January 22, 2005

re: Differences Between Men and Women

You’ve probably heard about the recent remarks—and the retraction of those remarks—by Harvard President Summers that there were differences between men and women with regard to ability in the sciences:

Harvard University President Lawrence Summers has written a lengthy apology, admitting he was wrong to suggest women do not have the same natural ability in math and sciences as men.

However, this is a whole other kettle of fish entirely:

Woman Promotes the Right to Go Topless

An attorney crusades to change the law because it treats male and female sunbathers differently.

SACRAMENTO As a Ventura County public defender, Liana Johnsson has handled many life-changing cases, but her biggest public crusade these days has been going topless.

For months, Johnsson has been fighting to allow topless women at California beaches and parks, and now the issue has made its way to the Capitol.

A group of lawyers, at Johnsson’s request, has asked the Legislature to make topless sunbathing legal, saying the ban is the last criminal sanction that treats women differently than men.

Anybody who doesn’t think there are physical differences between men and women, is not paying attention.


Update 1-23-05: One of my favorite blogs, Say Anything, posts on this same subject:

All joking aside, Im not sure where I come down on this one. Really, what are the differences between a womans breasts and a mans breasts? Womens breasts, of course, are functional in that they provide milk to infants. They also tend to be much larger then mens except in certain isolated instances of extreme obesity (see: Michael Moore).

But does that necessarily make the lewd or obscene? Im not sure. Certainly some people find exposed breasts to be offensive, but is that a good enough reason to ban the practice?

I responded on that site with this comment:

Hi Rob! I blogged on this too.

This is a good example of how what starts out as, ostensibly, a joke, gets to be taken seriously.

Comedy writers within the past few years starting using phrases such as man-breasts for shock value.

Now we see people trying get legislation passed on the basis of men and women both having breasts.

The only problem with this is that it is false. Men dont have mammary glands, aka breasts. Additionally, evolution or God or whatever you want to call it has set it up that men have a physiological response to seeing womens breasts, whereas there is no equally strong physiological response on the part of women to seeing a mans bare chest. I think its reasonable to take these differences into account in considering standards for clothing on beaches.

This comment is better than my original post on the subject on my site.

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