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basstrousers
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29 Aug 2010, 7:07 pm

OneStepBeyond wrote:
Apple_in_my_Eye wrote:
If a guy wrote that he needs to stop projecting his view onto every other guy in the world. And if it was a woman then she needs to find better guys to talk to.


It was man. Just checking I wasn't being hasty in judging him as a douche.


Who wrote the original quote?
I was assuming you found it in a book, or had it quoted to you by somebody and thought it was probably written quite a long time ago.
Sweeping statements seem to have become an important currency in discussion in recent years, particularly as the internet empowers the hordes of people who feel like stating their opinion as fact is the best way to argue, just look at any youtube video and read the discussion below to see humanity at its worst.
I've been trying to curb the reactionary part of me recently, but a lot of the things people I know post on Facebook (via their blogs normally) tend to get me riled up. I don't believe there's such a thing as a definitive statement and I feel that that's the most valuable thing I have learned from getting a university education. The trouble is, hardly anyone else I know who has done the same seems to have learned that lesson.
I understand that in conversation we say things we don't mean or haven't thought through (I know from experience) but there's far too many opinions stated as facts in this world.



OneStepBeyond
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29 Aug 2010, 7:33 pm

What kind of books do you think I read lol

Just some douche as I said. He also said 'women are duller', and yet there he was talking to me, a woman:/. And it wasn't on a blog or facebook or anything, he said it directly to me. He's said repeated things to similar affect so I don't think it's just a misunderstanding or something he hasn't thought through. I just got confused when he said everyone think's this



EnglishLulu
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29 Aug 2010, 8:55 pm

OneStepBeyond wrote:
"every man thinks that there are very few women who are as intelligent and interesting as men"

???
No, not everyone thinks that. Well, I'm not a man. But I don't think "every man" thinks that. It's silly to generalise in that way.

However, if you take a look at the underlying assumption (irrespective of whether or not every man things or believes it):

Very few women are as intelligent and interesting as men.

Well, shall we start with "intelligent" - how do you measure that? It's well known that there are culture biases in IQ tests. Off the top of my head, I'd say the probability of there also being a gender bias in IQ tests is worth asking/exploring. Especially when the autistic spectrum has been subject to hypotheses about the 'male brain' and that's especially significant given the male:female ratio of people on the spectrum. It's arguable that the person who said that is skewing his terms of reference with a gender biased belief as to what "intelligent" is.

And then let's go on to look at "interesting" - It's defining "interesting" as some undefined male gender-specific pursuit or subject, and I'm not even sure it's worth bothering with exploring this one, other than to note that it's incredibly subjective. One person's "interesting" - Hey, did you know that's Player X's 563rd home run in a home game? - is another person's 'yawnsville'.

And given that the statement is predicated on "intelligent" being measured in what are likely to be gender-biased terms, and "interesting" being defined in terms of subjective assessments related to male-gender specific pursuits or subjects... then it would stand to reason that very few women meet those criteria, because by their very boundaries, they set out to exclude women.

It's like saying, okay, we're going to define whether or not you're "intelligent" by whether you can reel of the stats for last seasons, how many home runs, blah blah blah. And we're doing to assess whether or not you're "interesting", by whether or not you're interested in talking ball games with us. Oh, and by the way, if you're a woman, you're not allowed in this baseball diamond.

It's like he's saying, okay, now if you're not "intelligent" as measured in a culturally, perhaps gender-biased way, or "interesting" as subjectively defined in a male-gender biased way, then ergo, you're not intelligent and you're not interesting. Except for a very few of you women who somehow randomly make the grade.

Ridiculous! He's a narrow minded buffoon!



spongy
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29 Aug 2010, 11:52 pm

OneStepBeyond wrote:

spongy wrote:
Thats a generalization and you shouldnt pay too much attention to it.


it is a generalisation, but is it an accurate one in your humble opinion?

Sorry I thought i had answered the question already.

There are some men that think famleas are dumb(roissy for example) however most men dont think that way nowadays.