NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/soc/feminism/3409

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 3.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!decwrl!hal.com!olivea!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!bogus.sura.net!udel!intercon!psinntp!panix!pw
From: [e-mail] (Chris Hitchcock)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Someone Convince Me
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:22:04 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]  (Paul Wallich)
Organization: Dept. of Psychology, University of Toronto
Lines: 49
Approved: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Janis Maria Cortese) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Cindy Tittle Moore) writes:
>>In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Yamanari) writes:
>>
>>>    Take, for instance, claims that blacks are inferior to whites.
>>>    Science can show that blacks and whites seem to have equal
>>>    capacity.
>
>You haven't studied as much anthropology as you should ave before making
>this statement.  Science for a century was used to explain the natural
>black inferiority, using cranial capacity and genetics.  Women were
>similarly shown to be naturally mentally inferior to men by the same
>methods.

Here's another isn't-it-amazing-what-science-has-done story:

Before Darwinian thought, it was believed that there was an ideal
example of the species, and that variation within a species was a
results of copying errors. Variation was a bad thing, and women were
declared (scientifically demonstrated :-) ) to be more variable than
men. After Darwin, it became clear that variability was the engine
of evolution, the necessary fuel for change, and so very important
to what we are as a species. Suddenly, men were more variable. Women
were uninterestingly uniform, relative to men.

Can get you the reference in a week, when I get back to Oxford and my
library.

I think the reason these things happen is because, to be accepted,
it's important that a scientific theory account for facts that everyone
'knows'. At that time, the inferiority of women and blacks was a
"fact", and a theory which failed to "confirm" that would be dismissed
as unsound. Scientific theories get accepted for a lot of reasons that
have to do with feelings; if the theory resonates with the wisdom
of the field (and if it's "sold" the right way, if the politics are
played right) it becomes part of the fabric of the field.

Chris.
--
Chris Hitchcock, Dept. of Psychology     [e-mail]
University of Toronto      in my new life: [e-mail]



--
Post articles to soc.feminism, or send email to [e-mail].
Questions and comments should be sent to [e-mail].  This
news group is moderated by several people, so please use the mail aliases. Your
article should be posted within several days.  Rejections notified by email.