"Mathematical Proof That The Media is Sexist and Bad at Math"

AnTiFreeze3

Here's is a link to my favorite comedy website: Cracked.com (The website itself may be NSFW, but this particular article doesn't get vulgar).

I thought that this was an interesting article that points out what is too obvious for the media to pick up on: For every male partner, there needs to be a female partner; and also that men lie, as do women, for different reasons. It also has the word "math" in the title, and uses some basic calculations, so maybe it'll be attractive to read for those of you who consider literature to be math books.

I just felt like sharing something that points out another lack of thinking on the part of the media.

DocHoliday

The only way it would be possible, of what the article discusses, is if there were tons of guys acting in homosexual ways, which i presume is false

zoobyshoe

There's the issue of what a person considers "sex", to consider. Things that wouldn't count as 'having sex" among your guy friends would be grounds for divorce for sexual infidelity if you were married, or impeachment if you were a U.S. President.

BobG

In other words, guys consider more things to be sex than women do - which is true.

And articles citing studies where men have more sexual partners than women are truthful reporting, with the mathematical impossibility of that prompting people to find better ways of conducting their studies, more ways of making sure the participants know not even the anonymous test giver will know their answers, etc.

And studies asking just what do people consider "sex", with those results also differing by gender.

But there's a definite feeling males find ways to boost their numbers, either through outright lying or more liberal definitions of what constitutes sex, while females find ways to reduce their number, either through outright lying or a more restrictive definition of what constitutes sex.

zoobyshoe

Absolutely. A notch on the bedpost is considered a badge of honor for a guy while for a girl it's a potential liability. Girls are afraid of the "s" word in a way you could never induce men to be.

AnTiFreeze3

That's a big part of the article. For guys, it's a bragging right to say that you've slept with someone, whereas with women, it's socially "indecent" to have slept with a high number of guys.

leroyjenkens

I saw those "studies" and thought the same thing. "Then who are those guys sleeping with, each other?"

BobG

You should also pay attention to whether they're talking about "average" or "median".

Seeing as how the overwhelming majority of prostitutes are female, the median for males could be higher than females even though their average number has to be equal. Plus, there's always the possibility that a random sample doesn't pick up prostitutes, since I don't think a very high percentage of the female population chooses that for an extra side job.

BobG

Proof that media viewers are bad at math!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbX44YSsQ2I


Obviously the audience wasn't packed with construction workers, since knowing how to square the corners of a basement, a house's walls, etc, are pretty important. But, then again, I guess most just know and might have never actually squared them. (Just in case anybody wanted to solve this themselves )