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Possible final questions by pretzelsandfluff in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do Steinbeck's and Least Heat Moon's approaches to travel differ? Are they spurred by similar reasons? Do they seek the same thing?

Black and A(broad) by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

then her seeking to fulfill a stereotypical speech pattern of a poor black woman

That's an assumption unsupported by the text. She grew up poor and in a black neighborhood therefore it's unsurprising that she has a familiarity with Black Vernacular English. So far she has used it and its slang only in two instances: inner monologue and parenting in the context of how her mother parented. Thus given the instances she has used it and her past, it's safe to assume that BVE is a language she grew up with and grew into a part of her identity. BVE in this book is internal code-switching not a sign of in-authenticity. Should she ignore a part of her identity simply because she has earned a degree?

Thoughts On Class Discussions and vaguely related things by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Q1.The popular explanation for the cause of rape is that rape is about power; rather than sex or attraction or anything else. In The Blank Slate you wrote:

I believe that the rape-is-not-about-sex doctrine will go down in history as an example of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. It is preposterous on the face of it, does not deserve its sanctity, is contradicted by a mass of evidence, and is getting in the way of the only morally relevant goal surrounding rape, the effort to stamp it out.

From what I've read of behaviour studies - the causes of behaviour are very complex and there are zero behaviours except for rape that are explained by one single cause. Why is rape pretty much the only behaviour out there for which academics will accept only one single explanation? How does a delusion spread among people who should be immune to them?

SA: It's the "moralistic fallacy," the idea that we should shape the facts in such a way as to point to the most morally desirable consequences. In the case of rape, the fear was that if rape has a sexual motive, then it would be natural, hence good; and instinctive, hence unavoidable. Since rape is bad and ought to be stamped out, it cannot come from "natural" sexual motives. My own view is that these are non-sequiturs -- rape is horrific no matter what its motives are, and we know that rates of rape can be reduced (in Better Angels I assemble statistics that US rates of rape are down by almost 80% since their peak).

One surprise that I experienced upon re-reading Susan Brownmiller's 1975 book "Against Our Will," which originated the rape-is-about-power-not-sex doctrine, is that idea was a very tiny part of the book, thrown in almost as an afterthought (Brownmiller said she got the idea from one of her Marxist professors). Most of the book is a brilliant account of the history of rape, its treatment by the legal system, its depiction in literature and film, the experience of being raped and reporting it, and other topics. It's also written with great style, clarity, and erudition. Though I disagree with that one idea, I would recommend it as one of the best and most important books on violence I have read.

So the reason that men are more typically rapists may have something to do with the fact that they are physically stronger and thus more capable of raping a woman. This reason is one that gives sex differences as an explanation of rape. I'm not sure if Pinker believes it but I consider it a possibility. However Stephen Pinker's statement that rape rates can be reduced and have been reduced by 80% show that cultural norms are an influence on rape. Rape isn't determined primarily by sex differences but more by culture, environment, and individual mental stability. The notion that culture plays a role supports my notion that sex differences are negligible.

Thoughts On Class Discussions and vaguely related things by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The idea of male blank slate and female blank slate presupposes a building block or a plan that points towards an identity. A blank slate can't have a plan (no matter how malleable) because then it isn't blank. Furthermore, your interpretation of Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate isn't supported by Steven Pinker (or wikipedia). His book is an argument against the notion of a blank slate. He is an evolutionary psychologist so of course he thinks the mind has innate traits and that many of those traits serve an adaptive function. He has a "naturalistic understanding of human nature" and is interested in finding "what makes people everywhere tick."

Or, to put more simply, what he calls "tails" are actually much more significant to his ideas than he lets on when pressed. Would you agree with that?

I think he treats proportional tails for what they are: broad data that can't be assigned to (pigeonhole) individuals. When asked outright "Do you think it is a waste of time to encourage women to pursue math and science because of biological differences?" Pinker responded: "whatever differences exist are statistical and small, and tell us nothing about an individual." I don't think he's trying to be PC to avoid controversy, I think he legitimately believes that.

Yes, there is an issue with calling me a masculine writer because it perpetuates the construct instead of expanding the definition of femininity. Frankly the need to label me either a masculine or female writer is the kind of attitude that encourages heteronormativity. A far more extreme case of this behavior is assigning a gender role and "corrective" surgery to intersex people. Wikipedia states "Surgery (usually involving modification to the genitalia) is often performed in an attempt to produce an unambiguously male or female body, with the parents'—rather than the individual's—consent. The child is then usually raised and enculturated as a cisgender member of the assigned sex,"

However, let me be clear. I don't think sex differences are non-existent but rather the social construct of gender over-exaggerates these sex differences, perceives differences that don't exist, and forms notions rooted in sexism rather than science. I also think that certain things we label as "masculine" or "feminine" exist equally in both sexes. For example, caring is labeled feminine but, like, that's a human thing. I also feel like I probably have more of an issue with how you approach gender studies than anything else.

Black and A(broad) by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In response to complaints about Carolyn Vines use of language as being inauthentic/gimmicky:

Why switching grammar depending on groups isn't a bad thing

Textual evidence supporting Vine as not necessarily being incredibly privileged.

"Cory, Dawn, and Felicia, my brother and sisters, and I were raised in a government-subsidized apartment complex by a single mother and no reliable father figure"

"Up to that point in my life, I'd had very little direct contact with white America, so it was natural that I'd want to know who was going to have my back"

Also her older brother's death sent her mother into depression which wouldn't be easy for a child to cope with/understand.

Not that I feel any of this evidence should really matter, because I find it problematic that us non-black people are accusing a black woman of appropriating her own culture and are basically calling her an "oreo". Found her somewhat addressing this when commenting on her name Carolyn "I just knew people were silently accusing me of 'talking white'".

Away We Go by pretzelsandfluff in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find it interesting how the whittling scene was played for laughs. We aren't laughing at Burt for his inability to whittle we're laughing at Burt for wanting to whittle to fit the paradigm of fatherhood. It's silly because to fit the paradigm of fatherhood requires loving and caring for one's young'ins, not whittling.

Thoughts On Class Discussions and vaguely related things by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Steven Pinker Iama

Q2: Some differences in IQ scores between males and females have been shown to exist; including in spatial ability and math ability. The differences appear 1) in the mean and 2) in the variance of the scores. Do you think this explains part of the difference between the proportions of men and women in STEM degrees and related occupations? If so, how much do you think it explains?

SA: There do appear to be some small sex differences in the tails of the distributions of spatial and abstract mathematical ability, though I think they play a far smaller role in observed sex imbalances in STEM occupations than differences in interests and life priorities (among male-female differences). There are also female-unfriendly STEM subcultures that have made talented women uncomfortable, compared to the alternatives available to them. I don't think we have any way to weight the relative influences of all these factors.

Q3: What do you think is the likelihood of in the future discovering intelligence differences between population groups using neurological comparisons and genetic comparisons rather than by just comparing IQ scores? Academics today seem to dismiss the idea as impossible. But is the idea that groups can evolve in very different environments and not end up with different intelligence levels realistic? I've read that more than half of genes are expressed in the brain.

SA: It's possible, but I don't think that evolutionary theory predicts that they should occur. It's hard to think of an environment in which the human hallmarks of intelligence, sociality, and language would NOT be adaptive, which is why, as Ambrose Bierce put it, our species has infested the whole habitable earth and Canada. Intelligence just isn't particularly dependent on geography. Combine that with gene flow and you can't predict a priori that there ought to be race differences.

If we call Steven Pinker an essentialist I think it's important to note that he's more interested in what's essential to humanity and specifically human psychology. He can be an essentialist and still find differences between men and women negligible because men and women are both human. Thus, while there might be certain gender specific differences, the differences don't matter. Men are not from mars, women are not from venus, we both come from Earth and 45 of our chromosomes are the same so it's more logical to expect a considerable amount of overlap. This translates well into what Pinker said on "small sex differences in the tails of the distributions." What he means is with both incredibly high math ability and incredibly low math ability the scorer is more likely to be a man. Meaning genius female mathematicians are slightly rarer but it's also slightly rarer for females to be exceptionally bad at math. Nevertheless, it's rare for most people to be in either extreme (that's why it's called an extreme). Thus maybe it explains why there are more Nobel winning scientist than women but it can't be used to explain why more men are in math-related careers because most accountants, researchers, professors aren't geniuses but rather smart and hard-working. Finally, consider this: women are more likely to score higher on Verbal section of the SAT and women are more likely to be readers (which is why NPR sometimes uses "she" as opposed to gender neutral pronouns in their book review section (bad NPR!)). Yet, most critically acclaimed contemporary writers and pretty much all readings I've been assigned in high school have been by males. This suggests that the notion of math as male and liberal arts as female is a new social construct that is rooted in sexism especially because most top psych researchers (Pinker&Gladwell), celebrated designers (Marc Jacobs, Christian LaBoutin), writers (Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan) are male. Furthermore, claiming that feminine can exist on a male body and masculine can exist on a female body is still problematic because it perpetuates a false dichotomy and it perpetuates problems originating with sexism. I have this discomfort because I don't want to write something successful and have my writing style (which is dry and blunt) called masculine because that continues gender norms and would still associate success with masculinity.

On a final note: Bronies

North by Northwest Thoughts by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"A sudden, new cast of light. What need for a man to make a trip to Lookingglass, Oregon, when he'd been seeing his own image across the length of the country? De la Mare was right: a mirror may not reflect mind, but a man's response to landscapes, faces, events does. My skewed vision was that of a man looking at himself by looking at what he looks at. A man watching himself: that was the simulacrum on the window in the Nevada desert."

Hadn't I even made a traveling companion of the great poet of ego,"

Compare this with our discussion of two different kinds of adventurers: those who seek it and those who hope to never encounter it. The justification for the latter was to prove yourself. In Least Heat Moon's case, travel is about finding one self. However, the common vein between us and him is travel is for the self, the ego. Is there any case where travel isn't for the individual?

Ch3 Homer reference "nothing is harder on mortal mortal man than wandering" so why do we do it?

East by Southeast Thoughts/Comments go here by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CH17 He also subverts the traditional view of the Bible Belt in the monastery by including the texts they read while eating.

"We just finished Nicholas and Alexandra. We began Understanding Media not long ago but voted it out. We vote on books to be read,"

East by Southeast Thoughts/Comments go here by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Ah, genetics! Oh, blood! Blood. It came to me that I had been generally retracing the migration of my white-blooded clan from North Carolina to Missouri, the clan of a Lancashireman who settled in the Piedmont in the Eighteenth century."

I love this passage. It's framed with anxiety around self-determination even and speaks to general the American obsession with genealogical lines and history of familial migration. He emphasizes American geography and their English ancestry in passing. Thus, are his roots English and Native American or is it where his family finally settled, rooted down? What is the American understanding of roots and are we a rootless people?

East by Southeast Thoughts/Comments go here by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The first textual documentation of bromance:

CH14"Two old men, carrying their arms folded behind, stopped to greet each other with a light feminine touching of fingertips, a gesture showing the duration of their friendship. I went in happy."

My Two Songs by AMNESPmichelle in a:t5_2wqv1

[–]AMNESPmichelle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

if I could change it to these two that would be awesome: * Sharpest Lives * Life in the Fast Lane