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Men’s Rights Redditor: It’s not sexism that holds back women in STEM. It’s just that women are inferior.

Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, the lovely IHaveALargePenis explains that it’s not sexism holding back women in science and technology. No way! It’s just that women are inferior at science and technology. No sexism involved at all!

IHaveALargePenis 10 points 1 day ago (15|6)      The fact that women are so underrepresented in many STEM fields indicates that there must be some educational, societal, or institutional force pushing them away.  There is. It has a lot to do with women though. First with STEM, the hierarchy in the workforce always favors the smartest/most knowledgeable people. This means you can't flirt your way to the top or simply just "make it" eventually.  The work is somewhat quantifiable, so people can be tracked in how much work they do. You can't sit around and chat or take extra time off and fuck around. People will find out.  Many fields have horrible deadlines and any person not finishing their work on time can slow an entire project and become the weakest link. When you're holding up something that thousands of people are working on, relying on, etc and they're all waiting for you, not fun. Additionally you'll be pushed to do overtime, heavy overtime. When it comes to software development for example, in the last few months leading up to release, you'll be better off bringing extra clothes and a sleeping bag to work. This can apply to virtually all other fields in different ways for different reasons.  Women and men study differently. Women are great and memorizing but don't focus on understanding. This is why there's a relatively equal amount of girls/boys in STEM the first year, but then it significantly favors the boys as time passes. The problem is that women do great on tests, but don't bother to understand that knowledge, which is fairly important later on and everything you learn will be used in the future (as you move from first to 4th year). This is why girls have been doing better (or so it seems) ever since standardized tests.  There are no problems in STEM for women. There's nobody out there trying to hold them back. My university cracked down hard on this shit, even had security cameras installed to ensure there was no harassment or sexism going on. And you know what changed? Nothing.      The key is attacking gender issues from both sides, rather than the BS of encouraging women to enter and just ignoring all problems men have.  What exactly is there to attack? There's 50% more women in college than men. Women have infiltrated every major out there outside of STEM. Do you know how HUGE STEM is? Let me tell you how huge it is. Go look up any non STEM focused University out there (MIT or Standord) and check the faculty for STEM or other majors. You'll find out quickly that the entire STEM curriculum has fewer faculty than a single major like business.

Maybe IHaveALArgePenis should have taken an English class or two and learned what “irony” is.

Also, uh, how exactly are security cameras supposed to guard against sexism? This is a new one to me.

Thanks to Wrecksomething on the AgainstMensRights subreddit for pointing me to this mantastic quote.

 

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vanillarosetangents
vanillarosetangents
11 years ago

My female brain does not understand what you wrote, but I will memorise it.

MrFancyPants
MrFancyPants
11 years ago

Cool, I had no idea that automatic sexism-detecting cameras exist! Is there a klaxon or a rotating beacon that goes off when it detects some?

Karalora
Karalora
11 years ago

MRA Claims Sexism Doesn’t Exist, Uses Appallingly Sexist Reasoning to Reach This Conclusion. Part # 463860930987

I am always impressed* by the lengths to which sexists will go to explain why women’s superior performance in a given area is actually evidence of their inferiority.

*Well, not so much impressed as driven to roll my eyes so hard they hurt, but you get the idea.

aftermathclub
11 years ago

Yeah, that’s why I consistently get in the top 3 on project-based work, because of my inherent lack of ability to understand the subject matter. And why my professors consistently comment about how the women in my classes all get on with lab work efficiently and are more engaged yet most of the men will bugger around for an hour before asking “what are we doing?” and then complaining about how bored they are.

That’s my anecdata, and that’s real. 😐

sarahlizhousespouse
11 years ago

The user’s nym tells me all I need to know about his intelligence. The sexism used to argue that sexism doesn’t exist isn’t the only irony here.

Karalora
Karalora
11 years ago

@sarahliz, my rule of thumb is that any given MRA’s personal aptitude is inversely proportional to how hard he flogs the notion that men are collectively superior to women. It also works for white supremacists and fundamentalist Christians! Try it some time!

Bahumbugi
Bahumbugi
11 years ago

These folks certainly can’t understand stereotype threat. Changing the wording on math tests to avoid asking about gender typically eliminates the gender differences in score, from my understanding. There’s some really well designed studies on this.

Nobody’s talking about the Hugo meltdown?

sarahlizhousespouse
11 years ago

@Karalora
Rabid fundamentalists adhering to any ideology or religion tend to be rather inept. 😀
And what are the members of the manosphere if not ideologues?

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

I love how unaware of the language they use and how it gives them away they are. So women have “infiltrated” all of the non-STEM subjects, huh? Kind of like a terrorist group, or spies for a hostile army?

Keep on being obvious, guys.

La Strega
11 years ago

He goes on to cite a 1992 study that suggests women tend to use a “conversational style” of studying that “fostered group consensus [and] encouraged collaboration.” Now why that would later prevent women from problem solving in science and technology, as he concludes, is a mystery to me. It strikes me that the ability to share ideas and work effectively in teams is especially crucial in those fields.

La Strega
11 years ago

As a college instructor, I am particularly irked by MRA claims that “no one cares” that fewer boys are enrolled in universities.

kittehserf
11 years ago

La Strega – no, no, no, the way to do manly menz STEM with manly menz brainz is to do it all by yourself, then throw a hissy fit when someone* points out an error or twenty later on.

*especially if that someone is a female

/snark

genderneutrallanguage
11 years ago

Wow, such misogyny. There are greater differences between males and females than the genital being an iny or outy. I just can’t believe that any one could even conceive of such sexist hate mongering. One insignificant bit of reproductive organs are the ONLY difference between men and women………..I call BULLSHIT. There are differences between the sexes. Males and females are not the same. Until you stop calling sexism everytime someone has the audacity to point this out, no real conversation or progress can be made.

kittehserf
11 years ago

Oh, world’s most boring troll is here demonstrating his lack of reading comprehension and lack of knowledge about everything. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

Apparently gender neutral language = painfully awkward language, as well as unique and innovative grammar. The famed MRA double period makes an appearance!

girlofthegaps
girlofthegaps
11 years ago

Waitaminute… since when is MIT not STEM-focused? Because maybe it’s my ladybrain, but I was under the impression that the “T” in both those acronyms literally stood for “technology.”

I begin to suspect that Dick here doesn’t actually know what the STEM fields are.

LadySunami
LadySunami
11 years ago

Women are great at memorizing? That’s news to me. My memorization skills suck. That’s one of several reasons I decided to go into chemistry rather then biology. I’m excellent with understanding, no so great with memorization. Exactly the opposite of the supposed women this idiot is talking about. (Then again, I am dyslexic. Perhaps my dyslexia has “graced” me with a man like brain? He’d probably believe that explanation too…)

Radical Parrot
11 years ago

Shorter GNL: “Until you accept that men are simply better than women, no real conversation or progress can be made.”

Don’t pretend that’s not where this was going. Oh, and while I’m predicting the course of your thought pattern, “nurturing” is not an inborn trait in a woman any more than it is an inborn trait in a man. Many women are competitive, and many men prefer cooperation. Even if we accept that some gender-specific strengths exist, individual differences far outweigh them anyway, so assigning different roles for women and men within a system based on gender is counterproductive*.

What’s next on the MRM’s Big Book of Bullshit?

*HOWEVER, addressing sexism and misogyny in a system is not favouring women. If men were faced with sexism to an equal degree, addressing that specific issue would not be favouring men. So don’t try any gotchas.

rabbitwink
rabbitwink
11 years ago

STEM in academia is having a very hard time retaining women. Why? Sexism, pure & simple. PI’s still illegally ask questions about women’s plans to have children, inherently question their commitment, are hesitant to mentor them, and act like assholes towards them at professional conferences. (Then again any field in academia is having a hard time with this because of the tenure system, the endless workload and the complete inability/refusal of the academic system to accommodate people with families).
If the idiot wants to see more STEM ladies in action he ought to check out industry, where women actually get health insurance, decent pay, vacation time, sick days, and their jobs are protected during maternity leave (even if the leave is brief & unpaid).

MaudeLL
11 years ago

Aw, IHaveaLargePenis…

I can’t wait for your informed opinion on why women outnumber men in STEM in Iran. That is, until Iran started to put quotas and pro-men affirmative action, because test results only were unfair to underachieving men.

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
11 years ago

The nurturing thing was always such obvious bullshit to me, because I grew up in a place where most of the single people around were men (working bachelor status in the Middle East because their families didn’t want to go with them), so those were my babysitters as a kid. Those guys were pretty damn nurturing, and they volunteered to do it because they missed their own kids.

Ally S
11 years ago

@GNL

“One insignificant bit of reproductive organs are the ONLY difference between men and women”

Says the person who previously expressed support for trans* men.

That’s some hypocrisy right there.

kittehserf
11 years ago

Maude – because Iran is a feminist paradise, just like Saudi Arabia, obviously. Misandry!

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

The camera thing is some grade-A assfax.

GNL can go away any time. Boring creature.

AK
AK
11 years ago

@Cassandra, I have to agree. I’ve known a ton of men who preferred nurturing roles, and far more who may not prefer it professionally but are great at it personally. Mr. AK is actually one of them. He works in a STEM field and is very good at what he does, but he is also very nurturing. I’d say he’s more nurturing than I am, actually, and based on his behavior towards our friends’ kids and our conversations about parenting (we’re planning kids soon), I am certain he will be the same way towards our kids.

The only men I’ve known who were less nurturing than I’d consider normal for women (it’s a spectrum, so hopefully that makes some sense) were men who were incredibly caught up in rigid patriarchal gender roles. I’ve known some men who didn’t seem to have a nurturing bone in their bodies, but they tend to be the uber-macho, deeply unhappy, homophobic and angry stereotype. Humans are social animals, we nurture each other. It’s just what we do, regardless of gender.

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