E=mc2 is a "sexed equation". Newton's Principia (a "rape manual")

NYU Dept. Physics ^ | Published in Nature, 9 July 1998, vol. 394, pp. 141-143.] | Richard Dawkins

[Helms]

The feminist 'philosopher' Luce Irigaray is another who gets whole-chapter treatment from Sokal and Bricmont.

In a passage reminiscent of a notorious feminist description of Newton's Principia (a "rape manual"), Irigaray argues that E=mc2 is a "sexed equation".

Why? Because "it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us" (my emphasis of what I am rapidly coming to learn is an 'in' word). Just as typical of this school of thought is Irigaray's thesis on fluid mechanics.

Fluids you see, have been unfairly neglected. "Masculine physics" privileges rigid, solid things.

Her American expositor Katherine Hayles made the mistake of re-expressing Irigaray's thoughts in (comparatively) clear language. For once, we get a reasonably unobstructed look at the emperor and, yes, he has no clothes:

The privileging of solid over fluid mechanics, and indeed the inability of science to deal with turbulent flow at all,

she attributes to the association of fluidity with femininity. Whereas men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids... From this perspective it is no wonder that science has not been able to arrive at a successful model for turbulence.

The problem of turbulent flow cannot be solved because the conceptions of fluids (and of women) have been formulated so as necessarily to leave unarticulated remainders.

You do not have to be a physicist to smell out the daffy absurdity of this kind of argument (the tone of it has become all too familiar), but it helps to have Sokal and Bricmont on hand to tell us the real reason why turbulent flow is a hard problem: the Navier-Stokes equations are difficult to solve.

[Helms]

You gotta go to the full article page(Postmodermism Disrobed)

[jonno]

bump(s)

[Billthedrill]

Yeah - it was worth a posting. But not a lot of people outside of the academic community are going to believe how seriously this stuff is taken by people with way, way too much time on their hands. I offer The War Against The Intellect as evidence.

[Johnny Gage]

[lelio]

Here's the Sokel parody paper that made it into Social Text. Fun read.

[Right Wing Professor]

Bad news for you. This was from the Dept of Physics

It's Alan Sokal's web page. He's the physicist who hoaxed a postmodern journal a few years with a completely gibberish paper about quantum gravity that they published, not knowing it was intentional nonsense. He's discussing Irigaray in order to ridicule her. And Dawkins' review of Sokal's book is favorable. As he says "You do not have to be a physicist to smell out the daffy absurdity of this kind of argument".

[Chewbacca]

So, was 'Chaos Theory' created based on the unstability of the female mental process?

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Fluids you see, have been unfairly neglected. "Masculine physics" privileges rigid, solid things.

Is anybody else getting warm in here, or is it just me...? :)

[shhrubbery!]

Isn't Alan Sokal the physicist who published a totally nonsensical spoof of deconstructionism or whatever, a few years back, and got it taken seriously AND PUBLISHED in some 'respectable journal' of deconstructionism?

My memory of it is that it brought down the whole house of deconstructionist cards.

But it's still being taught in all the chic universities, of course, just like that other discredited idea: Marxism.

In other words, isn't this a spoof?

(Maybe that's what Dawkins is writing about? Don't have time or inclination to read that guy now.)

[.cnI redruM]

E=mc^2 is sexed! Oh well, that explains a story I heard about Einstein. He was walking along, thinking about some equation, and walked right past his wife without even recognizing her. I guess I know which one was on his mind.

[lelio]

Oh boy if you want some amusing, or annoying, reading check out Luce Irigaray ramblings in a google search.

[TheBigB]

Britney certainly leads to "stimulated emissions." At least, in my case...

[PatrickHenry]

Proverbs 9:13 A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.

[Helms]

Absolutely.

[LonePalm]

I'm married to one. She doesn't talk like this.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[TomB]

Luce, looking ravishing in her finest role......

Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daugh-- ter's wedding...on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope that their first child be a masculine, er....., no, feminine, child. I pledge my ever-ending loyalty. -- For your daughter's bridal purse.

[wildbill]

I don't know which is worse, the rape of science in the name of postmodernism and feminism or the nuttification of liberal arts under the same banners.

Scientists can easily defend themselves, but poor college students in the liberal arts, especially English and literature often have no clue that they're being bamboozled by nonsense.

One feminist writer claims all writing up to modern times was misogynist because it was done with a pen--the dreaded phallic symbol. I asked the professor about cuniform writing and was tagged as a troublemaker.

[Right Wing Professor]

Count yourself lucky. I had to expound of the difference between 'stimulated emission' and 'spontaneous emission' in class this morning, all the while reminding myself that if I cracked the slightest smirk, I'd be in deep doo-doo.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Whereas men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids...

She must not get aroused much if she thinks all she does is leak fluids and bleed ! This kind of feminism is dangerous to real woman who are truly feminine.

[RikaStrom]

Oh you two have just got to see this!