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From: charlie@cca.UUCP (Charlie Kaufman)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Women and Chess
Message-ID: <5875@cca.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 18:49:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: cca.5875
Posted: Tue Oct 11 18:49:05 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 03:14:18 EDT
Lines: 36

I read with amusement a recent posting suggesting that perhaps the
reason there are very few women amoung the world's best chess players
was lack of physical stamina.  It was amusing not because the idea is
absurd, but because it illustrates the lengths people will go before
considering the obvious (which is not to say correct) explanation:  that
there exist differences, at least on average, in the minds of men and
women that make men better chess players.

There.  I said it.  It's out in the open.

Differences between men and women (or blacks and whites, or any of a
number of other bases) are a sensitive issue.  Differences in physical
characteristics are a dangerous topic;  differences in mental
characteristics are strictly taboo.

Why?  It's OK to talk about differences in the mental characteristics of
individuals - some people are smarter than others, some more obnoxious,
etc.  Why is it wrong to discuss the possibility that some of these
differences might be correlated with sex/race/national origin/whatever?
And if the subject is broached, why is an apologetic - but of course
group x is better at y - always appended?

Discrimination is a crime against individuals; not against groups.  The
fact that discrimination is based on group membership is irrelevant.
The crime is that it is arbitrary and capricious.  If the victims were
chosen by lottery, the results would be no less unfair.

So what if group A is better (on average!) than group B at activity C?
It is still wrong to deny b's the same chance as the a's.  We do not
have to deny the difference to proclaim the injustice.  Denying the
difference is dangerous (you might be refuted) and distracts attention
from the real issue.  Why do we go out of our way to do so?

                          --Charlie Kaufman
                            charlie@cca
                            ...decvax!cca!charlie