Wednesday, August 12, 2009 5:23:02 AM
I missed a massive error in Baalthazaq's revised argument.
You`ve shifted the collection of trends and stereotypes from absolutes to near-absolutes, acknowledging exceptions that you refer to as outliers, i.e. rare and highly unrepresentative anomalous results that you compare with things such as three-legged rhinos.
Some of the things you quote may not even be trends at all and may be trends in the opposite direction. Pain threshold for example - the prevailing evidence hasn`t yet been made to fit the currently popular sexist stereotype.
But I`ll be generous and use one of your examples that is definitely a strong trend - height.
To fit your revised argument, it would need to be very rare for a woman to be taller than a man. This is obviously not the case. Many millions of women are taller than many millions of men. It is nowhere near rare enough for your argument to hold up.
Your argument fails even using only one of your least bad examples.
If it ever becomes common to unfairly group, stereotype and restrict rhinos on the basis of some trends to varying extents and some stuff that's not even a trend, you`ll have a fair point.
You can dismiss my point as some pathetic obsession with grammar all you like, but it only makes you look bad. Even if sexist stereotyping didn`t exist, that would still be a risible line of argument.