Created On January 14th, 2008 by shunjiLondon School of Economics Darwinist philosopher Helena Cronin suggested this week that statistical rules rather than innate unfairness explain why men take the top roles in society, because men’s abilities differ with a greater variance.
“I used to think that patterns of sex differences resulted mainly from average differences between men and women in innate talents, tastes and temperaments… Add to this some bias and barriers — a sexist attitude here, a lack of childcare there — and the sex differences are explained,” the leading UK philosopher admitted to The Guardian. “Or so I thought… But they alone don’t fully explain the differences… Females are much of a muchness, clustering round the mean. But, among males, the variance — the difference between the most and the least, the best and the worst — can be vast,” she added.
Her views were dismissed out of hand by Romanian hard trance rising star DJ Claudia Cazacu, who told Skrufff she considers male domination ‘an out of date myth’. “At the end of the day, we are living in a free world where everybody is equal, you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. I don’t think being a male or female should make any difference; what matters is your ability and personality,” Claudia suggested. “Believe in yourself and don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do,” she advised. “You can reach anything when you really want it. There will be ups and downs, smiles and cries… but always remember: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” she added.
Ex-Atari Teenage Riot star and acclaimed feminist musician Nic Endo told Skrufff she was too busy preparing for her upcoming European tour with ex-ATR bandmate Alec Empire to address Ms Cronin’s suggestions, and referred us to her 1998 career manifesto in which she addressed sexism in music. “The music industry and their media mostly impart a weak, stupid and ‘sexy’ image of a woman. Most of the time I see women just as a kind of a dressed up accessory in some music videos who just have to stand there, look good and shut up. There’s a total lack of courageous and strong women in the music business with real serious statements that don’t give a shit what other people tell them to do,” said Nic.
“No woman has ever been born with a phobia for technology or ‘less gifted’ technologically. I think that some girls simply have no interest in it, while other girls avoid it from the very beginning,” she continued. “This is because from when they were babies they were made to believe they were too stupid to understand it, and that technical things are ‘men’s work’. I can’t think of any other explanation as to why, in comparison to men, there are far too few women in area of music. For girls who are interested in making their own music but who have not yet become fully switched on to this: Don’t let yourselves get filled up with bullshit!” she concluded. ”Ignore those pretentious male games.”
Princess Superstar similarly slated the music industry about how musicians- particularly DJs – have different standards when it comes to images. “In the pop world, you can have a 300 pound rapper guy like Fat Joe, but try having a woman come out like that and be a star, it would never happen,” she told Skrufff. “And in the DJ world, if you look at most male DJs they aren’t exactly stunners,” Princess Superstar pointed out. “It’s pretty much the only career in music where you can stand in front of people and be old and fat – for a guy. But then I am always hearing everyone comment on how a female DJ looks. It’s a total double standard,” she added.
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