My E-mail response to Glenn Reynold's posts Re the lack of men on college campuses:
I just graduated from university in 2004. Towards the later end of my college career my male housemates (I'm a girl) began evaluating the Dave/Female ratio in their classes. Because the Male to Female ratio was so high it gave no information. But the Dave/Female ratio was usually around 1.
My school was heavily science and engineering driven. Though they also have excellent art programs and their Drama program is well recognized. But there were lots of men. LOTS of men. (the ratio is M/F 6/4 or so)
They played games like "ball ball" in the hallway, which involved two guys sitting with their legs apart in the hall. They would take turns throwing a stress ball at the other's balls, and every time they flinched the other got a point. Though that particular game only lasted about long enough for one or two direct hits.
I loved going to a male dominated schoolbut there were no women's studies for me. I think I had maybe 3 female professors the entire time that I was there. I would note that all of our textbooks were written by men, but as I majored in Statistics that is hardly surprising.
I guess I'm just trying to point out that there are still places full of testasteroney goodness, and places where women who walk into Computer Science classrooms are treated like mentally challenged people. It is unfortunate but I think there has to be kindof a backlash against the male dominated education systems of the last... oh.... millennium. But I am sure things will settle into an equilibrium within the next 100 years or so.
Now if only we could figure out how to get lazy 17 year old boys to fill out college applications. I am sure their parents would be grateful.
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11 comments:
nice post,
nice instalanche ;-)
This is a good opportunity to see how men respond to "oppression" or being disadvantaged.
Some comments I've read seem to indicate they want to sit back and have better education for males "come to them". Enough bitching about the bad reading materials for boys in the lower grades and lack of male role models in the schools.
Get to the library and find your sons (or better -- let them find for themselves) reading material of male adventurers, military leaders, American presidents, sports heros, etc. Sign them up for a sport with a man coach -- can't be that hard to find -- or have your husband or brother sit on the couch and help them with homework.
When things are stacked against you, you act. You don't wait for somebody else to correct the situation for you. Enough with the whining; the little boys may buy into the victimhood attitude.
I really liked your post since it was the opposite of this.
I love it:
Girls don't do well in school -- Men's fault.
Boys don't do well in school -- Men's fault.
Right on tanker!!
Check out the statistics on people attending college at the U.S. Census site. More females. Underneath Shinobi's post is a thinly veiled hostility towards men.
I'm gland she's not the mother of my two sons.
tanker and anonymous. Did you actually read what Shinobi wrote?
'thinly veiled hostility towards men'???
Oh for God's sake...
But I am sure things will settle into an equilibrium within the next 100 years or so.
Now if only we could figure out how to get lazy 17 year old boys to fill out college applications. I am sure their parents would be grateful.
Not exactly friendly comments.
Tanker, actually what I was going for was:
Anyone doesn't do well in school-Their own damned fault.
Anon- you can't deny that quality education has historically been readily available to white men specifically those with means. I think lamenting the fact that people besides white men are taking more advantage of the availability of education is... silly to say the least. I DO however think it is unfortunate if these young men are being prevented from going to school by their race or gender, as that is wrong.
And as far as 17 year old boys go, I was joking, and making a reference to the many 17 year old boys I have known in recent years who did little but play video games and watch sports and seemed to have some trouble getting into college. This wasn't meant as hostile, it is just a reflection of my experience.
And I am also glad I'm not the mother of your two sons, mostly because I have absolutely no desire to be anyone's mother at all ever. (Shocking, I know)
I don't hate men, I hate whiners.
Shinobi doesn't veil her hostility. Don't forget she won Best Youthful, Idealistic Outrage Award
anon, Shinobi has answered you herself, but I would say that 'not being friendly' is a million miles away from thinly veiled hostility towards men.
For my part, I saw no hostility and am heartily surprised that you did.
I've never been to your blog before so perhaps this is an inside joke but...what the hell is a Dave/Female ratio? Presumably it's something other than a male/female ratio? Anyone?
Last anon: The Dave/Female ratio is the ratio of Daves to females, in this case, on shinobi's campus. Capish?
Shinobi, two comments. I might have told you this before, but i ran into a different segretory phenomenon in mathematics. I once (well, twice-i got sick) took an advanced calc course where a divide was obvious. In the front row were five Chinese men who never scored lower than 96 on any test, and liked to share little mathematical jokes with the professor. then came a small, youngish, red-headed girl, who liked to say things in her high-pitched little-girl voice, like "the LaPlace transform is a device which transports things from the land of calculus to the land of algebra." She score usually around 65. (70 got you an "A" in this class.) She is now a professional actuarial, having gotten her masters with an emphasis in statistics.
The rest of us, white males, left to our own devices, scorede in the 40s, earning the lethal C (a "C" could end your grad school career). Fortunately, the red headed girl was the sister of a friend of mine, and she was nice enough to explain thingws to me, usually in terms suited for a child's picture book. It worked well enough for me to get a "B" in the course.
Second note: During the period from 1966 to 1970, i helped run a safe house for those fleeing the draft, or who had deserted the military. It was a paranoid time, and most people who stayed there did not venture out, nor even look out the windows. Some stayed there for a year or two. There was no TV, and the record collection was thin. thus the need to develop new entertainment.
The result was a game called "motherball." In this game, two contestants knelt in doorways conveniently exactly across the hall from each other. A rubber ball about the sizze of a softball was used. the object was to score by throwing the ball past your opponent into the room beyond. If your opponent stopped the ball and captured it, it became his turn. One had to throw the ball within reach. if a ball was thrown over a contestant's hands into his room, the thrower was disqualified, and usually denied the next meal. In fact, "thrusts," as they were termed, were usually aimed low, often at the genitals.
The contestants were encouraged to think of the doorway as their mothers' vulvas, and the room behind them as their mothers' wombs. Each opponent would chant, "I will defend my mother's womb" or "My moyther's womb will not be vilated" over and over, workig himself into a frenzy.
needless to say, the contests were spirited, and each let of a thrust was met with catcalls , like, "I've whored your mother, you poor shit!" things often became rancourous, but the game survived for many years. it was almost addictive.
One could smell the testosterone!
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