July 19, 2015

Facebook quizzes that can't possibly test for the thing you're invited to exclaim about yourself.



That isn't my result. That's the result achieved by some guy on Facebook. It doesn't matter who.

Years ago, college freshmen were given a standardized test that produced a number that purported to show where each student was on a scale from male to female. It was referred to as the "raw carrot" test, because one of the true-false questions was "I prefer raw carrots." I guess you're more feminine if you like your foods softened. The final score was revealed to the school — I went to the University of Michigan — but not to the student.

Eventually, schools abandoned this test. It was regarded as plainly inconsistent with what was once understood as the obvious, consensus lesson of the women's movement: We are all individuals who deserve to be judged on our merit and not according to a stereotype.

But stereotyping is currently enjoying weird new popularity.

I don't know how popular that "true gender mix" test is, but it can't possibly give you an answer to that question. Quite aside from whether there is such a thing as your true gender mix, if you know it's a true-gender-mix test, your answers will be tainted by whatever it is you want to be. And just from the fine print in that "70% Female" result, you can see that the test is designed to lure males into identifying as female. Female apparently means "kind and understanding." If you strain to be seen as 100% male — if that's what you want to be — you're going to be told in the end that you're a dick.

31 comments:

Gahrie said...

If you strain to be seen as 100% male — if that's what you want to be — you're going to be told in the end that you're a dick.

Welcome to my world for the last thirty years.

Eleanor said...

I went to engineering school. A nearby university's psychology department wanted to see if women who went into engineering "thought more like men". They offered us money to take a battery of tests, which made you explain what your thought processes were as you solved the problems. A bunch of us were broke so we took the tests. The end result was we didn't solve problems the same way men who go into engineering do. We also didn't solve problems the same way women majoring in English or Art History did. We did, however, solve problems the way other women engineers did. What was more important, though, was we got the same number of right answers the men in engineering did.

Laslo Spatula said...

The women who initially think I am a dick usually end up sucking my dick.

There is a tremendous insight to women in this statement.

I am Laslo.

MadisonMan said...

Clickbait of the 'women are better than men' type.

damikesc said...

Remember...party of science, y'all.

SCIENCE!!!

Sebastian said...

"what was once understood as the obvious, consensus lesson of the women's movement: We are all individuals who deserve to be judged on our merit and not according to a stereotype"

"Once": oh, sometime between February and April 1968, maybe? Afterwards, not.

campy said...

"Clickbait of the 'women are better than men' type."

Have to coddle those fragile female egos.

Wince said...

I see something much more pernicious in the "new normal" enforced by the gender police.

I'm reminded of this when I'm told I have to say I see a woman when what I really see is a man costumed as a woman.

glenn said...

Mine came back 100% male. It has my weight wrong too.

Big Mike said...

Female apparently means "kind and understanding."

Is there any way to educate you academic types, Professor? Because anyone who had a number of female managers could find numerous counterexamples -- and more counterexamples than examples reinforcing the stereotype.

Laslo Spatula said...

Things feminists have said to me while I was having sex with them:

"Break it! Break my indomitable feminist Will!"

"Tell me I'm your Pretty Little Girl! Pretty Little Girl wants to be naughty!"

"I've been so Very Very Bad: Punish me! Punish me with your Big Righteous Cock!"

"I am a Wild Horse! Ride me! Ride me! TAME ME, Cowboy!"

"I'm not a Lesbian! I am NOT a Lesbian!"

"Call me your Dirty Little Whore! I'm a Dirty Little Whore! No lube -- Dirty Little Whore wants it Raw!

"Baby, put your Patriarchy right up my Ass!"

"Wow! I've never had an Orgasm before."

"God, I so want to cook you Breakfast!"

"Daddy! I'm Sorry, Daddy!"


I am Laslo.

Michael K said...

The guy who boasts about his wife screwing other men is the ideal the new gender definition.

From Inwood said...

Waiting to hear what Trump feels McCain's score on this test was.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

My true gender score is 100% male.

I didn't take the test, but if it gave any other result then it would be wrong.

Bay Area Guy said...

When I was growing up, boys competed against boys, and the winners usually got the best girls.

I understand that that social has evolved (rightfully so) over the past 40 or so years. But there is something about its clarity and simplicity that worked really well.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

But stereotyping is currently enjoying weird new popularity.

It's called identity politics.

All whites enjoy white privilege, all college women are victims of rape culture, all blacks are victims of racism (except for black Republicans since they're not really black anyway)...

Identity politics + stereotyping in the service of progressive power.

Birkel said...

From Inwood > Laslo

On this thread, anyway.

Birkel said...

SMGalbraith,
You are absolutely correct. Identity politics cannot work without stereotypes. It's baked into the cake, as it were.

What's worse, the adherents of identity politics are encouraging the adoption of stereotypes by the victim classes, about both the victim classes and the alleged oppressors.

(Apply quote marks to the above liberally, as most of those terms are bull shit.)

Fernandinande said...

"What's your gender[sic] mix?"

With the exception of probably less than .1% of the population with genetic errors, everyone is either male or female.

richard mcenroe said...

When you're 3% of the population and want to be seen as 25% of the population any tactic that widens the stereotype will be popular.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

You are absolutely correct. Identity politics cannot work without stereotypes. It's baked into the cake, as it were.

Indeed. It's implicitly admitted when we hear about the need for diversity in American institutions. This institution, e.g., a newsroom, a university, needs black people or gay people or Hispanic people because those people "represent" the black community or gay community or the Hispanic community. As if those communities are monolithic ones.

It's especially obvious in identity politics as practiced by the political left.

We hear it all the time: person "X" is not a "real" woman or person "Y" is not a "real" black person.

It's stereotyping people but for the "right" reasons.

It's pernicious and dangerous and liberals are playing with fire when they support it. It's going to turn on them.

Big Mike said...

I guess you're more feminine if you like your foods softened.

Note to single young men reading this thread. If you're thinking of proposing then before you get her ring size have her cook you a dinner with asparagus. If the results are firm and flavorful, you've got a keeper. If she overcooks the asparagus into a yuck-tasting, mushy mess, then it doesn't matter what she's like in bed. Keep looking!

Birkel said...

SMGalbraith,
I took a law school class on identity politics a long time ago. I was the only outwardly classical liberal in the entire room. Everybody else was there as a "how to" guide and I was there to study the discontented as well. Fortunately the professor was able to read a convincing argument using the course materials, with which she disagreed personally, and still acknowledge I had learned the most of anybody in course. She was a fine professor and ethical to boot.

She did not receive a tenure offer.

William said...

We're malleable creatures and we change as we move through time. Does everyone remain on the same spot in liberal-conservative, male-female, rich-poor spectrum throughout their entire lives. For sure we all get physically uglier as time passes.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

It took an IQ test online. It was very hard, and I had to give my credit card number to get the result. I passed.

jr565 said...

I got 70% male too. I TOTALLLY buy the science of this test. /sarcam. I'm afraid that someone will take this test and get a high score in the opposite direction and convince themselves they are the opposite sex. Because the test said so.

jr565 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jr565 said...

What question did me in I wonder? Was it the dishes one!? I put down I like doing dusting least? Should it have the dishes? What is the right answer to the question that makes me a real man! Tell me!

Achilles said...

"But stereotyping is currently enjoying weird new popularity."

The entire progressive paradigm is defined by stereotyping. This isn't new. To believe in centralized state control you have to use stereotypes, racism, and gender typing to categorize and position the masses where they need to be.

Birkel said...

1: Drudge reports on the Obama Administration's new programs to collect racial and gender information for some ridiculous purpose.

2: Althouse notes some bewildering "new" Leftist attempt to stereotype.

3: ????

bleh said...

Just taking the test has to make you at least 25% female.