There is a lot of talk about gender these days.
It has become popular to state that gender is nothing but a social construct.
Nature, biology or anything beyond what a person feels or believes about their gender is invalid.
This has led us to being told that biological males can compete against females in athletics and men can menstruate.
A Supreme Court Justice in her nomination hearing when asked to provide a definition for the word "woman" stated she could not.
 |
| Source: https://nypost.com/2022/03/23/sen-blackburn-slams-judge-jackson-on-definition-of-woman/ |
We now have the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBB) Language Project stating that science needs to stop using terms like male, female, mother and father.
These terms are not "inclusive" and are "imprecise".
The preferred terms are "sperm producers" and "egg producers" as science should not assume that sex is binary and heterosexuality is the norm.
Left unsaid by these scientists is how humanity survives and is sustained going forward if heterosexuality is not the norm.
 |
| Source: The New York Post |
Alternatives to terms like “male” and “female” and “mother” and “father” should be sought in science because they assume that sex is binary and heterosexuality is the norm, a group of researchers from the US and Canada suggests.
Male and female should instead be referred to as “sperm-producing” and “egg-producing,” the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Language Project said, according to the Times of London.
Meanwhile, father and mother should be labeled “parent,” “egg donor” and “sperm donor” in the scientific field.
Someone also needs to notify Hallmark to trash those Mother's Day and Father's Day cards and get those "Egg Donor" and "Sperm Donor" cards printed right away. I am sure they will be big sellers.
It seems if we are living through an episode of The Twilight Zone in which we are living in an alternative reality.
We are being told what to believe. However, evidence to the contrary is all around us.
Is it really true that there are no differences between male and females that are hard-wired from birth?
To show how strange it all is I came across this tweet on Twitter recently asking if DNA testing companies makes accommodations for trans people?
.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1624101111211733007 |
The friend is uncomfortable that what "she" believes to be true is not the truth?
Accommodations for DNA?
It is true that all women are not alike, nor are all men.
If we look at physical attributes alone, there are women that are stronger, faster and more athletic than some men. I don't think many men would want to challenge Brittney Griner to a game of one-on-one basketball, Serena William to a game of tennis or Allyson Felix to a 100-meter dash.
There are overlapping bell curves with respect to the physical abilities of men and women. Some women will always have better physical abilities than some men. However, most men will enjoy physical advantages over most women. It is a biological fact.
What about intelligence?
Most studies of IQ tests show that there are little differences in the average IQ between men and women.
However, I was surprised recently when I saw this graphic of the top chess players of all time by rating and gender.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1623014046613090322/photo/1 |
Of the 102 chess players who have achieved a rating of 2650 or higher only one is a female.
That female is Judit Polgar who I have written about in these pages before.
How do you explain the huge difference in chess ability between males and females?
Is it nature? Nurture? Something else altogether?
I recently spent some time looking at the issue of differences in intelligence between males and females.
If you look at the college graduation statistics in the United States you would tend to believe that females have more brain power on their side.
For example, since 1982, females have earned 13.7 million more college degrees than males.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1623382796029857793 |
When I looked into the question further I found that while the average IQ of men and women is about the same, there is a significant difference in the distribution of intelligence.
Female intelligence is clustered around the mean. However, male intelligence varies greatly across the spectrum.
This graphic shows the different bell curves comparing men and women regarding IQ distribution.
Women are grouped very tightly around the mean. Men have far fewer around the mean with many more well below and well above average.
Walter Block in an article "The Truth About Gender IQ Differences" had this observation about a possible reason for why the distribution of IQ might be this way.
Differences such as these are often chalked up to cultural sexism, but the reality is that such imbalance is most likely biological. It is almost as if men are nature’s crapshoot, while women are assigned the role of insurance. Consider the biological role of women to give birth, and what it would have done to the population throughout history if the grouping of women around the mean were reversed. The population would be in trouble. More women at the extreme low end of the IQ curve would mean more that are not capable of bringing up the next generation. They would have been too busy occupying the mental institutions, jails, or living homeless on the street. More genius women on the extreme high end of the IQ would mean more drawn into demanding professions and less available for motherhood.
This is undoubtedly not a popular opinion to voice in today's world.
However, take another look at the graphic above.
That graph is not the product of someone's imagination. Those are FACTS.
Perhaps the fact that there are more men than women who are chess grandmasters, Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and economics, and winners of the Fields medal in mathematics is not due to systemic sexism.
The same is true for why we see many more males than females who are homeless, in jail, or living in mental institutions.
When you also consider the fact that it has also been shown in studies that there is a pretty close relationship between cognitive ability and wages this may also explain some of the gender disparities in income that are reported.
 |
| Source: https://academic.oup.com/esr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/esr/jcac076/7008955?login=false |
Interestingly, this study indicates that the cognitive ability/wage advantage plateaued at around the 90th percentile. Those in the top 1% in wages actually scored slightly worse in cognitive ability than those in the income strata right below them.
What does Block say about the relationship of IQ and incomes?
Suppose that what I’ve said about male versus female IQ distribution is correct. Is it better to share this information with women so they are cognizant of it? Or to keep it from them by cancelling all who espouse it, and to let women continue to think they are kept out of top jobs because of sexism? At present, we seem to be adopting the latter course of action.
Unlike the West, the Chinese aren’t burdened by woke theories of gender imbalances caused by alleged sexism. We are, therefore weakening ourselves in competition with them if we continue promoting these ideas. Furthermore, if there must be 50 percent of females in the America’s laboratories to ensure fairness, instead of this proportion being determined on the basis of merit, accomplishments, and skill, then our quest to cure COVID, cancer, and other such diseases will become just that much more unlikely.
Diversity is a strength when the unique talents, abilities and attributes of individuals are utilized in a way to maximize the outcomes of the group as a whole.
It is not a strength when it is used indiscriminately in a misguided attempt to achieve "equity" between individuals when basic truths about the unique talents, abilities and attributes of those individuals are ignored.
It is popular to tell women today that male patriarchy is responsible for women not being able to achieve their rightful positions in society.
This undoubtedly was true in the past.
However, is it true today?
Consider this comparison of men/boys and girls/women on a number of dimensions.
Females outnumber males on most of the positive dimensions.
100 women earn a doctor's degree for every 85 men.
100 women earn a bachelor's degree for every 74 men.
100 women earn a master's degree for every 65 men.
Men outnumber women on most of the negative dimensions.
145 boys for every 100 girls have to repeat kindergarten.
291 males for every 100 females are expelled from public schools.
1,314 men are incarcerated in state and federal prisons for every 100 women.
 |
| Credit: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1624666618566529026/photo/1 |
Is this evidence of a male patriarchy?
Is this all due to a social construct?
Might there be something that relates to nature and science that explains all of this?
Can we fool Mother Nature?
No comments:
Post a Comment