[WikiEN-l] Do NOT appeal bans, for your own sake

[Sheldon Rampton]

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
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