Yet I find you completely unwilling to maybe just entertain the fact that social structures are part of the reason why women don’t do this kind of work–because they aren’t made to feel welcome. You say it’s an open field, open to all, yet is it really? Theories about the patriarchy and other social structures are meant to answer just that question…
I answered with snark, because you immediately dismissed the notion that social structures might be part of the problem… Hence, you get a zoe laughing at you.
It might surprise you to know that some, nay, perhaps even many, women are not shoe-obsessed. Same with men and sports scores. But if you look for the stereotypes, you’ll find them.
Unfortunately, (and I’m going to rain all over the parades of the post-enlightenment scholarly tradition of trying to make the soft sciences into science, because you just can’t do that - yes Karl Marx, even history can’t be scientifically quantified, because it isn’t predictable and it doesn’t help you understand the why) much of human interaction is “anti-scientific”… doesn’t mean it’s bad or wrong, it’s just hard to measure, quantify, predict, and repeat. Trying to figure out why human beings do what they do will never work as a science, I don’t care what the Sociologists say. We are social creatures, and our interactions with each help to create our social reality, which shapes how society looks–including creating things such as that fuzzy word, the patriarchy. That’s why the post-modern/post-colonialist studies emerged in the 60s and 70s, to try and figure out why we do what we do and account for the utter randomness that is human relations and to acknowledge how the attempt to make human interactions into a quantifiable science kind of failed…
My, what an eye opening statement. You know, I never realized that there could be men who don’t like sport results, i mean it’s not like I DON’T CARE ABOUT THEM LIKE I ALREADY MENTIONED.
Just because science is hard doesn’t mean you should go shopping.For shoes.
The whole social psychology program is based around trying to be scientific about that shit. It’s hard, it moves slowly, but it get results. Cognitive dissonance, for instnace.
All gender studies have to show is lots of handwaving and even more of moralizing, with absolutely nothing of practical value.
except maybe giving us theories about why gender inequalities exist and how to deal with them… but clearly, these don’t matter to you. You seem to think it’s because women aren’t just stepping up, and we are. You say you care about how women feel and about getting more women into WP and other areas–well, listen to what women are saying about how they are often made to feel by men already involved in this. There is a history of women being excluded from work places, and the mindsets that created that historical and political reality still linger and need to be addressed.
I’m sorry. Science is great, it’s a necessary tool for understanding the world. I like science. But it just can’t explain everything–I’m not saying one day maybe it won’t, but right now, it just can’t. Human nature is complex and more than just the sum of chemical reactions. What we do or don’t do in this world has MORAL implications, like it or not. Take climate change for example–this is a big moral issue, and it’s a scientific issue. And neither is it a clear one–you end the use of fossil fuels today, right now, you might save the planet, but what happens to the millions of people who work in the oil/gas industry, on nearly every level. Science might tell us that ending fossil fuel consumption is the right move, but is it also moral? We aren’t just talkign about rich douchebag CEOs, we are talking about people who are trying to take care of their families, human beings, who deserve our compassion (I guess even the douchebag CEO deserves that too).
We have a problem in that we (I mean human beings) have stopped listening to each other. Instead of helplessly waving your hands over this issue, why not ask women who code what they need to get more involved. Why not stop bashing gender studies and actually listen to women. I think, that, more than anything else in this world, is actually what we want. Take what we say seriously. it really is that simple.
