Shorter Responses to Ben Barres
This week’s Nature is out, and the letters page has some rebuttals to Ben Barres’ article (CNN summary here, for those of you who don’t subscribe to Nature) on gender discrimination in science. They’re great!
Steven Pinker:
To say that I believe women are predisposed not to be scientists is a distortion of my position (that women are predisposed not to be scientists, and also there’s discrimination sometimes too). Ben Barres is a meanie stupidhead ideologue.
Women are less likely to be murderers than men, therefore I did not say that they are innately worse at science.
We are only now ridding the scientific study of sex differences of its sexist roots. But I also believe in some biological basis for gender, so please don’t discount my opinions as those of a crazy feminist!
Marilyn vos Savant says that men are smartest (and stupidest), therefore Barres is just whining over irrelevant garbage. You should speak out in the face of discrimination, but not all discrimination; it’s important to just ignore most of it.
Truth, Justice, and the Academic Way on 03 Aug 2020 at 8:50 am
[…] I was responding to John’s comment, but the response outgrew the scope of the comment box. I’ve got some general pronouncements to pronounce. So, first, a quote for context: Getting to the truth is the goal, though, so if this incites more incisive investigation, maybe it’s worthwhile. […]