Comments on: Charlie Anders & Annalee Newitz (BSS #104) http://www.edrants.com/segundo/bss-104-charlie-anders-annalee-newitz/ A cultural podcast in tenebrous standing Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:52:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ana de Campos http://www.edrants.com/segundo/bss-104-charlie-anders-annalee-newitz/comment-page-1/#comment-386399 Ana de Campos Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:19:45 +0000 http://www.edrants.com/segundo/?p=127#comment-386399 “Well, but women just don’t have the spatial sense. Women can’t rotate five-dimensional objects in their sleep the way men can.” I only wanted to point this as what I think is the perfect example of how irrational and simply dumb a stereotype can be and still have people proclaiming it as a fact. Because seriously, ;) , rotate a five dimensional object in your sleep? That's doubly absurd since it's hard to even conceive of a four dimensional object, to consciously evoke in our minds a rough image of it, we need to trace analogies to third and second dimensional objects. Then the absurd of expecting someone to actually ROTATE a 5, not 4, but 5, dimensional one when they're sleeping. http://evolutionezine.com/how-to-imagine-a-4-dimensional-object-in-our-3d-world/ Maria Gaetana Agnesi Hypatia of Alexandria Julia Bowman Robinson Amalie Emmy Noether Sophie Germain These are 5 examples of great female mathematicians, yet in school a teacher won't talk about them. Women are not mentioned for their accomplishments as a rule of thumb, there is no reason to not mention Hypatia when talking about philosophers of Greece. Or Bowman alongside of Galois. “Well, but women just don’t have the spatial sense. Women can’t rotate five-dimensional objects in their sleep the way men can.”

I only wanted to point this as what I think is the perfect example of how irrational and simply dumb a stereotype can be and still have people proclaiming it as a fact.

Because seriously, ;) , rotate a five dimensional object in your sleep? That’s doubly absurd since it’s hard to even conceive of a four dimensional object, to consciously evoke in our minds a rough image of it, we need to trace analogies to third and second dimensional objects. Then the absurd of expecting someone to actually ROTATE a 5, not 4, but 5, dimensional one when they’re sleeping.

http://evolutionezine.com/how-to-imagine-a-4-dimensional-object-in-our-3d-world/

Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Hypatia of Alexandria
Julia Bowman Robinson
Amalie Emmy Noether
Sophie Germain

These are 5 examples of great female mathematicians, yet in school a teacher won’t talk about them. Women are not mentioned for their accomplishments as a rule of thumb, there is no reason to not mention Hypatia when talking about philosophers of Greece. Or Bowman alongside of Galois.

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