Wednesday, March 01, 2006

To Be Fair, the Academy Did Overlook Cruising* Back in 1980.... The Christian youth group Generation Life is calling upon wicked Hollywood to stop the GLAADness and, as rumored dirty-song-subject and... [Hit and Run] From the Christians' complaint: The movies which you have consistently chosen to highlight for us as "the best of the best" do not represent our generation's conscience. In 1999, the Academy chose to give the Oscar to the best supporting portrayal of an abortionist in the film The Cider House Rules. I haven't seen the other movies they're upset about, but I have seen The Cider House Rules. All I can say about someone who would watch that movie and decide the "abortionist" character was morally objectionable is: I sure hope they never have daughters. 11:48:19 AM    comment () trackback () New article: Why are there comparatively few women in science?. Here in Cambridge, the discussion about Larry Summers just won't die, so I've completed a draft of a new article... http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science Please comment/correct.  Thanks in advance. [Update:  The Chronicle of Higher Education is hosting a discussion on the departure of Summers.  Visit http://chronicle.com/colloquy/ tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 pm.] [Philip Greenspun Weblog] His conclusion: Most women take jobs primarily in order to earn a paycheck. Women prefer a higher salary to a lower salary. Jobs in science pay far less than jobs in the professions and business held by women of similar ability. A lot of men are irrational, romantic, stubborn, and unwilling to admit that they've made a big mistake. With Occam's Razor, we should not need to bring in the FBI to solve the mystery of why there are more men than women who have chosen to stick with the choice that they made at age 18 to be a scientist or mathematician. I don't know if he's right, but his theory makes more sense than either the "official" conspiracy theories about sexism or the notion that women aren't smart enough. 10:34:55 AM    comment () trackback ()

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