Letters to the Editor
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frfish this is how it is
So according to your post, you failed statistics? Or just applied math? For example, in this logically consistent world of yours, does the fact that the average height of a woman is less than that of a man negate the existence of the WNBA?
Just wondering.
Well, you're not JUST wondering, because you insulted me. Despite this fact, I will answer your question.
I understand statistics. The problem is, the men I studied under in physics don't give a rat's behind about statistics when it comes to harping about gender.
The men I studied under in physics take studies like this and talk about them at the lunch tables as if statistics don't exist.
I understand that statistics exist. I understand that maybe I'm outside some kind of norm. But silly me, I think I have a right to exist.
Can you tell me why so many of my professors talk about women as if I don't really exist?
I almost left a dinner party a few months ago because a couple of condensed matter physicists were talking about this kind of research as if women like myself just plain didn't exist.
This is why I quit finally physics. Because I really got tired of scientists who REALLY SHOUD KNOW BETTER using this kind of research to intimidate and emotionally harm women who do not fit the statistical norm.
It hurts.
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Desigirl, as soon as I posted, I realized what you meant.
I would like Internet surveys/experiments to be valid, but I too have big concerns about how random they are, how one detects spamming or other falsifications.
I am very impressed they got 200,000 or so responses and that is one of the good things about Internet surveys/experiments, which is they beat the pants off of lots of studies that use 100 undergrads to represent the population.
I don't know how one can fix Internet survey techniques and still allow for sampling people anonymously. Which is a real shame, because the benefits would be tremendous.
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To Carol:
To think like a man is not enough for a raise. You must behave like a man...ie work longer hours, in higher paying fields, and stop asking for "special" rules, so that you can come in late and leave early ever day to take care of some "personal" issues.
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well it's settled then, it is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that there are NO innate mental differences between males and females
except that males are much more likely to be uncommunicative, emotionally repressed and stupid.
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the page of linked article summaries
Almost categorically listed nothing but advantages for women at every age and by every measure from adolescence to death. I would have thought someone would have caught that by now
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/articles/results/ageing.shtml
It's hard to truly understand what you're complaining about. I fully expect Broadsheet to print an article complaining that because men die earlier than women it's men's fault that older women are lonely and frustrated.
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Neat neuroscience here
"autism afflicts boys more than girls, a fact that led a guy I know who works with autistic kids to wonder if a certain kind of extreme masculinity -- the emotional detachment, the attention to abstraction -- was, in fact, a mild form of autism."
The autistic as 'extreme' male [old news, actually]
in his isolation and dys`sociability and
the William's syndrome as hyperempath,
tho' not as far as I know particularly 'female'.
But instructive contrasts anyway.
And the fMRIs are really coning on this stuff.
In passing, the guy is best at finding his way by
an innate sense of direction and the gal by landmarks.
Remembering, as you said she does, the placement of things.
The gay male does BOTH fairly well and
the 'gay' girl came up mixed...no trend.
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well it wouldn't be unprecedented if they did since suicides at Gitmo are being described
as propaganda acts of asymnmetical warfare against the US
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has_te
autism afflicts boys more than girls, a fact that led a guy I know who works with autistic kids to wonder if a certain kind of extreme masculinity -- the emotional detachment, the attention to abstraction -- was, in fact, a mild form of autism.
But the social norm for masculinity is very different from what an Asperger's male looks like. They don't tend to be very muscular or enjoy banging nails or sawing wood or playing football. They look a bit androgynous, to be honest.
Scientists have a lot attributes that are considered feminine rather than masculine norms. Science is a kind of passive activity, because you wait for Nature to send you signals, and you patiently sit around and sip tea and analyze those signals. After which you go relax at the symphony or the opera.
That's not the kind of behavior that is seen as hypermasculine, or even masculine.
Maybe the social deficit is just a social deficit, not a marker for hypermasculinity.
I took an online evaluation for Asperger's and found that I do seem to score well into the Asperger's region.
I feel I was treated like a kind of a freak when I was in graduate school studying physics.
Maybe men with Asperger's like to recite gender norms to reassure themselves of their masculinity, since they do tend to look somewhat androgynous.
And because of their social deficit they have no idea of the emotional harm they are doing to the Asperger's women around them who are outside those gender norms the men like to go around reciting.
I keep looking for an explanation as to why being a math-gifted girl can end up being such an invitation to rejection and pain.
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Don't be a victim
I understand statistics. The problem is, the men I studied under in physics don't give a rat's behind about statistics when it comes to harping about gender.
How is that relevant? The physicists you worked with were misogynistic idiots, so you now have a license to ignore statistics as well? That makes no sense.
The men I studied under in physics take studies like this and talk about them at the lunch tables as if statistics don't exist.
OK, so they're idiots.
I understand that statistics exist. I understand that maybe I'm outside some kind of norm. But silly me, I think I have a right to exist.
I don't argue that. People have been mean or discriminatory towards you. Just don't expect to get a free pass on using faulty logic.
Can you tell me why so many of my professors talk about women as if I don't really exist?
No, because I'm not one of your professors.
I almost left a dinner party a few months ago because a couple of condensed matter physicists were talking about this kind of research as if women like myself just plain didn't exist.
See above point about them being misogynistic idiots. I still don't see how that's relevant to your nonsensical and illogical comments about this study.
This is why I quit finally physics. Because I really got tired of scientists who REALLY SHOUD KNOW BETTER using this kind of research to intimidate and emotionally harm women who do not fit the statistical norm.
What, exactly is "this kind of research"? One that studies differences between men and women? OK, fine, I won't argue that there are people out there who are going to be idiots about it and abuse the research and twist it to suit their own agenda. But how does you becoming one of those people help your case? It might make you feel better. It might be cathartic. But it's still wrong.
There are a few (~3-5) comments in this thread so far who have actually discussed the study and not talked about irrelevant anecdotal evidence. Discussions of controlling for characteristics of Internet-using populations, statistically significant differences between (gender, orientation) tuples, and the applicability of the tested skills to reading maps and navigation.
It hurts.
I don't doubt that or dispute that. But you can either see yourself as a victim or you can say "screw you" to the people who hurt you and move on. But I wasn't one of those people, so don't blame me for their behavior.