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Lawrence Sommers, the President of Harvard University, believes that girls are way stupider than boys at science. Apparently, this is a sensitive issue. As the resulting outrage has shown, there are few things more taboo than criticism of the female intellect. Sommers might as well have said, “The Holocaust wasn’t THAT bad,” or, “I think Osama Bin Laden is kind of cute.”
In most settings, differences between men and women are freely acknowledged. Ditto differences between races. So here’s my question: how come the subject is completely off limits in academic circles?
A few days ago, La Girlfriend told me that it was a commonly held belief among women that they were more mature than men. I laughed at this because all guys know that “mature” is a word that women invented just to make us feel bad. We also know that making up a word is usually a sure sign of immaturity.
Of course, it’s impossible to objectively determine which gender is more mature. All we can say is that men and women are very different, and both sexes think their sex is better.
This isn’t a new concept. One of the first books I ever had was a picture book about how moms and dads get in bed and make babies. The book had illustrations of a boy seeing a girl at the swimming pool and then the boy’s penis getting bigger and redder. It was a gross drawing, but it emphasized the obvious physical differences between the sexes. Nobody denies this. Men have penises and women have the other things. It’s one of the first things we learn.
We’re different socially, too. A couple weeks ago I wrote a column entitled “Men Are from Fart City, Women Are from Shoeville.” My thesis was: men like to fart but women like shoes. You can probably recognize the title as a rip-off of the bestseller, “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus,” a relationship advice book that encourages couples to acknowledge the differences between sexes and then move on. It’s a generally accepted fact that men and women behave differently. In my opinion, women are irrational and men are tolerant, but I understand that roughly 50% of the population feels differently. Either way, very few people are claiming that we’re all alike.
But don’t say that one gender is genetically programmed to be better at science than the other gender. That’s a nicht nicht. Imagine if I had called my column, “Men Are from MIT, Women Are from Suckatmathland.” I’d probably be hanging from a pole outside the Women and Gender Studies department right now.
Our culture also frequently draws attention to differences between races. I did end up watching some of the Academy Awards and it was hard not to pick up on Chris Rock’s view of race relations. Probably the most prominent theme of his monologue was: white people like Sideways, and black people like White Chicks. And just in case you’re wondering, White Chicks is about the differences between blacks and whites, men and women. You can ask my mom. She rented it.
Chris Rock’s use of race as a basis for his comedy is hardly unique. Anyone who watched the pre-Oscars Barbara Walters special on Jamie Foxx saw the Oscar-winning actor as a young comedian doing a stand up routine in which he impersonated a white person’s heartbeat (regular) and then a black person’s heartbeat (a rap beat). Sure, this comedy is based upon stereotypes that probably aren’t fair, but people laugh because they recognize some fraction of truth in the joke.
I’m resigned to the fact that black men, on average, can jump higher than I can. I’m 6’1” and I can’t dunk unless I use a chair but there’s nothing I can do about it. My calves aren’t very springy I guess. I’m not complaining. It’s just bad DNA.
So if a black person can jump higher that me, isn't it also possible that he could be genetically programmed to be better at poetry or engineering than me? I don't see why not. But we're not supposed to talk about it.
Everybody’s genetically constructed to be different physically and emotionally. So once again, I return to my original question: how come races and genders can’t be different intellectually? Our genetic makeup is different in so many respects; is it inconceivable that we would have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to academic fields?
I understand that some genders and some races are underrepresented in certain fields, businesses, and tax brackets. I hope it will all even out some day, and I mean that in a very capitalistic way so please don’t accuse me of being a Kim Jong Il sympathizer. I’m not a sexist or a racist. I advocate affirmative action, I wouldn’t be afraid to work under a woman, and I think male cheerleaders are fine.
But I also know that women might not be as good as men at math and science. Or maybe women are actually better. It’s worth discussing. So when somebody like Lawrence Sommers says what he said, let’s not be reactionaries. Let’s have a real conversation.
And while we’re at it, let’s talk about whether or not girls have cooties.
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