
'I'm Not Your Wife' A New Study Points to a Hidden Form of Sexism - mikexstudios
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/im-not-your-wife-a-new-study-points-to-a-hidden-form-of-sexism/258057/
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DanielBMarkham
I've finally reached the point I can't tell the difference between a serious
academic article and something from The Onion.

Trying to take this seriously, I believe the authors of the study have
discovered, quite shockingly it seems, that men tend to extrapolate
experiences they have in one social context into another. Women are not
mentioned at all in this regard. One assumes they are either immune or did not
deserve equal attention from the researchers.

That's about all I got. Plus there was some dragging in of current politics --
it can't be that these types of things have political overtones, can it?
Heaven forfend!

My sarcasm font is broken, so I'll just come out and say it: this is link and
argument bait and accomplishes nothing whatsoever except to make people argue
with each other about "hidden biases". One supposes that if these biases were
truly hidden that arguing about them would be impossible, yet somehow it still
occurs.

Definitely not worth an upvote.

ADD: I'll continue the rant a bit more. We have lot of a lot of good articles
sliding off the new page -- hell, for what it's worth somebody submitted my
latest blog article just a couple of hours ago on cool CSS tricks -- and the
top stories on here now are along the lines of "I'm not your wife", "Mean
things border agents did to me" and "Dear Horuku"? I love meta talk and
pushing boundaries when it comes to thinking through problems in a unique way,
and I even love a good thought-provoking slice-of-life or political story, but
this stuff is just empty-headed garbage designed to waste time. </rant>

I feel better now. :)

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rsanchez1
You're totally ranting about the wrong thing. What you should be ranting about
is people who keep confusing HN with reddit.

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mutagen
I think we subconsciously evaluate most of our relationships through the lens
of previous relationships. We compare our first boss to our fathers and
mothers and teachers, previous authority figures. We compare our co-workers to
our friends, our roommates or classmates or the childhood friends we kept in
touch with. And clearly, these men in "traditional" marriages are evaluating
their women co-workers in terms of their primary female relationship, which
doesn't work out well for equality. As the article points out, much of this is
unconscious, even opposite of what they think they're doing.

That really makes me wonder about my professional and personal relationships.
While I'm fortunate to have been exposed to a wide variety of people of both
genders in professional and social circles, I wonder what unconscious biases
are still affecting my professional relationships.

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drivebyacct2
I'm gay and I don't evaluate other men or their capabilities against those
that I have with my partner. (In fact, it could be scary or hilarious
depending on which way I might try to do that).

I understand this explanation and at first I was inclined to go along with it,
but I'm almost more disturbed by the conclusion. [These] men have such limited
exposure to "real" or other women that they can only shoe-horn other women as
they perceive them? Based off a microscopic sample?

Or am I just way out in left field? I don't mean to be.

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plorkyeran
The causal relation that this article is supporting seems backwards. They
aren't biased against women in the workplace because they're in a traditional
marriage; they're in a traditional marriage because they're biased against
women in the workplace and so would be less likely to marry a woman that wants
a "modern" marriage.

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sp332
I think the direction is pretty plausible. I often treat people according to
whoever I was last talking to. And I catch myself interpreting women's
behavior according to whichever woman I last had a long conversation with.

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lifeisstillgood
Just as a thought experiment, do you think Mary Zuckerberg, the 28 year old
founder of Facebook whose casual jeans and hoodie so outrages the investment
community would be an ideal role model for entrepreneurs in Hacker News?

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theorique
(1) _Mary_ Zuckerberg?

(2) In what way is this related to the article. His wife is a recent medical
school graduate and it's not known yet what her future work plans are.

(3) Zuckerberg has not been cited for being either uncommonly progressive or
uncommonly sexist in his views on women in the workplace. What does he have to
do with the questions raised in the _Atlantic_ article?

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lifeisstillgood
No, if the _person_ who founded Facebook had been a female graduate from the
Ivy League, do you think that Facebooks history to date would have been the
same.

The temptation (mine anyway) is to say yes, and prove what a well balanced
fellow I am. But I ask further down if you say yes, why yes? I noticed that
the real Mark got married and I did not even know he had a relationship. But I
swear if Mary Zuckerberg, billionairess, famous Internet entrprenuer had been
engaged the whole world would know his face, shoe size and that famous Oprah
interview ...

So the media would have been different for sure. Would that have mattered?

Just questions to get at our own filters

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Mz
Celebrities of both sexes have choices to make regarding how much to downplay
their private life. Some celebrities are very good at keeping their families
mostly out of it. Others are not. I am not so sure that's a gender thing. My
marriage was a very private matter and we both protected it from prying
outsiders.

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7952
People see management as a way of fulfilling their own life goals rather than
an opportunity to genuinely help develop members of their team. The status of
the managers personal life is going to have a huge impact on what particular
goals they have. In my completely anecdotal experience; married men with kids
have much higher expectation of deference than other groups.

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delinka
"Someone I know, gender unimportant, that only reads the ads and the comics.
I'm just asking if you're doing similar."

This is not a sexist line of thinking. I would, however, consider it somewhat
rude. No, it's my paper and I bought it and you have no right to expect any
share of it ... unless I'm kind enough to drop it when I'm done or take only
the sections I want.

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carsongross
I'm glad that we keep the focus tight here at sexist news.

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rsanchez1
Thanks, reddit.

