J_Taylor comments on Sayeth the Girl - Less Wrong

47 Post author: Alicorn 19 July 2009 10:24PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 22 February 2013 02:35:04PM *  7 points [-]

I am simply astounded at the men here confidently asserting that they aren't alienating women when they talk about "getting" "attractive women" and speak of women as symbols of male success or indeed accessories for a successful male. This reduces me and other females (including female rationalists) to the category of a fancy car or a big house, and I feel humiliated when I read it.

If a woman publicly asserts that she wants to "get" an "attractive man", would you also think that she is being alienating?

Most people, regardless of whether they are men or women, want attractive partners, and yet, in my experience, only men are accused of being alienating or superficial or even sexist when they are honest about their desires.

In addition, insofar as successful men are significantly more likely than not-so-successful men to attract women whom they find attractive, having an attractive girlfriend does signal that you are successful.

Comment author: J_Taylor 26 February 2013 04:24:59AM -1 points [-]

Most people, regardless of whether they are men or women, want attractive partners, and yet, in my experience, only men are accused of being alienating or superficial or even sexist when they are honest about their desires.

As a general rule, everyone is constantly accusing everyone else of everything.

Comment author: wedrifid 26 February 2013 10:53:01AM 5 points [-]

As a general rule, everyone is constantly accusing everyone else of everything.

This seems deep, open minded, egalitarian and... blatantly false. People aren't constantly accusing everyone else of everything. Moreover some people do more accusing than others, some people receive more accusations than others and some kinds of accusations are received more positively by observers than others. Anyone who believed (or, rather, anyone who alieved) your theory would make poor predictions of human behavior and make correspondingly bad social decisions.

Comment author: J_Taylor 27 February 2013 03:22:37AM 3 points [-]

This seems deep, open minded, egalitarian and... blatantly false.

I was honestly going more for silly, cynical, misanthropic and... obviously hyperbole.

If you do not mind me quoting a different part of this thread momentarily:

To the extent that it is a joke it is a bad joke, inappropriate to the context, with an undesirable expected influence, encouraging flawed patterns of thought.

I do not understand what flawed patterns of thought I am encouraging. Could you elaborate a bit?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 27 February 2013 04:50:56AM 4 points [-]

I do not understand what flawed patterns of thought I am encouraging. Could you elaborate a bit?

It's related to the fallacy of gray.

Comment author: Gastogh 26 February 2013 11:32:08AM 0 points [-]

To me it seems like a joke.

Comment author: wedrifid 26 February 2013 11:41:11AM *  6 points [-]

To me it seems like a joke.

To the extent that it is a joke it is a bad joke, inappropriate to the context, with an undesirable expected influence, encouraging flawed patterns of thought. ie. The feature of humor that allows it to bypass critical facilities would makes the joke interpretation worse than a more direct interpretation.

Something being a 'joke' does not make it immune from criticism. Or, rather, it often does make it immune from criticism but this is unfortunate. This comment in response to the text that it quotes being overwhelmingly positively received is a negative sign. I speculate (or perhaps merely hope) that in a different thread it may not have been given as much leeway.