Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!cca!charlie From: charlie@cca.UUCP (Charlie Kaufman) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Stereotypes Message-ID: <6655@cca.UUCP> Date: Mon, 6-Feb-84 18:46:19 EST Article-I.D.: cca.6655 Posted: Mon Feb 6 18:46:19 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 08:33:23 EST Lines: 40 Are men inherently better musicians? Are women inherently better child nurturers? Are stereotypes inherently wrong? Stereotypes are in fact almost always "right", in the sense that if a stereotype says "all Xs are Y", you come up with a reasonably objective measure of Y, and you run a study, you will find a statistically significant relationship between membership in group X and having characteristic Y. Now, you can debate until you are blue in the face *why* that relationship exists. The goal is usually to prove that it is not the Xs fault that they have characteristic Y (or not the non-Xs fault they lack it). The purpose of such an argument is to establish that since society is at fault, society owes the Xs (or non-Xs) some compensation, like ignoring characteristic Y in situations where it is not ludicrous to do so. If you can make such an argument, you are said to have "refuted" the stereotype. Bullfeathers. The evil of stereotypes is assuming that correlations are perfect when in fact they never are. For years, courts routinely awarded custody to mothers in divorce cases because everyone knows women are better nurturers. It would be no less evil to change the policy to award custody to fathers in 50% of the cases because the stereotype is wrong. Far too much significance is given to questions of whether men are inherently better musicians/chess players/computer programmers/whatever than women. What difference does it make? What is important is that people who would be good at Z get a chance to try and be encouraged to do so. Don't argue that stereotypes are false. You'll always lose. Argue that they are true but not useful, and perhaps in fact harmful. --Charlie Kaufman charlie@cca ...decvax!cca!charlie