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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (44652)	7/9/1999 10:24:00 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I think this thread, and DAR, and the Grammar thread, are proof that women excel at language and communication. The proportion of females to males on the Internet as a whole, and SI in particular, is quite low, but females have gravitated to the threads which focus on language, communication, and personal interaction.

To: epicure who wrote (44652)	7/9/1999 11:55:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 108807

Re: Male & Female Differences I don't know why people would fight this. I do. Although there are measurable differences between males and females (and between races, let's not forget) in terms of specific strengths (e.g., females better at small-muscle tasks; males better at large-muscle tasks), I think it unwise -- no, let's say dangerous -- to make too much of them. In the first place, as I have noted before, these are broad statistical generalizations, that apply to whole groups. They do not necessarily apply to specific individuals within those groups. Males have female hormones; women have male hormones. We are all a "mix," and individuals fall along a broad spectrum. Secondly -- and again I repeat myself -- there is the nature vs. nurture problem. It is not always possible to determine how much is "nature" (i.e., innate) and how much is "nurture" (acquired; determined by society). The danger is in adopting social/educational policies based on the assumption that females will not be able to excel at certain things, and that men will not be able to excel at certain other things. To take one very simple example, from my own girlhood. In my day, to get accepted into a top college, girls were expected to have three years of study of two foreign languages (one modern; one ancient), but only two years of math. With boys, it was the reverse: only two years of a foreign language, but three years of math were required. That is relatively benign, of course. But based on assumptions that would not prove benign, for example, in the case of a particular girl who wanted to be an engineer. She was being discouraged, not encouraged. Furthermore, let's look at the generalizations a little more closely. Everybody knows that little girls are better at language than boys are. If you take that very seriously, then all the best writers should be female. That, in fact, is not the case. Obviously, other factors than sheer ability are involved here. Finally, let's look at what happens when we start generalizing about race. On IQ tests, for example, it is unquestionably the case that Orientals tend to do consistently better on the spatial sections. Aptitude tests also show them to be consistently superior at abstract mathematical tasks. Do we wish to draw any practical conclusions from that? Making too much of sexual and/or racial differences can lead (and sometimes does) to sexist and/or rascist educational and public policy. Joan

To: epicure who wrote (44652)	7/9/1999 1:55:00 PM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Fortunately Shakespere didn't understand that his best opportunity came in poaching instead of literature. Good expample of unnecessary exclusion of women (from Elizabethan drama). I have always loved beautiful great actresses -- the appearance and real character that I fancy I can see through the persona is critical to the dramatic illusion. I couldn't stand seeing a tragedy unless I could constantly say "this woman -- the person -- is really safe and will (and did) survive." Try as I will, I cannot obsess on a male actor the same way. I am overwhelmed by Sappho. No one speaks to me from ancient Greece in the same way. I can hardly read most contemporary male poets. They are -- most of them -- simply not interesting to me or in me. Almost by its nature lyric poetry for most of us speaks across the sexual barrier -- men ought simply to prefer female poets, and vice verse. Epic and dramatic poetry -- based on experience -- was pretty much restricted to men by circumstances.