Comment Re:Lack of rational thinking (Score 1) 1746
True, individuals can succeed where genders as group fail. But how much harder do we, as society, make it? How many barriers do we add without meaning to?
(You're right, LWATCDR. I think I'm replying more to the entire debate than to just your post. Sorry about that.)
If I was the only girl showing up in a Calculus classroom full of guys who believed that "girls can't do math?" How would I choose any of them as a study partner? What if the _teacher_ believed_ that girls can't do math? The teacher certainly wouldn't consider me a normal girl. And what if I wanted to talk to my friends about what she learned in class that day? Would I feel like a freak for liking math?
I think it would take an extraordinary person to go through that day after day. And I want to let the ordinary girl who is good at math to be good at math. She shouldn't need to be Wonder Woman to study calculus.
And the truth (as it exists now) is automatically better? Try telling your SigOther that you've
noticed they've gained a pound or two.
Living a lifestyle to match biology is what animals do. That path (albeit at the extreme end) leads right to Luddites, Tree-Huggers, and anti-technology. Modifying our environment is what humans do. We're tool users. We need to use our tools to reduce our discomfort until natural selection kicks in (in the next 10000 years or so)
And I'm certainly not saying that all Science is good, and that we don't need some level of environmentalism in our science, before we pollute and/or blow the world up. I don't have all the answers. I vote against my evolution. I vote for progress.
Now, I'm not saying that the US/World is ready for public gene therapies and tinkering with babies to make superbabies yet. Hell, we in the US elected a president who can't say "nuclear." I'm aware I'm not the majority. I certainly don't want to give anybody else control over what "normal" is.
But I think we should be trying to lower gender barriers, not raise them. Even if we're doing it unconsciously.
(You're right, LWATCDR. I think I'm replying more to the entire debate than to just your post. Sorry about that.)
If I was the only girl showing up in a Calculus classroom full of guys who believed that "girls can't do math?" How would I choose any of them as a study partner? What if the _teacher_ believed_ that girls can't do math? The teacher certainly wouldn't consider me a normal girl. And what if I wanted to talk to my friends about what she learned in class that day? Would I feel like a freak for liking math?
I think it would take an extraordinary person to go through that day after day. And I want to let the ordinary girl who is good at math to be good at math. She shouldn't need to be Wonder Woman to study calculus.
And the truth (as it exists now) is automatically better? Try telling your SigOther that you've
noticed they've gained a pound or two.
Living a lifestyle to match biology is what animals do. That path (albeit at the extreme end) leads right to Luddites, Tree-Huggers, and anti-technology. Modifying our environment is what humans do. We're tool users. We need to use our tools to reduce our discomfort until natural selection kicks in (in the next 10000 years or so)
And I'm certainly not saying that all Science is good, and that we don't need some level of environmentalism in our science, before we pollute and/or blow the world up. I don't have all the answers. I vote against my evolution. I vote for progress.
Now, I'm not saying that the US/World is ready for public gene therapies and tinkering with babies to make superbabies yet. Hell, we in the US elected a president who can't say "nuclear." I'm aware I'm not the majority. I certainly don't want to give anybody else control over what "normal" is.
But I think we should be trying to lower gender barriers, not raise them. Even if we're doing it unconsciously.
