many women do you know who were ever encouraged told to be, or even vaguely told that they could be, a world-famous physicist? How many women in the US, Britain, or anywhere else on this cruddy planet have ever even thought to themselves, "Hmmm...I would really like to be a physicist and work on M-Theory calculations?" Probably next to none. Why? Because of the pervasive societal meme, still common throughout the world despite the great liberalization and "women's lib" movements of the 20th Century, that physics and other high-concept, high-intellect fields just aren't for women. Whether you grow up in an incredibly liberal household or not, if you're female, you're still going to be exposed to those memes when you're in kindergarten, playing with your friends, or...hell, meeting ANYone outside of your immediate family unit. Girls will be playing with the dolls in kindygarden, and boys will be playing with the erector sets...so, hey, you're a girl, right?--and you're a kid who only wants to make friends, so off you go to play with the dolls. And eventually, subtly, over the years, this is how females are quietly conditioned to shuttle themselves into more "female" societal rolls. Nursing, for instance. Out of, say, 200 Penn State students who've passed through my classes on their way into the School of Nursing, at least 190 of them were female. You need to be GODDAMNED SMART to survive nursing school, at least at Penn State, and I've never met a nurse who wasn't quite intelligent--so, hey...if men are truly smarter than women, why aren't there male nurses everywhere? Can't men hack the program? I mean--could it be they're too dumb to make it as nurses but smart enough to make it as physicists? Physicists naturally have to learn more, but ANYone going into the medical field has to be fairly bright or they're going to wash out, be they male, female, or otherwise.
Studies that purport to prove male intellectual dominance are just plain fucking stupid and built on ludicrous foundations. This is not to say that male and female brains are all the same--there are sexual dimorphisms in different parts of the brain that effect men and women think in some ways (and result in women all being batshit insane by default), but these dimorphism don't effect base intelligence in any way. Women and men are just subtly encouraged by societal thought-patterns dating back to the freakin' Iron Age to shuttle themselves into different roles; these thought-patterns are progressively breaking down, sure, but they're still much more common than not. So don't expect a female Einstein to revolutionize science anytime soon--at least until the Information Age destroys all remnants of "traditional" culture in the West. It can't come soon enough for me.
But don't get me wrong...women will still be nuts. But insanity is often a BOON when it comes to science!
Now, this is patently bullshit. Women's cortices are fundamentally wired up the same way that men's are--the human cerebral cortex displays NO traces of sexual dimorphism whatsoever--so there is no neurological basis whatsoever to the claim that "men are smarter than women." But studies like the above always bring up the question of why so few women are, say, Nobel Prize Winners, or ultra-clever scientists, and so forth. It's pretty obvious that this disparity has nothing to do with the basic circuitry of the human cerebral cortex and everything to do with one simple, but far-reaching and damnear global, factor: societal memes. Think about it...how many women do you know who were ever encouraged told to be, or even vaguely told that they could be, a world-famous physicist? How many women in the US, Britain, or anywhere else on this cruddy planet have ever even thought to themselves, "Hmmm...I would really like to be a physicist and work on M-Theory calculations?" Probably next to none. Why? Because of the pervasive societal meme, still common throughout the world despite the great liberalization and "women's lib" movements of the 20th Century, that physics and other high-concept, high-intellect fields just aren't for women. Whether you grow up in an incredibly liberal household or not, if you're female, you're still going to be exposed to those memes when you're in kindergarten, playing with your friends, or...hell, meeting ANYone outside of your immediate family unit. Girls will be playing with the dolls in kindygarden, and boys will be playing with the erector sets...so, hey, you're a girl, right?--and you're a kid who only wants to make friends, so off you go to play with the dolls. And eventually, subtly, over the years, this is how females are quietly conditioned to shuttle themselves into more "female" societal rolls. Nursing, for instance. Out of, say, 200 Penn State students who've passed through my classes on their way into the School of Nursing, at least 190 of them were female. You need to be GODDAMNED SMART to survive nursing school, at least at Penn State, and I've never met a nurse who wasn't quite intelligent--so, hey...if men are truly smarter than women, why aren't there male nurses everywhere? Can't men hack the program? I mean--could it be they're too dumb to make it as nurses but smart enough to make it as physicists? Physicists naturally have to learn more, but ANYone going into the medical field has to be fairly bright or they're going to wash out, be they male, female, or otherwise.
Studies that purport to prove male intellectual dominance are just plain fucking stupid and built on ludicrous foundations. This is not to say that male and female brains are all the same--there are sexual dimorphisms in different parts of the brain that effect men and women think in some ways (and result in women all being batshit insane by default), but these dimorphism don't effect base intelligence in any way. Women and men are just subtly encouraged by societal thought-patterns dating back to the freakin' Iron Age to shuttle themselves into different roles; these thought-patterns are progressively breaking down, sure, but they're still much more common than not. So don't expect a female Einstein to revolutionize science anytime soon--at least until the Information Age destroys all remnants of "traditional" culture in the West. It can't come soon enough for me.
But don't get me wrong...women will still be nuts. But insanity is often a BOON when it comes to science!
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 08:26 pm (UTC)This isn't to say that it is an insurmountable problem, many women can and do juggle both research and family. But it does make it harder.
I do totally agree with you that the mysogynistic research is a load of crap.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 08:27 pm (UTC)Some male academics must be feeling hard-pressed to defend their 'legendary bastion of power' in the academic world. It certainly makes for an amusing side-show though.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 08:56 pm (UTC)Try dating men some time...the nuts don't fall far from the...nuts. Or the eggs. It's just waaaay more obvious when sack-time is in the picture.
However I agree with the general thrust. Fortunately I was born with enough of a "fuck you" attitude that I've managed to overcome more of that conditioning bullshit than some of my contemporaries...