Posted on 02/24/2005 9:44:33 AM PST by freespirited
Columnist Carl Hamilton in Aftonbladet writes about a very troubling conflict between science and politics in Sweden. My translation:
The government bans opinions on men's and women's brains
In one respect Sweden's government is unique in the world. It has a definite opinion about a scientific controversy: whether women's and man's brains are different, or not. The first time i realised that the government had involved itself in neurobiology, was when gender equality minister [! - ed] Jens Orback in a speech about sexual deviations and living with horses [!!! - ed], affirmed:
- The government considers female and male as social constructions, that means gender patterns are created by upbringing, culture, economical conditions, power structures and political ideology.
Apart from taking a position on this scientific question, the government has deiced to side with the most extreme researchers: gene theoreticians who for ideological reasons state that biology can not have any saying in explaining why male and female behaviour differs.
This reminds me about the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko. Lysenko was by Stalin proclaimed a scientific genius and his "creative darwinism" was hailed as a huge step forward for genetic research. Lysenko argued that learned traits could be inherited and that by manipulating the environment one could easily cause fundamental changes in plants and animals. Career hungry politicians loved him. Ideology meant everything, experiment and science nothing.
The real scientists, who protested, were cleaned out (and executed).
One of the reasons I write this is that the county government (länsstyrelsen) in Norrbotten has banned the publication of a book about gender equality because it contains an interview with a scientist who argues that the difference between men and women is not only caused by the environment, but a combination of inheritance and environment.
According to professor Annica Dahlström, one of the world's leading neurobiologists, men's and women's brains are different. Thus she has entered an area where Sweden's government has already ruled what is scientifically true and false.
The result is that the book is being censored. The county government has demanded that the interview with Dahlström has to be removed, or there will be no money and no book.
The county government doesn't hide what this is about:
- Since our job is to execute Swedish policy, we cannot stand behind a book that expresses these opinions.
Thus, no deviating opinions about gender roles, especially not if they happen to be correct.
If the Swedish governent decided that the Earth is flat, all Swedes would fall over the edge.
PS: We remember the controversy around Harvard President Lawrence Summers.
Update: Those who read Swedish may want to read the concurring editiorial from Dagens Nyheter, which also gives the full banned interview with Annica Dahlström. From the editorial:
"Our Swedish gender equality policy is based on us being equal and being socialised into different gender roles," declared Britt-Marie Lugnet-Häggberg in the Wednesday DN. "Annica Dahlström is an essentialist feminist (särartsfeministisk) and believes that boys and girls are totally different. The county government cannot publish material with that opinion."
One should believe that the gender equality director is joking. But she is not.
The term I have chosen to translate "essentialist feminist" refers to feminists who believe that men and women are different biologically, and that gender equality can be achived by emphasising the strengths of the feminine nature. Many ecofeminists are in this category. I have no idea if this characterisation of Dahlström is correct, but it is somewhat amusing to see a book being banned not only for promoting a mainstream scientific opinion, but also for promoting a heretical branch of feminism.
PS 2: I have somewhat reluctantly used the term "gender" in this posting, even though I consider it a misnomer when discussing sex differences. "Gender" really refers to noun forms in grammar, where languages like Greek, Latin, German, Norwegian and many others have (especially) nouns separated into feminine, masculine and neuter categories. This term was then used by feminists to describe sex as a social construction (as opposed to a biological one). Since using "gender" avoids the term "sex," which easily brings our mind to think about sexual relations, this neologism has been a huge success. I know a lost philological battle when I see one, but I don't have to like it.
Feminine in grammar sometimes, but not always, reflects feminine in nature. Many are endlessly amused that the German word for girl, Mädchen, is neuter.
And how come men won't ask for directions? LOL
I guess this means layoffs for the Swedish Bikini Team.
I think they're trying to throw us off so they can keep all the Sweedish women for themselves.
As Nature Made Him : The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto
A child's penis was accidentally burned off during a circumcision. The parents were told to raise him as a girl, that gender differences were only social, not biological. It is not true and this boy's life was made miserable by these social manipulators.
lol Actually, as a man, I have no problem ASKING for directions. What I have a problem with is STOPPING THE CAR to ask for directions.
In these two cases, I'm fine:
- driving the car, and using a cell phone (handsfree of course) to call the destination so they can guide me there
- before I even start to drive, checking on directions
What I hate is STOPPING to ask. lol
How is it that homosexuality is a completely innate condition that cannot be changed, since homosexuals are "born that way", but heterosexual gender identity is a completely learned and artificial social construct?
And if memory serves, he committed suicide shortly after the book about him came out. He was only 38.
Because Comrade Britt-Marie says so.
Is the county government trying to influence the content of a book it commissioned, or what is the reference to "money" about?
Have you seen the majority of Swedish women lately? Yeah, I know, you are tihnking of the Swedish bikini team. Wrong answer. Most of them look like some trans-gendered freakazoids with butter knife hair-cuts. No wonder people are starting to question the difference or if there is one.
Strange how no one demands that leftists and libertines make sense. Their disconnects are, at best, never challenged - at worst, accepted.
Until now.
Challenging their disconnects is what we do.
Strange, to liberals in the USA and socialists in Sweden the only trait someone might be born with is homosexuality.
And they cannot write their name in the snow.
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