From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On 25 Dec 2008 20:57:00 GMT, Ilmari Karonen   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.misc:   
      
   > On 2008-12-07, Suzanne Blom  wrote:   
      
   >> "David Friedman"  wrote in message   
   >> news:ddfr-B60318.11265306122008@newsfarm.ams.highwinds-media.com...   
      
   [...]   
      
   >>> It's obvious that some women are more stupid than some   
   >>> men and some men are more stupid than some women. The   
   >>> claim "there are more very stupid men than very stupid   
   >>> women, and more very smart men than very smart women"   
   >>> doesn't translate as "women are stupider than men."   
      
   >> For all practical purposes it does.  If women are never   
   >> as smart as the  smartest man, then one has a   
   >> justification for not hiring them for jobs  requiring   
   >> high intelligence, for discriminating against them in   
   >> letting them  into colleges, etc, because, after all,   
   >> "the poor dears won't be able to  cope at the highest   
   >> levels anyway."  Saying, "Oh, but the average is the   
   >> same" just doesn't cut it.   
      
   > That sounds like a remarkably elitist position.  You're   
   > essentially saying "Oh, screw the majority of the   
   > population, they don't matter anyway.  All I care about   
   > is the top percentile."   
      
   > About the most charitable interpretation I can muster is   
   > that you're only ascribing the tendency to focus on the   
   > highest levels to _other_ people, and claiming that, if   
   > women are perceived to be less often among in the top   
   > percentile, this will lead to fewer opportunities offered   
   > to _all_ women.   
      
   That obviously is what she's saying.   
      
   [...]   
      
   Brian   
      
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