October 8, 2013

Sailer: "In Search of Sexier Scientists"

From my new column in Taki's Magazine:
Continuing its blanket coverage of the problems of people who don’t really have problems, The New York Times turns from the plight of female Harvard Business School students to the woes of female Yale physics majors. 
In “Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?,” Eileen Pollack, head of the creative writing MFA program at the U. of Michigan, devotes 8,000 words to the churning passions that accompanied her return to Yale, where she was a physics major in the mid-1970s before losing all interest in science and math. ... 
Together, these Harvard and Yale articles make informative reading because they show how protean feminist analysis has become. Feminism rationalizes a culture of complaint no matter how contradictory the gripes.

For example, the Harvard article recounted a lesbian dean’s struggle to prevent heterosexual women students from coming to class on Halloween dressed up in “sexy pirate costumes.” In contrast, the Yale tale told by Ms. Pollack, a middle-aged girly girl with an ex-husband and a son, protests how our culture discourages women scientists from wearing sexy clothes, such as fishnet stockings, in the laboratory.

Read the whole thing there.

31 comments:

  1. ...how our culture discourages women scientists from wearing sexy clothes, such as fishnet stockings, in the laboratory.

    Which really is too bad.

    I'm visualizing a young Denise Richards, wearing fishnets in a lab, studying, err, reactions. Since the well-known rule of thumb is that for every 10C rise in temperature the reaction rate doubles (we're talking chemistry here), I also imagine that were someone to go over and turn up the thermostat, she'd have to take off her white lab coat...

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  2. Lesbian Eugenics in the news...
    Anne Morriss is the life partner of the lesbian dean in your earlier article..

    Genepeeks firm to offer 'digital baby' screen for sperm donors

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24398312

    http://takimag.com/article/thats_frances_with_an_e_steve_sailer/print#axzz2gr28hVYk

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  3. Not Denise Richards. Denise Minger:

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/death-by-food-pyramid/

    http://rawfoodsos.com/

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  4. "According to the study’s authors, native-born American students of both sexes steer clear of math clubs and competitions because “only Asians and nerds” would voluntarily do math."

    I am co confused.

    If female science majors(many of whom are probably Jewish) complain about Asian nerds, does it mean that they subscribe to the notion that racial differences really do exist and that Asian males are dorky, scrawny, and uncool?

    Wait a minute. I thought Liberals--especially Jews--don't believe in racial differences.
    I guess in their actual behavior, Jewish liberal women really do notice differences.

    Btw, I wonder how she would react if male science majors complained that too many female science majors are ugly big nosed Jewesses.

    She would surely have screamed 'Nazi'.

    Anyway, will liberals finally tell us if races and racial differences exist or not. They've been telling us that differences don't exist, but they are now confirming Sailer's "Is Love Colorblind?"

    Jewish liberal women are the story of the confusion of love.

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  5. God, we don't need any more of this fake sexy nerd stuff. It's either attention-whoring nerd who doesn't want anyone to approach or interact with her, or nerd who's dressing sexy to feel confident in herself rather than to attract men. It's annoying. Social pollution.

    Here's what we could use a little more of:

    Pardis Sabeti

    Not what I'd call "sexy," as in playing up her looks to give charge to some geek chic persona. More like nonchalant good looks.

    Embracing Persian women-in-science would also go a long way toward deepening inter-cultural relations. For, a shared appreciation of The Other will only become more crucial as American and Iranian fates come together in this intertangled world of ours.

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  6. nerdophobia?

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  7. One of my pals, a Leading Female Scientist, used to get fed up with how much time she had to waste on committees, because every ruddy committee wanted at least one female member. The last straw was being required to dress up and attend the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. I mean, really!

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  8. Dr Van Nostrand10/9/13, 1:19 AM

    Why, she cries out, did society not persuade her to pursue “the prospects, prestige, intellectual stimulation and income” that come with attending grad school in astrophysics?"

    This revealing statment reminds me of the scene in Last King of Scotland when Idi Amin was aghast from the economic meltdown when he expelled the Asian(actually Gujarati) population and blames Nicholas for not warning him beforehand.
    When a befuddled Nicholas reminded that he did indeed warn him of these very same dire consequences of his planned expuslsions...Idi Amin retorted "But you did not PERSUADE me Nicolaas, you did not PERSUADE me!"

    No wonder feminists have no issues with third world despots -a childish lack of accountability is what joins them at the hip.

    That aside “the prospects, prestige, intellectual stimulation and income” that come with attending grad school in astrophysics?"....

    Is she being sarcastic? Besides those working on SETI, how many astrophysicists is the common public even vaguely aware of

    There was the Jesuit trained Chandrashekhar acolyte Carl Sagan
    ....and Tyson Degrasse...but then thats only because he is black


    I'm visualizing a young Denise Richards, wearing fishnets in a lab, studying, err, reactions. Since the well-known rule of thumb is that for every 10C rise in temperature the reaction rate doubles (we're talking chemistry here), I also imagine that were someone to go over and turn up the thermostat, she'd have to take off her white lab coat..."

    No need for all that ,she played a nuclear fission expert or some such in Tomorrow Never Dies and James Bond filled in(ahem) the remaining part of your fantasy

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  9. Ex Submarine Officer10/9/13, 3:20 AM

    I was an undergrad physics major many years ago.

    My class started with a handful of female physics majors which were rapidly winnowed.

    The last holdout caved about an hour into an E&M final early in the junior term.

    She was the first to finish by a long shot, it was a 3-hour exam, or turn in her test, more accurately. She walked up, plopped it down on the proctors desk, and left the room bawling, tears streaking down her face.

    Well, no more stupid questions from her cluttering up all our class time is what I thought.

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  10. Women can obviously do just about everything men can do...they just don't want to

    Similarly for some subcultures in the US... they can act normal....they just don't want to

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  11. If a man think women shouldn't wear sexy clothing, feminists will say that he is sexist.
    If a man thinks women should wear sexy clothing, feminists will say that he is sexist.

    In short, if a man, feminists will say that he is sexist.

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  12. How come homos are cool but nerds are not?

    How come so much hype about the bullying of homos but none about the bullying of nerds?

    This is odd since many nerds and homos sort of act alike. The nerds on Big Bang Theory act fruitish, as if nerd is the 'new gay'.
    But nerds don't get the same love and sympathy and are still mocked and made fun of.

    Are homos cooler cuz they dress better and do women's hair while nerds, though effeminate, have no fashion sense?

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  13. "Pardis Sabeti"

    As my middle school students might say, "I'd do her."

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  14. Not Denise Richards. Denise Minger

    Sadly I have to report that 'minger' is British slang for an ugly girl.

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  15. Liberal confusion syndrome.

    There are no racial differences but it's good to flee from stronger/dangerous blacks(or drive them out through section 8).

    There are no racial differences but hire Mexicans to cut lawns but forget about grooming them to run Hollywood.

    There are no racial differences but Asian nerds are not sexy material.

    There are no racial differences but Jews deserve to be over-represented in all sorts of elite fields.

    I mean what the hell.

    How much of this crap can we take?

    Do racial differences exist or not?

    It's like the freaking Libs wanna have the cake and eat it too.

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  16. Did Pollack ever look in the mirror and notice why science nerds(and nerdettes) aren't sexy stuff?

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  17. Damn my teacher!! I once got a B, but she didn't tell me I could have done harder and gotten an A.

    I didn't know A's existed.

    I was oppressed!!

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  18. http://youtu.be/VSWwtccj5CE?t=1h39m17s

    A NY Times reporter meets up with past tormentor.

    Surely, Pollack's encounter with her professor was of the same magnitude.

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  19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ls3WG8kNvw

    MAKE THE SON OF A BITCH CONFESS!!!

    Nerd-Nazism must end.

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  20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvhJ4alNQFo

    "Strippers are mathematical geniuses."

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  21. "This revealing statment reminds me of the scene in Last King of Scotland when Idi Amin was aghast from the economic meltdown when he expelled the Asian(actually Gujarati) population and blames Nicholas for not warning him beforehand."

    Look, if people who didn't like Smoky Robison ruined Detroit and if people who didn't like Louis Armstrong ruined New Orleans, then Pollak logic makes perfect sense.

    Maybe Californians will one day blame conservatives for not persuading them that open borders for illegals is a bad idea. Cons said it but didn't say it forcefully enough to PERSUADE the libs.

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  22. http://t.co/ZpxENWXmys

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  23. http://www.jewishquarterly.org/issuearchive/articled325.html?articleid=38

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  24. I like how she blames her teachers for not encouraging her. I've heard that alot. I have to say, as a STEM guy, the teachers don't generally encourage people. Least I didn't see it. They were trying to test your mettle, to challenge you. It'd be like complaining your Drill Sargeant wasn't welcoming. (Which may come next.)

    Also, I don't get why this woman just didnt' say she didn't care enough about Physics to keep going. Everyone has setbacks, naysayers.

    Too bad these feminists aren't as empowered as they are resentful.

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  25. Do people go off to college expecting professors to be drill sergeants? Are they that way in non-STEM fields? I don't think so. Why is it unreasonable to expect a bit of encouragement or guidance from them? If you had a mathematically gifted daughter, would you be happy if she were treated the same way, or would you continue to make comments about fishnets?
    Things at MIT back then were very much the way the author described Yale.

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  26. "Anonymous said...

    I like how she blames her teachers for not encouraging her. I've heard that alot. I have to say, as a STEM guy, the teachers don't generally encourage people.

    Also, I don't get why this woman just didnt' say she didn't care enough about Physics to keep going."

    Yes, blaming the teacher is a dodge. If you require encouragement from a teacher in order to do well in science, then you will not do well in science. If you are worried that being a physicist will affect your social life, then you shouldn't be a physicist.

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  27. "Do people go off to college expecting professors to be drill sergeants? Are they that way in non-STEM fields? I don't think so. Why is it unreasonable to expect a bit of encouragement or guidance from them?"

    STEM is different. It has hard edges. People lives depend on solid engineering.

    Coddling and touchy feely-ness is great for women's studies, but it doesn't get bridges built. Next time you safely fly in a plane you should thank STEM professionals for being the uptight guys they are.

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  28. "Yes, blaming the teacher is a dodge. If you require encouragement from a teacher in order to do well in science, then you will not do well in science."

    No kidding. Any kid with the brains and aptitude to be a scientist had a chemistry set or microscope as a kid, and was doing science long before any teacher got involved. He probably spent most of his time in actual science class being bored and feeling superior to the teacher. Replace "science" with "math" or "electronics" or "computer programming" or any other discipline where you actually make stuff or do experiments (as opposed to vague navel-gazing) and that will be the case.

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  29. Because my best friend works at NASA I know of a number of excellent female scientists. One thing I will say though. The Asian ones do seem more normal than the western ones. By that I don't mean the western ones are disagreeable or weird. Most are decent enough. The one I know best would do anything for her friends. But somehow they are unusually driven. btw, the one I know married 3 times, 3 kids, and baked special cakes for her team when the space launches required long hours. All this and a top drawer post as well, at least for a while. But she is one the most accomplished and driven (and physically attractive) people I've ever encountered.

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