Thomas Dalton wrote:
Nonsense. Women are generally shorter than men. Women generally have a higher percentage of body fat that men. Women are generally more susceptible to breast cancer than men. All generalisations, and all true. I doubt you think any of them are stupid. So why is recognising physical differences acceptable, while recognising psychological differences is not?
I think the problem is that the specific assertion that was made here ("women are more likely to wander off-topic in a discussion than men") is debatable at best and can be interpreted as insulting to women as rational beings. I'm unaware of any body of scientific research showing that men are more likely to stay on-topic than women. There's certainly no scholarly or scientific consensus on this point. To accept this claim is therefore not "recognizing psychological differences," because the claimed difference in this case may not exist at all. (Personally, I don't think it does.)
-------------------------------- | Sheldon Rampton | Research director, Center for Media & Democracy (www.prwatch.org) | Author of books including: | Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities | Toxic Sludge Is Good For You | Mad Cow USA | Trust Us, We're Experts | Weapons of Mass Deception | Banana Republicans | The Best War Ever -------------------------------- | Subscribe to our free weekly list serve by visiting: | http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html | | Donate now to support independent, public interest reporting: | http://www.prwatch.org/donate --------------------------------
On 20/09/2007, Sheldon Rampton sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
Thomas Dalton wrote:
Nonsense. Women are generally shorter than men. Women generally have a higher percentage of body fat that men. Women are generally more susceptible to breast cancer than men. All generalisations, and all true. I doubt you think any of them are stupid. So why is recognising physical differences acceptable, while recognising psychological differences is not?
I think the problem is that the specific assertion that was made here ("women are more likely to wander off-topic in a discussion than men") is debatable at best and can be interpreted as insulting to women as rational beings. I'm unaware of any body of scientific research showing that men are more likely to stay on-topic than women. There's certainly no scholarly or scientific consensus on this point. To accept this claim is therefore not "recognizing psychological differences," because the claimed difference in this case may not exist at all. (Personally, I don't think it does.)
It being wrong does not make it discriminatory.
On 20/09/2007, Sheldon Rampton sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
I think the problem is that the specific assertion that was made here ("women are more likely to wander off-topic in a discussion than men")
That was not the assertion. The assertion was that feminine communication techniques, e.g. indirectness and focusing on feelings, may be seen as off-topic by those who practise more masculine communication techniques, e.g. directness and hiding emotions. You will also note that the email challenges the definition of what is on-topic vs. off-topic.
is debatable at best and can be interpreted as insulting to women as rational beings.
As a woman, I'm insulted that feminine communication techniques are considered inferior to masculine ones. Whether you want to expand your definition of on-topicness to include feminine indirectness and discussion of feelings or acknowledge that off-topicness can be a good thing, I don't really care. However, saying that directness and avoidance of discussion of feelings is the correct conversational method increases the masculine-dominated aura of the list.
I'm unaware of any body of scientific research showing that men are more likely to stay on-topic an women.
Well, women, on average, have tear ducts 60% larger than men's. There's a fair amount of business advice encouraging women to adopt masculine communication techniques. And there are Debora Tannen's books....