Interesting article relating to last week’s readings

2

David - March 3, 2008 @ 9:46 pm · Uncategorized

Quite interesting, and not quite sure what to make of it. Seems to completely clash against everything we discussed in class last week.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

2 Comments

  1. nbramble

    March 3, 2008 @ 10:59 pm

    1

    Wow. I’m not sure whether it’s worth our time to try to make anything of it, besides understanding the mechanics of how such a piece gets published in the Washington Post. My gut reaction is that it’s either a consistently unfunny joke (“I don’t even know how many pairs of shoes I own”) or perhaps a desperate ploy for publicity by a dying newspaper. It does demonstrate how a little neuroscience (or phrenology) and a couple evolutionary biology just-so stories can be very dangerous when wielded by would-be policymakers. And I’d argue that it “clashes” with the things we read last week in the sense that someone who hurls garbage against the side of a school clashes with the arguments going on inside.

    What I’m saying is, that to my ‘normal science’ way of understanding gender and biology, this piece is strongly incommensurable.

  2. David

    March 3, 2008 @ 11:34 pm

    2

    Nick,
    I couldn’t agree with you more. I did some digging on the author and it seems that Allen attempts at the Ann Coulter method of selling books: say outlandish stuff that makes no sense (or at the least is backed by absolutely no evidence), and hope that this will help you make a living by selling books.

    http://www.charlottevaleallen.com/

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