Letters to the Editor
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Why do men like lousy ev-psych so much?
Specifically I'm talking about the kind of pop-cult ev-psych that basically says that men cannot control themselves, they are totally at the mercy of their hormones and their biology. Because, uh, if this is true WE SHOULD LOCK THEM ALL UP. Seriously. If men biologically cannot stop raping people and murdering people then we need to abort about 90% of the male babies, shoot about 90% of the men, and keep the tiny remainder under strict control, the way we would any dangerous predator. Why are dangerous predators who cannot control their own behavior and who no one else can control allowed to roam the streets at will?
Maybe because pop-cult ev-psych is WRONG and men are perfectly capable of making moral decisions that go against what biology might have selected them for?
Look, I have better credentials than Carol Lloyd -- I have a bachelor's degree in psychobiology (essentially the same thing as evolutionary psychology, it just wasn't called that then), and nearly got a master's. And this article is crap. Not because it says things that feminists don't like. Personally I very much like the theory that Muslims blow themselves up because they aren't getting laid; from a feminist standpoint it says that a society with full or nearly full female equality which allows women sexual agency and which permits them to participate equally in society is a much more peaceful and rational society than one that practices strict sex segregation. It's a great theory. It's just probably wrong. Why is it probably wrong? Because SOME WOMEN ARE SUICIDE BOMBERS. If the motivation to be a suicide bomber is precisely *because* there's a sexual element involved, and yet Islam offers no sexual goodies to women who die, then women would never be suicide bombers.
The article is full of stuff like this -- assertions that are unprovable, or provably wrong (beautiful people have more daughters? *MEN* control the gender of the child, and do so entirely at random. By what mechanism could a man produce more X-bearing sperm because he and his partner are beautiful? And who defines beauty, where did this study come from, and have they factored in the role of things like female infanticide?) This doesn't invalidate all of evolutionary psychology, it just invalidates this article.
However, it is important to note that pop-cult ev-psych almost *never* points out that the actual level of difference between men and women in mental abilities is rarely more than about 5% of the total differential... consistently we find there is more difference between members of the same sex on average than the difference between the averages of the two sexes. Science tells us that men and women are mostly alike; pop-cult ev-psych twists this around to tell us that we're completely different.
It's all Just So stories. I could make up some great ev-psych theories to explain how male dominance is human nature gone Horribly Horribly Wrong and that in our natural state we should be equal and sexually free, or that women should actually run everything, if I felt like it. My theories wouldn't actually be any worse than most of this shit that gets printed in popular culture. They probably wouldn't pass a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but frankly, I doubt this stuff can either.
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The Red Queen
Why are liberals, especially feminists, so twitchy about evolutionary psychology? They like to make fun of conservatives who don't believe in evolution then they turn around and do the same thing.
The question is whether they are stupid or liars. Possibly both.
The truth is that we don't all have the same IQ. Not all of us are good looking, tall or young. Some races make better basketball players and so forth. We are not all equal. In fact, it is called diversity. I thought we are supposed to celebrate diversity? Just not that kind.
It is a pleasure to watch advances in science rip apart faminist dogma.
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LucyTB
I could take apart your screed bit by bit and I would take pleasure in it.
But really what it comes down to is this, no matter how many times I tell some people that I am ll for equal rights, somebody like you comes along with the same tired tropes and attempts to again plaster them onto me.
My objetion has never been with equality, but with the hypocrisy of modern feminism that pretends to want equality. Meanwhile, average women not only have more rights and privileges than the average masn today, but they continue to push onto very tired men more man hating selfish tirades.
You give me equasl reproductive rights, and we can then resume talking about what rights women can have. You hold someething back, do not expect to not be taken to task for it.
I finally figured out today my attitude towards women and equality (and was so excited about being able to share it with my beloved fan club on here...*gag*).
It goes like this. In this imperfect world, either one side or the other is always the 'slave' in the relationship. This may go back and forth and vary in intensity, but power struggles are, unfortunately, the norm in most relationships. Here is the kicker-- I would be GLAD to be the slave to the woman and let the woman be the lead, ON THE CONDITION that she likewise feels the same way towards me about she herself deferring to the man and being the 'slave' to him. Of course where this breaks down today is that many feminists and women are more than glad to say to the man, "OK, you can be the slave and I will be the master (and furthermore, I will abuse you too)", rather then being equally deferring to the other gender.
Despite what feminists rant about, most men are not borderline bullying monsters, but quite deferring to the women around them. Of course women are drawn to bullies and assholes, so for many men it is a constant struggle to be enough of an asshole to 'keep' the woman happy and staying around. Women do not feel the need to be tender in general to men.
so we have the current problems between men and women, and the solution is, unfortunately, in the women's hands (and women are more than glad to be unapologetic asses to us men).
I believe in strong women. Asshole women are NOT strong.