Asymmetric comments on LW Women- Minimizing the Inferential Distance - Less Wrong

58 [deleted] 25 November 2012 11:33PM

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Comment author: thomblake 26 November 2012 07:14:05PM 24 points [-]

For me, this post is not doing any favors for the "women's experiences are fundamentally different" camp. Most of these sound like stories from my own life. Of course, "Why are your characters always girls?" is probably a harder question for a boy than a girl.

I'd guess these mostly work as stories of "growing up geeky".

The only ones that didn't resonate were the last one about not playing M:tG anymore (probably since I've never stopped appearing like a geek) and the "Star wars characters are mostly male", which does seem worth mentioning.

MLP:FiM is probably a good available example of the reverse phenomenon. The positions of power are occupied by females. There are very few male characters (though a significantly more even ratio than Star Wars), and they seem to be shoehorned in as male stereotypes. I suggest male readers ruminate on this aspect of the show until it seems a bit disturbing. And then notice that females can experience this when watching most things.

Comment author: Asymmetric 27 November 2012 01:56:48PM 1 point [-]

Minus the catcalling, too, I assume?

Comment author: [deleted] 27 November 2012 02:19:42PM 2 points [-]

Unwanted female attention toward men exists, but is certainly less threatening, less pervasive, and more socially acceptable.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 27 November 2012 03:18:32PM *  2 points [-]

More socially acceptable is part of the problem-- a man who says he didn't want advances from/sex with a woman who's at least reasonably attractive will mostly be told he doesn't appreciate his good luck.

Comment author: DaFranker 27 November 2012 03:41:02PM 0 points [-]

More socially acceptable is part of the problem-- a man who says he didn't want advances from/sex with a woman who's at least reasonable attractive will mostly be told he doesn't appreciate his good luck.

I don't know quite how relevant and which way the causal arrows are pointing, but this seems to add up somehow with the fact that on average women get more dates and more mates than men, explained by the phenomenon that fewer men date and mate way more women. It also seems to clash up weird with the social notion that women should be more selective of their partners while men should go for whatever's hottest or, failing that, available. (terminology intentionally representative of what I perceive to be social norm)