More on gender issues

[ekorber]

Since posting about feminism and gender issues (and linking to Bitch PhD) seems to be the latest trend on my friends list, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon for a bit with a small rant. From the blog's intro post:

If you can join in and argue as among friends, colleagues, and peers, then by all means grab a cup of coffee or a beer and pull up a

Comments

[easwaran]

I think there's not an assumption "that the women's discourse is friendly, levelheaded, and intelligent, as opposed to that of "the guys", who are relegated to "joshing out back" because they are too stupid to be interested in the intelligent conversation inside." But rather, the guys who have no interest in what the women have to say, who are self-segregating, are being uninteresting. Of course, I guess the same point could have been made about self-segregating females. Or, in my experience, self-segregating gay guys.

Have you ever seen the tv show Firefly?

[ekorber]

Reading your reply, I realize that my original post isn't really clear on that point. What I have a problem with is that for women, there is a clear default assumption as to which "room of the party" they will go into - the intelligent discourse side - and for men there seems to be no default assumption at all; I think this is unfair. I think it would be more fair and accurate (and, if feminism is about gender fairness, more feminist - but that can of worms is open on your blog, not mine) to make no default assumptions about either gender.

And no. Why?

[easwaran]

Right, that's my point.

As for Firefly, the spaceship engineer is a woman, and there's one episode where a bunch of them end up in some antebellum south planet where they're at a fancy ball, and she tries to talk to the other women there, but ends up talking with the men about spaceship parts, in exactly the sort of scenario you describe. Which I admit certainly happens.

[ekorber]

Yeah, the fact is that at most parties, both the men and women are talking about boring stuff. Like my family at Thanksgiving - you can sit in the living room with the men and talk about hunting and football, or in the kitchen with the women and talk about pregnancy and babies.