Harvard president pays high price for his hypothesis

The Sacramento Bee ^ | 01/27/2005 | George F. Will

[Diamond]

link

Hysteria — A functional disturbance of the nervous system, characterized by such disorders as anaesthesia, hyperaesthesia, convulsions, etc., and usually attended with emotional disturbances and enfeeblement or perversion of the moral and intellectual faculties.

Addressing a conference on the supposedly insufficient numbers of women in tenured positions in university science departments, he suggested that perhaps part of the explanation might be innate — genetically based — gender differences in cognition. He thought he was speaking in a place that encourages uncircumscribed intellectual explorations. He was not. He was on a university campus.

[Diamond]

On NPR this morning Diane Rehm read two paragraphs from this article to a panel of women academics who were discussing this issue. Will's comments are one of the funniest things I've ever heard, and the womens' reaction to it was even funnier;

Someone like MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins, the hysteric (see above) who, hearing Summers, "felt I was going to be sick. My heart was pounding and my breath was shallow." And, "I just couldn't breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill." She said that if she had not bolted from the room, "I would've either blacked out or thrown up."

Is this the fruit of feminism? A woman at the peak of the academic pyramid becomes theatrically flurried by an unwelcome idea and, like a Victorian maiden exposed to male coarseness, suffers the vapors and collapses on the drawing room carpet in a heap of crinolines until revived by smelling salts and the offending brute's contrition.

[rellimpank]

---somebody had the "vapors"--

[borkrules]

Well, what did they say in response to the Will column?

[Spok]

Feminists love to talk about differences between men and women that they think make women superior, so they don't deny that there are real differences. They just won't tolerate the flip side of "I am woman". Feminists validate the stereotype they most vociferously criticize-of emotional, hysterical, high-strung airheads.

[Loyalist]

This doesn't surprise me.

The most hard-boiled feminist ideologues will retreat behind a shield of feminine fragility and hysteria when it comes time to do the tough work--like taking criticism or taking out the garbage.

[js1138]

BTT

[NRA1995]

---somebody had the "vapors"--

Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so......

[conservativecorner]

Poor old Larry didn't realize that dim-o-crats and liberals in general only talk about free speech and diversity of ideas. They never ever actually practice these values.

[Hu Gadarn]

Tell the shrew to loosen her corset and WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! While you at it ask her who the queen of england is.... bet she says Victoria.

Physical difference are just that. Physical. Every one is different. Men and women while equals in intelligence are different in other areas. Physiologically we are different. Genetically we are different. Hormonally we are different. Hell Our differences are many and would take to long to post.
Is his hypothesis correct? Damn if I know it's a HYPOTHESIS. A GUESS THAT NEEDS TO BE RESEARCHED BEFORE IT CAN BECOME A THERORY!!!

Someone slap Ms. Nancy Hopkins. This is reverse sexism if there ever was such a thing.

[kittymyrib]

Remember Hellery posing demurely in her little pink suit under the fatherly portrait of Lincoln as she lied her head off during the Lewinski drama? They always wave their little hankies and cry, "Victim!" when confronted by an unwelcome turn of events, demonstrating how far from tough they really are.

[Diamond]

I was laughing so hard I couldn't hear everything, but the first one conceded that while Will's comments were "very well written, they totally 'inappropriate'".

Cordially,

[DrDavid]

More likely the reason there aren't more women in the sciences, is that there are not enough jobs. Why go to university for 7+ years to end up either unemployable or a low paying insecure assistant prof job at a state university?

[Lancey Howard]

He thought he was speaking in a place that encourages uncircumscribed intellectual explorations. He was not. He was on a university campus.

Says it all. What a disgrace today's colleges are. Oops - - did I a preposition end in?

[DuncanWaring]

"felt I was going to be sick. My heart was pounding and my breath was shallow." And, "I just couldn't breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill."

Sounds like a quote from CSQ's book.

[Diamond]

Great observation. The women I was listening to on Diane Rehm this morning seemed to think that it was mostly due to discrimination.

Cordially,

[hillary's_fat_a**]

Remember Hellery posing demurely in her little pink suit

I vaguely recall that, but more often than not, she was in her 'slimming', black, "OL CRUSTY" outfit ...