"Woman and Cars" misses the point

[David Ziglin <davidz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was in on this thread early on.  I asked the question, "what are we doing
to our children that a 1999 teenage female should think it weird to drive
with two feet."

Immediately afterward (connection or not) this thread evolved to "woman and
cars."  I recalled that "we had all been here before" and so refrained from
further comment although I worried about the direction being taken, but as
the beat goes on I have to jump in again.  FWIW, I had spent 30 years as a
high school teacher closely watching and studying how people learn,
especially how people learn gender roles and attitudes.  This is not a
casual interest of mine.  Although I have run away from education ( the
rabbit hole ), I continue to embrace my interest

I have always been a feminist and have had a keen concern for what we teach
and don't teach our female children especially as I believe that they have
suffered greatly as a result.  However, my concern *has not* been limited
to female endoctrination - not by any means.  The insidiousness of
enculturation molds all of us, male and female alike.  And so, to talk
about and think in terms of "women and cars" is to miss a larger important
point: human beings, males and females alike, are the products of the
*interaction* of nature and nurture.  Nature and Nurture *cannot* be
separated.

At least a couple of our female listers have pointed out the importance of
nurture in making females comfortable with machines.  This is of course
dead on correct.  "Women comfortable with machines", contrary to popular
misunderstanding, *is not* behavior which contradicts nature.  That females
are innately *able* to do "guy stuff" is not odd at all - not at all.  It
is *in fact* natural.  However, actually doing guy stuff may be generally
odd for females only given the restraints and context of our culture.

GENERALIZATIONS : Very often people attempt to belittle or deflate a
position or observation by saying, "that's a generalization."  General
statements are not inherently true or untrue; there is nothing whatever
wrong or useless in dealing with accurate generalizations.  An accurate
generalization is simply an accurate generalization.

                  Generally, our culture does not value or encourage or
teach its female children mechanical skills.  Obviously!  And, yes,
obviously, there are exceptions to these generalizations; that is why they
are called generalizations.  But why point them out?  I too know women who
have rebuilt their own cars and motorcycles - so what?  These exceptions
only deflect from the point.  Those exceptions in no way whatever change
the simple fact that women in our culture - despite their amazing human
potential - are *generally* deprived of a mechanical education, are taught
that these skills are "masculine" and not appropriate for females, and are
as a result generally at the mercy of those who would take advantage of
their ignorance.  ( I continue to encounter women who will buy 3 batteries
a year when their engines start poorly or when tuned for winter on the
advice of their mechanic.

                 On the other hand, I recently bought a truck from a fellow
who had tried to replace the plugs to pass emissions.  He broke *all* of
the plugs.  When we discussed my sports cars, he was sorry for me that none
of them had front wheel drive : "You drove your RX7 here in the snow !!!!"
)

THE FEMALE VS THE MALE BRAIN :  This is an extremely delicate topic and
*not* because of political correctness questions.  The subject is further
complicated because we are awash in pop-pseudoscience such as MEN ARE FROM
MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS.  Especially as many many people *want* there to
be distinct male/female differences beyond the obvious, these cutesy pie,
mass-appeal publications are in popular demand and make dime-a-dozen
pop-psychologists wealthy.

                 Determining differences in male and female brains is
extremely difficult - extremely.  For one thing we begin to learn gender
roles at the moment of birth.  In fact, some argue that our "maleness and
femaleness" is taught *before* birth when sex is determined before birth.
This should not be a surprise.

                In any case, whatever differences that exist between the
male and female brain is evident and exists *only* in a very broad
statistical sense.  For example, given that we can trust the difficult and
primative research that has been so far in male/female brain comparisons,
we *might* conclude that if we examine 1,000,000 males vs 1,000,000 females
there is a slight bent in males towards the mechanical compared to females.
Presuming that this is true - so what?  That supposed difference is
essentially without meaning especially as it can be easily superseded by
education.  That anyone should direct one's life or anyone else's life on
the basis of this minor supposed statistical leaning is absurd.


                 As a teacher I had encountered literally hundreds of
parents who on the basis of their popular misunderstanding of "maleness"
and "femaleness" (as in the statistical leaning sited above for example,
and worse superstition) have disabled their children and squelched their
childrens' potential.  I could give you endless blood curdling examples.
Here is just one small example from the Pick and Save rather than the high
school :

                 A young 90's father  (reversed baseball cap, etc.) was
pushing his tiny child around in a grocery cart.  I could not tell if the
child was a girl or a boy - very young.  The child began to cry.  The
father, in an attempt to stop his child's crying said, "Do you want people
to think that you're a girl?"  I wanted to say, "Quiet, sir, do you want
people to think that you're an a$$hole."  I was so disgusted that I called
the fellow on it.  He pointed out that it was not my business how he raised
his child ( "kid" he actually said.)

I emphatically insisted that, yes, it *was* in fact my business as long as
I had to live in a society and world that is determined by his kind of
disabling and otherwise damaging ignorance.  This child is fast on his way
to learning that women do not have the "emotional balls" to be, for
example, a president and that women are weak, that crying is inherently a
behavior of - horrors - girls.  And worse, that crying is somehow by
definition bad.

GUY THINGS AND EDUCATION : there is no special value in being able to
rebuild a Ferrari engine blindfolded or to changing one's own oil or to
cutting out a dress and sowing it together or in climbing a tree.  What is
important, IMHO, is a basic understanding of mechanical relationships, tool
use, an understanding and appreciation of one's physical abilities and so
on.  It seems to be that it is a matter of simple self preservation to know
that if you have spun that engine over for 5 minutes straight and the
engine won't start the solution is not a new battery.  There is nothing
male or female about this kind of miseducation or misunderstanding.
Nevertheless, our male children as well as female children are being
deprived of these basics.

                            Because parents have put such twisted value on
"bottom line" and "an impressive file" leading to a "prestigious school"
leading to " a well paying job" and an industry cog,  our male children too
are being disabled, are being deprived of basic human skills and
experiences.  For example, while shop courses are open to any student in
school, we have created a reality where manual skill is an area of concern
only for "lower class males", for male losers, for blue collars.  Those
"college bound" future actuaries cannot be found in woodworking or welding
or small engine repair courses.  In fact, so many parents are so street
wise that they force their children to take elective courses such as Early
American Literature ( a great area of study, but .... ) only because "it
will look good on your records" rather than "Contemporary Literature", for
example.  And so, we have graduates who have some vague experience with
James Fenimore Cooper and none whatever with Toni Morrison or Raymond
Carver or Jane Smiley.

I had better stop, no?   I thank you for listening to this.  I apologize to
those who have ridden this wave with me a couple of years ago.  Today I am
even more emphatic in my thinking than then - what can I do?.

Nothing hurt me as a teacher so much as to see the profoundly amazing
potential of our children (male and female) being watered down and dumbed
down, as to see  bars being lowered for males and females for the sake of
vaccuous self esteem and essentially empty goals - all to the point of
obscene insult to them.


Simply, as Plato said, what is honored in a society will be nurtured there.


David

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