It Seems The Study Of Anthropology Makes Me A Misogynistic, Backwards Thinker.

[BigDon]

Nothing that will cheese off the moderators, I promise.

My brothers are insisting I get out more and so I've been increasing the number of social events I go to and seriously, some young women of the business professional (executive) type take offense at the oddest things.

The discussion, which I didn't even start, was on the AMC show the Walking Dead, then went to zombie apocali in general. (Anybody know the actual plural of apocalypse?)

Which then went to the subject of organizing redoubts, strong holds where people can rest a bit.

And then what *I* said was:

"As a rule of thumb, in any large group of men and women without access to modern birth control, half the woman who can be pregnant, will be pregnant."

That's an old, old formula I've never seen refuted.

Wow, the effect was like dousing cats with ice water. They got spittin' mad. And starting putting words in my mouth and paraphrasing what I said in the worst way.

One woman got in my face, just chewing me out and expected me to back up or something. She ended up looking straight up at me, yapping like a crazy person while I looked straight down at her and I barely resisted the temptation to kiss her on the end of the nose, she was that close.

(I figured that wouldn't help my case at all.)

Who's wrong here?

Am I a lunkhead or were these women overly defensive, possible due to their corporate enviroment?

[geonuc]

Getting out and being social is overrated. Too many people take offense where none is intended.

[geonuc]

And, no, you weren't wrong, at least not in principle. Humans tend to engage in sex given the opportunity.

[Noclevername]

Getting out and being social is overrated. Too many people take offense where none is intended.

As someone who hops around with at least one foot in my mouth most of the time, I second that.

[Ara Pacis]

Don, a man can't be right if he can be left.

[Buttercup]

My guess as a woman? She/they took offense because it seems you're placing the blame for pregnancy on the woman; as if women are more promiscuous than men.

[Buttercup]

Getting out and being social is overrated. Too many people take offense where none is intended.

Yeah. Or they Know Everything. Or they must be listened to (you keep quiet). Or you're beginning to enjoy a conversation and some lunkhead hones in and ruins it. :-\

However, it's no fun "sitting around staring at 4 walls" either.

[Romanus]

There are individuals from various interest groups who get up every morning convinced that Overwhelming Entity X is out to destroy them. The two most likely responses to this are apathy or permanent rage; neither can be reasoned with.

[redshifter]

No matter what someone says, there is always someone else out there who will be offended/take it personally.

[profloater]

As a teenager I remember a little group: says one boy with an ironic tongue in cheek "the trouble with women is they take everything so personally." Immediate irate response from the girl; "Well I don't!"

Obviously that memory is not representative of any generalised group and not necessarily relevant to the OP

[BioSci]

"As a rule of thumb, in any large group of men and women without access to modern birth control, half the woman who can be pregnant, will be pregnant."

That's an old, old formula I've never seen refuted.

Although one could argue about specific %, as a rule of thumb regarding human social groups your estimate is not bad and highlights normal human behavior over time.
Exceptions would require a non-normal selection of people, short-time frame in the group, or some other constraining factor.

Am I a lunkhead or were these women overly defensive, possible due to their corporate enviroment?

To some women, all men are lunkheads around certain topics - especially if they are "direct" or perceived to be "indelicate"

[Ara Pacis]

Or you're beginning to enjoy a conversation and some lunkhead hones in and ruins it. :-\

This is so true. I've listened on conversations between women and I can agree that most are not enjoyable, so you really don't want someone ruining the few that are. :P

[novaderrik]

some people just get so emotionally wrapped up in their point of view on different things that they get all offended when someone comes in and offers up an impartial opinion that is based on nothing but logic..

[Van Rijn]

Who's wrong here?

Am I a lunkhead or were these women overly defensive, possible due to their corporate enviroment?

You said they were young. I'd expect a big part of the issue is that it is just too far outside of their personal experience, so it wouldn't make sense to them. Birth control has become ubiquitous, and there's no real social stigma associated with it anymore. They're too young to remember when it was different. Even their parents are probably too young to remember when it was much different.

[Paul Beardsley]

What particularly galls me is that one should expect a more civilised response to an incorrect statement. When people foam at the mouth at the deliverer of a fact, it really does them and their group no favours at all.

[Fazor]

I find that hilarious BigDon. Considering how many young women around here are pregnant when there *IS* access to birth control.

And I do appreciate ButterCup's input, because I can very much see how these statements make it look like you're placing blame on the women. I don't think you are, and neither am I. That's one of those "medical conditions" that takes two to make it happen. Or some really advanced science equipment, I guess.

[publiusr]

Perhaps a better phrasing --"in restricted environs desperation may lead to a higher and unsustainable birth rate." That's dry enough, one would think.

[HenrikOlsen]

Except that this is an observation on environments that are neither restricted nor desperate.

[Nowhere Man]

Am I a lunkhead

"If a man is alone in a forest, and he says something, is he still wrong?"

Fred

[korjik]

My guess as a woman? She/they took offense because it seems you're placing the blame for pregnancy on the woman; as if women are more promiscuous than men.

Which is wierd, to me at least. I would think the exact opposite with that same statement, and not consider promiscuity to be a good or a bad thing. Then again, except in cases where the man needs to be converted into fertilizer, I dont think pregnancy is something you assign blame too.

The thing is to me, is that it seem that Don is implying that the offendees never even tried to refute his statement, they just went after him cause he said it.

[korjik]

Not that any of this exempts Don from being a backwards misogynist.

:P

[Noclevername]

The answer is obvious-- stop studying anthropology! It's poison, I tells ya!

[SkepticJ]

One woman got in my face, just chewing me out and expected me to back up or something. She ended up looking straight up at me, yapping like a crazy person while I looked straight down at her and I barely resisted the temptation to kiss her on the end of the nose, she was that close.

It's funny how having two XX chromosomes lets you get away with things no XYer could do without being pilloried out of polite society.

[Cougar]

My brothers are insisting I get out more and so I've been increasing the number of social events I go to... The discussion, which I didn't even start, was on the AMC show the Walking Dead, then went to zombie apocali in general. (Anybody know the actual plural of apocalypse?) Which then went to the subject of organizing redoubts, strong holds where people can rest a bit. And then what *I* said was:

"As a rule of thumb, in any large group of men and women without access to modern birth control, half the woman who can be pregnant, will be pregnant."

Am I a lunkhead?

Yes, you lunkhead. You don't talk about anything to do with sex in mixed company at a "social event." Sure, these ladies went overboard. Normally they'd just promptly wander off to talk to somebody else.

Say you're a cosmologist, and yes, you'll make an appointment to do her hair.

[Ara Pacis]

It's funny how having two XX chromosomes lets you get away with things no XYer could do without being pilloried out of polite society.

Some would say there could not be polite society were it not for the XXers.

[Paul Beardsley]

some young women of the business professional (executive) type take offense at the oddest things.

On further consideration, there may be a clue here. Female business professionals are understandably concerned about the glass ceiling.

Any kind of deterministic talk of pregnancy ("N% of women will get pregnant...") can probably be perceived as justifying the glass ceiling, or even contributing to its continued existence.

Which does not in any way justify their reaction as described. If something is factually true, you deal with it, even if you don't like it, and work around it if possible. For instance, in the Forensic Science text book I am studying, there is talk of Y chromosome analysis: "As the greater proportion of serious crime is carried out by men, there is an interest in examining DNA found only in this gender." I am not particularly happy about this fact, but it is a fact so I'm not going to hunt down the book's authors and scream in their faces.

"As a rule of thumb, in any large group of men and women without access to modern birth control, half the woman who can be pregnant, will be pregnant."

As a rule of thumb... the disgusting lie about the origin of that phrase has been thoroughly debunked, but then, so has the Apollo Hoax nonsense, and some people still believe that. So maybe they think you not only approve of the glass ceiling, you also approve of men beating their wives.

That's the trouble with BAUT, and presumably the new regime. You get used to people responding to your actual words rather than what they think you've said, and you come to expect people in real life to be reasonable too. Big mistake...

[Paul Beardsley]

You don't talk about anything to do with sex in mixed company at a "social event."

If you're going to discuss strategies for long-term survival in a world overrun by zombies, it's going to be a pretty toothless discussion if you avoid the topic.

[Perikles]

Yes, you lunkhead. You don't talk about anything to do with sex in mixed company at a "social event."

This is an interesting comment, because given that it is correct in principle, then it is not so easy to define where the boundary is between what is and what is not to do with sex. If you mean an overt reference to sex, I would agree with you. But I cannot see how the comment by @Bigdon could actually qualify as that, because it was a general statement abouth human behaviour, involving men and women to the same extent.

Anybody who takes offence at what he said obviously has some personal issues to deal with. The problem with social events is of course that most people do have some issues to deal with.

[profloater]

The art of getting invited back in social settings is to be controversial without being offensive, it's the old art of flirting without crossing the line. Being funny without causing embarrassment. Using irony to hide the hard truths. Those who don't quite achieve that might end up on keyboards..........

[Perikles]

The art of getting invited back in social settings is to be controversial without being offensive, it's the old art of flirting without crossing the line. Being funny without causing embarrassment. Using irony to hide the hard truths. Those who don't quite achieve that might end up on keyboards..........

Why didn't you tell me before? There I was, being offensive without being controversial, crossing the line without flirting, causing embarassment without being funny..... no wonder I'm at this keyboard.