Comments on: Women and Hard SF http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/wordpress/2005/03/09/women-and-hard-sf/ Cheating on the Kobayashi Maru since 2001 Tue, 19 May 2026 02:32:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: mbhbszgaga http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/wordpress/2005/03/09/women-and-hard-sf/#comment-7065 Wed, 29 Jun 2005 08:19:10 +0000 http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/wordpress/2005/03/09/women-and-hard-sf/#comment-7065 <strong>lcite</strong> krno lcite
krno

]]> by: Lori http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/wordpress/2005/03/09/women-and-hard-sf/#comment-5587 Thu, 10 Mar 2005 06:25:13 +0000 http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/wordpress/2005/03/09/women-and-hard-sf/#comment-5587 My trouble with the guy's stance was this: he boldly states that women don't write hard SF because most can't hack physics. He's assuming 1) there are no women writing hard SF, which is wrong 2) women can't "hack" physics, which is a general statement of "all women everywhere lack the ability because of genetics" -- a position he clarified in the comment thread -- and is also wrong, and 3) as evidenced by further blathering on his part, he also believes wholeheartedly that the instant you correct him you have proved yourself inferior to him, as anyone of superior intellect would agree with him because he is Perfect and Right. Much condescension and distracting waving of hands ensued with each fact-check issued by other commentors. Women have been "hacking" science for centuries. A case could be made that women are going into the sciences in greater numbers now that schools no longer counsel them into "soft" majors and teachers no longer treat them like they can't do the math. Statistics were quoted, anecdotes cited, and all around it was generally determined that women can go there and do that. If the guy had looked at SF books on Amazon for a few minutes, he would have found Elizabeth Bear and others like her. If he had paid any attention to current literature on studies being done and statistics taken in schools, he would have noticed an upswing in female students in engineering or other scientific pursuits. He didn't even do that. Of course, if he had noticed those SF books written by women, he would have dismissed them as not being hard SF - they were written by women, after all. Or at least that's what I gathered from his comments, oblique as they were. My explanation is a combination of things - mostly lack of interest and gender role expectations passed along to girls by parents/teachers/friends. It's people who do things like decide that something is "genetic" without the science to back it up and then preach it around loudly and insistently that promote adherence to the stereotyped gender roles. BTW, Catharine Asaro weighed in at the end of the thread, and <a href="http://nielsenhayden.com/electrolite/archives/006122.html#76518">she can hack the science.</a> She just chooses to write romance. Also, she reassured those gathered that Vox Day/Beale would not be on the Nebula 2005 novel jury, as was previously suspected. Nice. And your comment did come through. I'm not sure what the script is doing, but it does it to me too. My trouble with the guy’s stance was this: he boldly states that women don’t write hard SF because most can’t hack physics. He’s assuming 1) there are no women writing hard SF, which is wrong 2) women can’t “hack” physics, which is a general statement of “all women everywhere lack the ability because of genetics” — a position he clarified in the comment thread — and is also wrong, and 3) as evidenced by further blathering on his part, he also believes wholeheartedly that the instant you correct him you have proved yourself inferior to him, as anyone of superior intellect would agree with him because he is Perfect and Right. Much condescension and distracting waving of hands ensued with each fact-check issued by other commentors.

Women have been “hacking” science for centuries. A case could be made that women are going into the sciences in greater numbers now that schools no longer counsel them into “soft” majors and teachers no longer treat them like they can’t do the math. Statistics were quoted, anecdotes cited, and all around it was generally determined that women can go there and do that. If the guy had looked at SF books on Amazon for a few minutes, he would have found Elizabeth Bear and others like her. If he had paid any attention to current literature on studies being done and statistics taken in schools, he would have noticed an upswing in female students in engineering or other scientific pursuits. He didn’t even do that. Of course, if he had noticed those SF books written by women, he would have dismissed them as not being hard SF - they were written by women, after all. Or at least that’s what I gathered from his comments, oblique as they were.

My explanation is a combination of things - mostly lack of interest and gender role expectations passed along to girls by parents/teachers/friends. It’s people who do things like decide that something is “genetic” without the science to back it up and then preach it around loudly and insistently that promote adherence to the stereotyped gender roles.

BTW, Catharine Asaro weighed in at the end of the thread, and she can hack the science. She just chooses to write romance. Also, she reassured those gathered that Vox Day/Beale would not be on the Nebula 2005 novel jury, as was previously suspected. Nice.

And your comment did come through. I’m not sure what the script is doing, but it does it to me too.

]]>