are all cranks male?

jostpuur

I just made a curious remark: All people who believe they have personal unification theories and so on, are male. Is there not female cranks at all?

lisab

Wow. I've never even noticed that, and I'm a woman!

rewebster

most women don't want to 'make a mark' as an odd duck, or take the chance of being disliked----but things have changed---the more women get degrees in odd things like theoretical physics--there'll be more cranky women--

what about Lisa Randall? (I guess only if you consider 'string theory' as a crank theory though)

tribdog

Oh, there are a few cranky females. In more ways than one.
I tried explaining my interest in astronomy to my girlfriend and she told me she was a Gemini. Is astrology a crank theory?

lisab

Yes, but with a scent of patchouli.

jostpuur

Oh yeah, there is lot of women interested in astrology and paranormal phenomena...... I was thinking about more like these personal physics theories. It depends little on what we mean by "a crank".

Math Is Hard

I think there are plenty of female cranks out there. They are just more invested in mysticism rather than cranky physics.

ubermensch

"HEY!! Whats your Sign?" asked the blond girl wearing a tank top and really tight jeans.

rewebster

most women I know want to believe in the 'magic' of ........!

I think its part of the 'shiny knight'/'happily ever after' / 'if only...' syndrome

tribdog

I wouldn't say they believe in it, they wish it was true. but with comments like that you've shown why they don't believe in it.

B. Elliott

With the few intellectual females that i've known (in person), most do seem to be more interested in mysticism rather than physics. Primarily those who would consider themselves Wiccans.

JasonRox

That's because females are never wrong.

B. Elliott

well said.

arildno

Well, it was the famed Ms. Lucie Irigaray who said that Newton's "principia" was a rape manual.

She also said that it was the phallocentrism of males which explained why structural mechanics was so more successful than fluid mechanics, because the latter had more affinity with the female principle of menstruation..

jostpuur

Isn't this about postmodern social constructionism? Is it appropriate to call it pseudoscience or crackpottery?

I've read an article by Dawkins, and I think he mentioned this Irigaray, although I don't remember for sure and I cannot find the article now. (It's the fluid mechanics argument that I feel like remembering... )

jostpuur

mhmhmhmhmhmhm..... I've never tried to decide what postmodern social constructionism really is. I've always somehow thought that pseudoscience must be outside the academic world. And that something that is inside academic world would be at most cargo cult science.

btw, (an off-topic question (I'm the original poster, I have right to go off-topic)) is there clear difference between pseudoscience and cargo cult science?

Jimmy Snyder

i asked my wife why men were rational beings who understand science while women were irrational crackpots that believe in mysticism. She turned me into a toad.