The Machinery of Night

Posted 3:01 PM by Angie Schultz

Today on Illogical Male

Oh, goodie, the Larry Summers thing is still cooking along. I'm working on a long post on the topic (that is to say, a second one), but I got angry, bored, and frustrated with it about halfway through, and decided to give it a rest. I figured I'd be late to the party, but I guess not.

The short version of the post is: While Nancy Hopkins's fainting spell was decidedly unattractive, the reactions of many blog commenters (largely, but not solely, male) is not any more savory. The collective opinion seems to be, "Thank god someone finally had the balls to stand up and say what we all know: men are different from women. Not better, naturally, just different. Er, except in science, where they damn well are better. It's time you broads accepted that. Now get up and get me a beer, bitch."

I, of course, exaggerate for comic effect. Of course.

Examples to be found here and here (mainly in the comments), among other places.

The reaction from the chromosomally-diverse reminds me of a Dilbert strip (from 12/22/97, which I discovered via this invaluable resource):

Dan: Hi, I'm Dan the illogical ~~scientist~~ man. I'm much ~~smarter~~ better at science than you because ~~scientists have invented many things~~ men are better at math.

~~Dilbert~~ Angie: But those are *other* ~~scientists~~ men, not you.

Dan: Apparently you don't understand science.

Now if y'all will excuse me, I have to go correct the proofs of my forthcoming math-heavy paper on geometric shapes rotating in 3D.

And make dinner.