New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | February 7, 2006

Are boys genetically incapable of turning in homework? Cathy Young investigates the new gender crisis in education.

Comments

Ron Hardin|2.7.06 @ 9:29AM|#

Guys don't like being addressed as women, in school or out.

That's also why the MSM is now entirely soap opera news.

No guys watching.

|2.7.06 @ 9:32AM|#

Here's some data from the 1959, '60 and '62 (Franklin Community High School, Franklin Indiana), high school yearbooks:

1959
Top Ten Seniors(grades): 1 guy, 9 girls.
Top Underclassmen: 4 guys, 21 girls
1960
Seniors : 4 guys, 6 girls
Underclassmen: 7 guys, 19 girls
1962
Seniors : 3 guys, 7 girls
Underclassmen: 2 guys, 13 girls

Totals: 21 guys, 75 girls

Is this significantly different than today's situation?

FWIW, some real analyses with real data:
"Sex Differences in Mathematical Aptitude"
http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/math.htm
and "Women and Minorities in Science"
http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/women_and_minorities_in_science.htm

|2.7.06 @ 9:38AM|#

But 9 out of 10 guys prefer the new Reason valentine banner ad to "Carpet Humping Guy"!

|2.7.06 @ 9:41AM|#

Umbriel, you hit the nail on the head!!!!!

I actually gave Reason subscriptions out this year as christmas presents, but none of my buddies called to tell me they were delivered by that cutie!!!!

|2.7.06 @ 9:42AM|#

The tenth would be Herrick?

|2.7.06 @ 9:48AM|#

T-shirts with such slogans as "Girls rule, boys drool,"

That's nothing. My daughter has a t-shirt that says "Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them"

Face it. Boys are icky and they spend all their time thinking about girls in red bikinis (including myself).

|2.7.06 @ 9:50AM|#

Well, if the girls were all wearing red bikinis we'd spend all day thinking about them!

|2.7.06 @ 9:52AM|#

How many threads will be devoted entirely to RPG? (Reason Pillow Girl)

And why is it not surprising that everybody's favorite topic is abbreviated RPG? :)

Timothy|2.7.06 @ 9:59AM|#

Thoreau: 42.

And because we're all massive dorks. I think libertarians have a higher dork ratio than other political persuasions. But I must say that I am a fan of the Reason Pillow Girl.

|2.7.06 @ 10:03AM|#

"I think libertarians have a higher dork ratio than other political persuasions."

Only if you're including anarcho-capitalists as a subset of libertarians. (And I say that as one.)

Ron Hardin|2.7.06 @ 10:15AM|#

It's intelligent design.

It's easier to give guys very low standards than to make women a good deal.

Xmas|2.7.06 @ 10:28AM|#

Can I turn this into a Fark thread?

I dunno, that Pillow Girl has sharp knees. I certainly wouldn't date her.

|2.7.06 @ 10:35AM|#

Carpet Humping Guy is staring up her crotch.
Maybe he'll ask her out.
Or maybe he'll continue to hump the carpet in quiet desperation...

|2.7.06 @ 10:35AM|#

Not to join this obsession with the Reason Pillow Girl™; however, I must voice some mild surprise that she wasn't a Suicide Girl or something similarly gothic/pierced. Just knowing the proclivities around here and all.

Back to the article: I read with interest the suit asking for retroactive grade increases as equitable relief. What an excellent idea. A kind of reparations for being a boy. Although I did really well in high school and in law school, I could use a boost for my days at the Florida Drinking Acad--I mean, the University of Florida. I wouldn't have behaved so foolishly but for the oppression.

|2.7.06 @ 10:35AM|#

Said this in another thread, I'll say it again:

I don't want to burst any bubbles, but the RPG's face looks... er, um... a wee bit photoshopped. Something about the way the chin meets the neck. Could reason be pulling a fast one on us commentators, disguising a totally butterfaced intern using poor photoshop skills? I hope not.

|2.7.06 @ 10:37AM|#

Randolph-

We could always file a lawsuit and find out more about her during the discovery process.

|2.7.06 @ 10:39AM|#

how interesting - the first blog commentator class action suit? Can we get Dave W. involved?

|2.7.06 @ 10:52AM|#

My daughter has a t-shirt that says "Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them"

I saw that t-shirt a couple weeks back. I, a boy all my life, thought it was funny.

|2.7.06 @ 10:52AM|#

I have a crackpot theory about the decline in male college graduates: men can now get sex without marriage, so there's less incentive to rack up a good job & income to land a decent wife.

|2.7.06 @ 11:05AM|#

That is a crackpot theory, Todd. Especially since the guys who make more money generally get to have more non-marital sex.

|2.7.06 @ 11:07AM|#

how interesting - the first blog commentator class action suit? Can we get Dave W. involved?

I don't know about tat, but I had some random thoughts, related to this story:

- I think there are some men's rights type adjustments coming, but that it will relate to divorce and custody, not schools.

- I remember being at Berkeley law school in the early 90s and being presented with the first wave of argument that school favored the distaff too much. My response was: look, at this highly competitive school we are sitting in right now, there are a lot more females than males. Needless to say, I was about as popular there as I am here. Based on Cathy's article, it looks like I was just ahead of my time.

- getting back to custody & divorce: I wonder whether divorce rates and/or custody arrangements have anything to do with the gap. In other words, if custody hearings prefer mothers, does this preference somehow translate into girls from those homes generally doing better in school?

- I mean, maybe schoolteachers think that males are toxic and maybe they don't (cf, the *faculty* at Berkeley law school seemed a lot more reasonable on gender issues than my fellow students). However, I do know a groop that tends to be obsessed with how toxic males are: divorcees who dislike their ex-husbands. Maybe we need spiteful ex-spouses of both genders raising the kids in equal measure, no?

|2.7.06 @ 11:11AM|#

Get back on topic, Dave W. This thread is about Reason Pillow Girl.

|2.7.06 @ 11:31AM|#

I seem to remember liking a book called "Boys Themselves" about the value of single sex education for boys. It's probably out of print, but I think work a look.
And yep, I've got to agree that there is something a bit odd about the head of RPG, maybe it's just a perspective thing, it seems like her head and shoulders are much closer to the lens than her legs, like she is leaning towards the camera.

|2.7.06 @ 11:31AM|#

Yet the fact is that in this knowledge-based economy, men without a higher education are increasingly falling behind.

It's hard to understand exactly what this means. If it's ony saying that men without a higher education are falling behind in terms of education, it's a tautololgy.

If it's saying that men without a higher education are falling behind in the economy, is it women they are falling behind, educated men they are falling behind, or both? And they are falling behind at an increasing rate? Over what period of time?

Given that this is presented as a "fact," I'd like to see some substantiation of it. I'm not even sur e that it is a fact that "this" economy is knowledge-based, since I'm not quite sure what it means for an economy to be knowledged based.

|2.7.06 @ 11:35AM|#

Yup, them are some nice pillows.

|2.7.06 @ 11:37AM|#

I'd say that the attention we're lavishing on RPG may be relevant for those who want to make generalizations about male behavior.

|2.7.06 @ 11:39AM|#

I don't know about the RPG, thoreau, but I'd like to note for the record that I was educated in Tampa, Florida, where hot, young female teachers like to sleep with male students. Good for morale.

|2.7.06 @ 11:42AM|#

That is a crackpot theory, Todd. Especially since the guys who make more money generally get to have more non-marital sex.
I don't know about that. A gym membership and styling wardrobe is cheaper than University tuition, and will get you a lot more non-marital sex than a PHD in Mathmatics.

I think libertarians have a higher dork ratio than other political persuasions.
In terms of sexuality, the libertarians have a higher dork ratio than other political persuasions (however, the drug and debauchery, gun-toting, wild-ass branch of the libertarian party has more than it's share of alpha-males - It is those Milton Friedman quoting Economists, and of course Objectivists that are scaring away all the babes! :) ). In terms of who could beat up who (the most intelligent way to rate political parties), the Libertarian party could probably take out the Greens, and certainly the Communists (The American variety Communist isn't going to be fighting The Revolution without a government grant and "Fair Trade" coffee involved)... Republicans and Democrats would beat us up, but only because of superior numbers.

|2.7.06 @ 11:52AM|#

I'd say that the attention we're lavishing on RPG may be relevant for those who want to make generalizations about male behavior.

How true, thoreau. The juxtaposition was the first thing that struck me when I visited the site this morning. Heh.

Ron Hardin|2.7.06 @ 11:56AM|#

Yup, them are some nice pillows.

And when upon your dainty breast I lay
My wearied head, more soft than eiderdown

- Wm. Nathan Stedman

|2.7.06 @ 12:08PM|#

Libertarians should have no problem with the anti gun Greens and Democrats should the free for all start.

Timothy|2.7.06 @ 12:16PM|#

I'd like to note for the record that I was educated in Tampa, Florida, where hot, young female teachers like to sleep with male students. Good for morale.

I'd like to note for the record that I was educated in Oregon, where all the hot girls migrate south for the winter.

fyodor|2.7.06 @ 12:17PM|#

I don't know about that. A gym membership and styling wardrobe is cheaper than University tuition, and will get you a lot more non-marital sex than a PHD in Mathmatics.

I think the point of the chap who called it a crackpot theory is that whatever was previously advantageous to scoring a wife is now advantageous for scoring non-marital sex, thus the shift from marital to non-marital sex in our society is irrelevant to what men do to get it. Since I don't know if a PHD in Mathematics was ever an alpha male designation, that comparison hardly seems convincing, in and of itself. Taken at a more abstract level, maybe there's something to the notion that the attributes that attract non-marital sex require less education than those that attract marriage.

But it still seems like a crackpot theory! :-)

Timothy|2.7.06 @ 12:19PM|#

I would also like to note that it is most definitely not the Friedman quoting Economists driving away the babes, but I do think blaming the Objectivists is probably the right call.

|2.7.06 @ 12:19PM|#

A gym membership and styling wardrobe is cheaper than University tuition, and will get you a lot more non-marital sex than a PHD in Mathmatics [sic].

I beg to differ.

Pro Libertate--

I was in Gainesville for a conference in November. I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to discover that the Purple Porpoise is no more. That place, and Dolfin shorts, cost me many GPA points, especially as an undergraduate.

|2.7.06 @ 12:30PM|#

A Ph.D. in Mathematics has never been an alpha male designator. It is, however, an indicator for musical talent and prodigious drinking.

Now, a Ph.D. in physics, OTOH, that's the REAL alpha male designatore! :)

|2.7.06 @ 12:32PM|#

It is not, however, a designator of good speleeng.

|2.7.06 @ 12:33PM|#

Chuck, I noted the demise of the Porpoise in my last trip to Gainesville (I'm in Tampa, so it's not a big trek up there). Sad. Also gone are Skeeters, C.J.'s, and, yes, Dolphin shorts (with tanktops). So sad. I think Burrito Brothers is still there, though :)

I'd have won a Nobel Prize in something by now if it hadn't been for that school and its many temptations. Both my GPA and my IQ suffered, I think. I sometimes forget why I went to UF instead of a pursuing an Ivy League school, then I remember my first trip to Gainesville and the sudden realization that it was, in fact, a giant Hooters.

|2.7.06 @ 1:02PM|#

I would also like to note that it is most definitely not the Friedman quoting Economists driving away the babes, but I do think blaming the Objectivists is probably the right call.

Nah. Objectivists hanging out here is like a Mensa meeting ordering takeout from the Special Olympics cafeteria.

|2.7.06 @ 1:02PM|#

I'm still going to hold by my Crackpot Theory(tm). It explains the phenomenon of the young hot girl hooking up with the penniless biker rather than the well paid computer geek.

Timothy|2.7.06 @ 1:04PM|#

A Ph.D. in Mathematics has never been an alpha male designator. It is, however, an indicator for musical talent and prodigious drinking.

Jesus ain't that the truth. I made the mistake of befriending an alcoholic math doctoral student from England during my undergrad years...I am still paying off the bar tab.

|2.7.06 @ 1:15PM|#

That's nothing. My daughter has a t-shirt that says "Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them"

mk,

If I remember correctly, a few years ago the designer of that product line (varies from t-shirts to notebooks to accessories, etc.) agreed to stop producing and distributing the "boys are stupid. throw rocks at them" merch because of a lawsuit (at least one lawsuit, maybe more...). I think your daughter's t-shirt might be condsidered "vintage" in that case.


Retroactive grade-raising for "boys acting like boys"? What about me? What about a girl who, in her day, could handle drugs and alcohol and procrastination like any rebellious boy? Wait - don't tell me - retroactive grade-lowering for girls like me for "not being girly enough".

|2.7.06 @ 1:18PM|#

Yes, and Pop Rocks and Pixie Sticks three meals a day. And extra credit for giving girls the cooties. And mandatory video games every afternoon in class.

Yes, let's do have Peter Pan and the Neverland Boys pass educational laws.

Peter Pan|2.7.06 @ 1:29PM|#

If only I were old enough to hold office...

R C Dean|2.7.06 @ 1:44PM|#

I'd like to note for the record that I was educated in Tampa, Florida, where hot, young female teachers like to sleep with male students. Good for morale.

Probably good for attendance, too.

Captain Holly|2.7.06 @ 2:09PM|#

If only I were old enough to hold office...

Peter, you may be a boy in earth years, but in Neverland years, you're ancient.

Captain Holly|2.7.06 @ 2:11PM|#

Or should that be reversed? Haven't ever been to Neverland. Even the one in California.

Peter Pan|2.7.06 @ 2:12PM|#

Peter, you may be a boy in earth years, but in Neverland years, you're ancient.

Tell that to the asshole at the liquor store who refuses to sell to me.

|2.7.06 @ 4:04PM|#

Smacky-

What were they sued for? Did some boy actually get pelted with rocks?

|2.7.06 @ 4:04PM|#

(to tune of "Surfer Girl" by the Beach Boys)

Reason Pillow Girl, little one
Made my heart come all undone
Do you love me, Reason Pillow Girl?
Pillow Girl ... my Reason Pillow Girl

I have watched you in that ad
Making all us dorks so glad
Do you love me, Reason Pillow Girl?
Pillow Girl ... Pillow girl

We could read Reason together
While our love would grow
And a woody I would have, 'bout everywhere we go
So I say from me to you
Make Rand's fireplace scene come true
Do you love me, Reason Pillow Girl?

|2.7.06 @ 4:18PM|#

or, to the tune of "Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen:

One saturday I took a look at hit and run
The crew was there, talking 'bout liquor and guns

Pillow girl! Please dance with me
talk econo-finance with me
we'll play in Warcraft World
Just you and me Pillow girl

|2.7.06 @ 4:43PM|#

OK, Randolph Carter's is better.

Dan H.|2.7.06 @ 5:20PM|#

I wonder if it could be something as simple as this:

Consider the situation ca 1960. Let's say that 100% of men go to work. Maybe 50% of women do. But of the 100% of men that go to work, large percentages go into trades. Construction workers, farmers, carpenters, auto mechanics, etc. All almost exclusively male occupations. So of that 100% of men, maybe 50% go to school. Of the 50% of women, 40% go to school, and the rest become sales clerks or whatever.

There's your 60/40 male female split.

Now consider today. 100% of men go to work, and maybe 90% of women. But men still have all those high-paying trades jobs. Not as many, because manufacturing has given way to automation and outsourcing. But there are still plenty of high-paying options for men. So maybe 60% of men go to college.

In the meantime, the 90% of women in the workforce have nowhere near the opportunity to find high-paying work without having a college education. So 70% of women go to college. So suddenly you have more women in college than men, and this a 'problem'. Except that it's not. It's just a reflection of the various career opportunities open to men vs women. Women need degrees more than men do, so more women go to college.

Another factor is the rise of college as a sort of 'mandatory' education. How many of those women in college are taking courses that will help them land good careers? How many are in engineering, the sciences, medicine, etc? It may be that there is simply a greater social expectation for women to go to college than there used to be, so more of them are doing it. It doesn't necessarily mean they are preparing to take over the economy from men - it just might be that they are preparing to enter the workforce with more debt than they used to have, but not much more in the way of marketable skills. This might not be good for women.

|2.7.06 @ 7:20PM|#

Dan,
It's a problem for women who don't like to marry down if they can't find a man with an equal or superior education.

|2.8.06 @ 8:29AM|#

If we keep this up, our posts about the Reason Pillow Girl will surpass all our arguments about the Iraq war.

For the record, I'm pro-pillow girl, pro-cracking skulls in the middle east.

|2.8.06 @ 9:21AM|#

MNG-

What if RPG asks you to make love, not war?

|2.8.06 @ 11:11AM|#

t:

I would opt for the former, of course, though I would forgo the pillow-talk afterwards.