And people (for whom the inferential distance is too great) love to hate on it.
I don’t think that’s all that’s going on here. A lot of Women’s Studies has other ideas and claims which are much more questionable, and the good points (such as the substantial differences in women’s experience v. men) can get easily lost in the noise.
I learned many interesting and useful things from my Women’s Studies class, and am glad I decided to try it out. However, I became a pariah when I questioned the professor’s account of sexism in biology textbooks. “Eggs are portrayed as passive, while sperm compete to reach them.” In my experience, textbooks say what actually happens in the reproductive system, with no sexism to be found. She stuck to her guns. It was unfortunate that she used that example, because there are real examples of gender bias in biology publications.
And back to me:
Just thought it would be useful to provide an example of a questionable claim. She says other people in the class hated her for pointing it out.
Here is a chapter from a book about feminism and evolutionary biology. Many pages are missing but you can get the general picture. Examples from the chapter:
Marzluff and Balda sought an “alpha male” in a flock of pinyon jays. The males rarely fight, so they tempted them with treats and considered instead glances from male birds as dominant displays and birds looking in the air as submissive displays. (This is actually plausible, since apparently the “dominant” males would get to eat the treat after doing this.)
About bird fighting, they wrote, “In late winter and early spring. . . birds become aggressive towards other flock members. Mated females seem especially testy. Their hormones surge as the breeding season approaches giving them the avian equivalent of PMS which we call PBS (pre-breeding syndrome)!”
The obvious alternative explanation is that dominance hierarchies may have been more fierce among females and that they instead should have been looking for an alpha female that determines hierarchies among the men.
That one is a bit old. There’s a 2010 book of theirs on pinyon jays but I couldn’t tell if it kept the same interpretation. So for something from the 90s the author points out that Birkhead’s work on magpies shows a similar gender bias. Female magpies can store sperm for later use, and “cheating” is common. Birkhead focuses almost entirely on males nest-hopping for extra mates, and treats female cheating as a curious anomaly: “Interestingly, some [female] magpies. . . appear to seek extra-male matings.” When you actually examine the data, “some” is not quite as accurate as “most.”
There are other examples in the chapter. Some are better than others.
To clarify: in my experience (and supported by other anecdotes on this thread), Women’s Studies is, unfortunately, often very badly done. There are big problems around being less concerned with contrary evidence than is appropriate, its often very un-rigorous, and though they are undoubdetdly a small minority, women who unconditionally hate men are drawn to it. It is legitimate to criticize Women’s Studies on these grounds.
However, I originally meant people who seem to think it should not exist. It should, and this post illustrates why.
I think a better statement of our position, is that we think it’s currently so full of BS and anti-epistomology that it’s better to throw the whole thing out and start from scratch.
I don’t think that’s all that’s going on here. A lot of Women’s Studies has other ideas and claims which are much more questionable, and the good points (such as the substantial differences in women’s experience v. men) can get easily lost in the noise.
From my wife:
I learned many interesting and useful things from my Women’s Studies class, and am glad I decided to try it out. However, I became a pariah when I questioned the professor’s account of sexism in biology textbooks. “Eggs are portrayed as passive, while sperm compete to reach them.” In my experience, textbooks say what actually happens in the reproductive system, with no sexism to be found. She stuck to her guns. It was unfortunate that she used that example, because there are real examples of gender bias in biology publications.
And back to me:
Just thought it would be useful to provide an example of a questionable claim. She says other people in the class hated her for pointing it out.
Like what? Just curious.
Here is a chapter from a book about feminism and evolutionary biology. Many pages are missing but you can get the general picture. Examples from the chapter:
Marzluff and Balda sought an “alpha male” in a flock of pinyon jays. The males rarely fight, so they tempted them with treats and considered instead glances from male birds as dominant displays and birds looking in the air as submissive displays. (This is actually plausible, since apparently the “dominant” males would get to eat the treat after doing this.)
About bird fighting, they wrote, “In late winter and early spring. . . birds become aggressive towards other flock members. Mated females seem especially testy. Their hormones surge as the breeding season approaches giving them the avian equivalent of PMS which we call PBS (pre-breeding syndrome)!”
The obvious alternative explanation is that dominance hierarchies may have been more fierce among females and that they instead should have been looking for an alpha female that determines hierarchies among the men.
That one is a bit old. There’s a 2010 book of theirs on pinyon jays but I couldn’t tell if it kept the same interpretation. So for something from the 90s the author points out that Birkhead’s work on magpies shows a similar gender bias. Female magpies can store sperm for later use, and “cheating” is common. Birkhead focuses almost entirely on males nest-hopping for extra mates, and treats female cheating as a curious anomaly: “Interestingly, some [female] magpies. . . appear to seek extra-male matings.” When you actually examine the data, “some” is not quite as accurate as “most.”
There are other examples in the chapter. Some are better than others.
See this article on Sarah Hrdy.
Agreed.
To clarify: in my experience (and supported by other anecdotes on this thread), Women’s Studies is, unfortunately, often very badly done. There are big problems around being less concerned with contrary evidence than is appropriate, its often very un-rigorous, and though they are undoubdetdly a small minority, women who unconditionally hate men are drawn to it. It is legitimate to criticize Women’s Studies on these grounds.
However, I originally meant people who seem to think it should not exist. It should, and this post illustrates why.
I think a better statement of our position, is that we think it’s currently so full of BS and anti-epistomology that it’s better to throw the whole thing out and start from scratch.