POLL - Are You Female or Were You A Humanities Major?

[Uccmal]

 

Abuses mades in the name of feminism or the fight against sexism don't mean that there's not a real problem. If you get outraged at this unfairness, you should be at least as outraged at the much more frequent injustice of women being treated badly or condescended to simply because they are women (regardless of anything else, it's never right when a man doing or saying the exact same thing as a woman in the same situation gets a much better outcome, or avoids negative crap). But most people aren't outraged at things that challenge their views, because they cherry pick evidence to confirm whatever belief they started out with in the first place...

Why do you claim to know that's the case? It could just as well be that women are more upset by slights than men*. If gender stereotyping/injustice towards women is more common than gender stereotyping towards men is as far as I know not known. But I'd make a bold guess and say it's about the same for both sexes. After all, stereotypes exist for a reason, be they good or bad - or wrong. One thing that many people never think about is that women are seen as inherently more valuable for who they are (for natural biological reasons), while men are valued on what they do. That's also probably why you see such a huge, huge gender imbalance among the homeless. 

 

*From what I've read (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/04/men-are-harassed-more-than-women-online.html), males receive more abuse online than females, for example. You wouldn't know this from the discourse, because we, both men and women, are primed to care for females under distress. That, and the abused males "suck it up" or plain just don't care very much. 

 

Well, I find it quite upsetting whenever I am with a new woman and she says:  "Oh, look at that cute little thing...its so small.". Call me oversensitive. 

[rukawa]

The reason you see almost no female investors is not because of the evil patriarchy. Hint: it has to do with incentives and how our brains are wired differently.

 

Perhaps. But I am curious as to how they are wired differently. I feel like it tends to be the case that whenever you have some obscure hobby or area of interest, you only see men involved. But when it become more popular there are more women. And I find the feminist explanation that women are scared away because of sexist male behaviour to be thoroughly unconvincing. There are plenty of environments where the is plenty of sexist male behaviour and plenty of women...think advertising, entertainment and even finance. Plus most everyday environments are thoroughly worse in this respect than the worst tech conference or value investing seminar.

 

[LC]

I feel like it tends to be the case that whenever you have some obscure hobby or area of interest, you only see men involved. But when it become more popular there are more women.

That's presumptuous. Shall I start naming hobbies which are predominately populated by women? Soapmaking, perfume making, sewing, knitting, yoga, gardening, writing, jewelry making, antiquing, etc. I can go on.

 

This argument is totally facetious. There doesn't appear to be a single female on this board, and yet here we all are discussing the issue as if we have a clue? Reminds me of when some argument about race and poverty came up a few months ago. Remember: we're male, above average intelligence and wealth, and if everyone just listened to our opinions...

[investor-man]

Male/Engineer members need not vote

 

When will the discrimination against my kind end?  Geek Power!

+1

[west]

I suspect that some of the differences of opinion here emanate from a similar concept as the following

 

http://qz.com/257474/what-riding-my-bike-has-taught-me-about-white-privilege/

 

Thanks for this.  As a white dude (albeit one of a not-so-priveledged upbringing) and as a biker, this article definitely had a bit of... resonance to it.

[merkhet]

I suspect that some of the differences of opinion here emanate from a similar concept as the following

 

http://qz.com/257474/what-riding-my-bike-has-taught-me-about-white-privilege/

 

Thanks for this.  As a white dude (albeit one of a not-so-priveledged upbringing) and as a biker, this article definitely had a bit of... resonance to it.

 

It's probably one of the best things that I have read all year. It's delineates the differences of perspective without making anyone feel demonized.

[Palantir]

Bikers are so irritating, they really shouldn't be on the same road, it's impossible to drive around them and I hope their rights to the road are taken away.

 

 

There I said it.

[Guest ajc]

 

Bikers are so irritating, they really shouldn't be on the same road, it's impossible to drive around them and I hope their rights to the road are taken away.

 

 

There I said it.

 

 

There's actually nothing wrong with what you're saying, except perhaps for the fact that it doesn't offer any workable solutions. The point itself is completely sensible though.

 

The thing is that cycling should be encouraged. A country with the US's obesity rates should be giving all sorts of incentives for these types of initiatives.

Unfortunately, between various industries and political interest groups there is probably quite a bit of resistance to this idea.

My understanding is that Portland is a great example of how driving and cycling can work perfectly well together in a modern city. The Dutch also have some great ideas about this stuff. Innovations like this - http://gizmodo.com/a-floating-suspension-bridge-that-lets-cyclists-sail-ov-1453401188 - are particularly interesting.

 

Mostly, this is just a problem of engineering and social/political will. And who wouldn't want great cycle routes around American cities so that kids and even adults can stay fit and get some exposure to the outdoors.

I do think that air pollution is one potential issue here, but with better standards, electric cars and maybe some paths that are off of the main roads, this could be an uncomplicated thing to do in technical terms if the momentum was there.

 

Anyway, that's obviously all just a long way of saying that with a bit of imagination everyone could have even more travel and exercise options open to them.

Call me crazy, but I think that's the sort of thing most reasonable people should want government/society to build and make use of.

The thing though, is that some creative solutions are needed.

 

 

 

[cobafdek]

 

Bikers are so irritating, they really shouldn't be on the same road, it's impossible to drive around them and I hope their rights to the road are taken away.

 

 

There I said it.

 

There's actually nothing wrong with what you're saying, except perhaps for the fact that it doesn't offer any workable solutions. The point itself is completely sensible though.

 

 

I'm riding my bike on sidewalks on main auto thoroughfares.  Keeping my bike off most non-residential roads until we get something on the order of this:

 

http://designcenterpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/M62_FEAT_ProtectedBikeLanes_onewaycycletrack_planters-Courtesy-NACTO.jpg

 

(This thread is not being derailed.  The non-male, humanities majors will need the engineers for their solutions to this problem.)

[yadayada]

well make counterpoints then. Why are they not convincing? That is what bothers me about this discussion, if you try to use logic your automatically sexist.

 

Also this all started when I said something that was clearly not sexist, and was somehow seen as sexist by Liberty. Basicly discrimination against women and women being opressed is not really a problem anymore and my point is that men are treated more unfairly then women in the western world. And the law is more biased against men. Please come with counterpoints if you disagree.

 

Liberty's comment was benign, I don't see where anyone has called you a sexist?

 

I'm not sure where to begin, why don't you think rape is a problem?

 

Yeah, the rape and Ray Rice comments both.

One rape is a problem, less rapes this year than last year, still a problem.

Ray Rice is twice her size and could put her in the hospital. As far as her defending him, that's common of a victim.

 

The problem seems to be you (yada), make statements like "it's been debunked". By who?

"Studies have shown", which studies and by which institutions or independents?

 

Generalities rarely win people over. I know this because I used to do it (and still do at times).

 

This is all just your opinion, which you are entitled to of course but if you're trying to prove or disprove something, you need facts to back it up.

 

No my problem is that in the Rice incident, everyone jumped on his throat, when it was clear she was in the wrong too. Does not make what he did right, but still. A very biased representation in the media of what happened.

 

Same with rape. Now they make these ridicilous laws that if a girl never really indicates she does not want it, or never says no, it can still count as rape. And touching a woman before asking permission can be considered sexual assualt???? WTF:

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21621819-californias-new-standard-consent-future-america-yes-means-yes-says-mr

 

Note that the number of estimated false accusations is almost 10%, and possibly higher. So at some point you are trying to get the number of rape's down at the cost of men. So let's say there are now 10% less rapes, but 20% more lifes ruined of men due to ridicilous laws. Similar how a 17 year old having sex with a 15 year old can end up being convicted. Even though it was consensual. You create a system where it is very easy for men to have their lifes ruined without good reason.

 

As for the science behind it, start watching this, debunks most of the myths of equality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVaTc15plVs

 

Don't really feel like spending 3 hours digging up all the research on this. But if you are interested and you google around there is some very interesting research on differences between men and women.

 

Also note that for example in scandinavian countries where there is more equality , less women get into engineering then in other countries. 

 

As for liberty's comment, i said looking for a date? and he said:

That's the kind of stuff I was talking about in the other thread...

 

Implying that saying stuff like that is scaring all t he women away. And my argument here is that that's all BS.

 

Also when even feminists start saying shit like this:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/ec88fb41fa9f570cfff69f054afaf7a9/tumblr_n1bjxtXz261rjeii0o1_1280.jpg

 

Then you know something is wrong.