Monday, August 18, 2008
You know how smart people can be totally dumb?
That’s pretty much what I’m thinking in regard to the recent ridiculous, wasteful, bogus (in my opinion) study on Birth Control pills and how they might affect women’s choice of mate.
Author Suzanne Reisman has a wicked smart post over at Blogher, and while I’d love to weigh in with my two cents, I don’t need to because she is right on the money.
Most of what you may have read on this subject was written by morons — except Breakup Girl and her amazing power of BS detection, “Feh. I know there’s science in here somewhere. But “lead researchers” should leave the headline-friendly love stuff to superheroes. Especially (but not only) when it’s got the faint whiff of “Women and their krazy hormones! Sheesh!” Ah, thank you Breakup Girl!
Most of the articles I’ve read sound like they were written by people who probably copied off others in biology class. And weren’t copying off the smartest kid in class…
From Reisman’s article:
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More important, what is the point of studies like these? The Feminist Peace Network pointedly notes, “How sad that research like this even gets funding–imagine if those funds were used to come up with explanations for wife-beating or dowry killings. Just saying.” But, people love scientific studies that prove some sort of preconceived notion about how women and men interact, and thus we are likely to continue to be bombarded with bogus science and the breathless news reports that follow for eternity. (Sorry to be so cynical.) In the meantime, no attention is paid to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry abandoned efforts to create more birth control options for men and the latest anti-reproductive rights ploy by the Bush administration, which is currently re-writing Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines to re-classify many forms of birth control as “abortions." (You can take action against this insanity at Progressive Future and/or MoveOn.)
So how can we deal with these bogus science reports? Bitch magazine has an excellent article with tips on how to deconstruct “bunk reporting in five easy steps.” Read it, study the lessons, and become as expert as PJ in debunking crackpot studies.
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For reals, don’t even get me started on the topic of birth control, stupid conservative bogus science, and how shitty or not shitty it can be to be on hormonal birth control. And what ever happened to the birth control pills big pharma was working on for men? They gave it up. It’s better for them to give men Viagra (money money money moooonay monay!) instead of figuring out what nutrional, health, and mental problems are preventing them from being able to function. You’d think something provided by the health care industry would have some sort of relation to your actual health, but you’d be deluding yourself.
Don’t get me started. That path leads only to despair.
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