Women, Science, Skepticism and the Paranormal
Are women more prone to paranormal and pseudoscientific belief than men?
Superficially and stereotypically, it seems that this is ‘true’. Men buy the porn mags and women buy the fashion and gossip magazines, complete with astrology columns. There are more witches than warlocks, and more wise women than wise men. ‘Masturbation causes blindness’ is an old wive’s tale, not an old husband’s tale. Psychics, sensitives and intuitives are more often women than men, and women visit naturopaths, homeopathists and iridologists while men won’t even go to the doctor. The fortune teller is the woman with the big hoop earrings, not a man with a big crystal ball. Angels and fairies have golden locks, not cocks. Men drink beer and women read tea leaves. Women are the perpetrators and consumers. After all, Eve did get us booted out of Paradise…bitch…
But, as the good skeptic asks, ‘Where’s the evidence?’
If it’s just a matter of, ‘In my experience’, then that’s not fact. Let’s not be ethnocentric either, in many non-Western communities, both men and women are equally socialized into paranormal beliefs.
Now it’s my turn to generalize. ‘In my experience’, there are as many high priests as high priestesses, as many gods as goddesses, as many male ghost hunters as female ghost hunters, for every Mary there’s a Jesus, for every mermaid a merman, for every Sylvia Browne a John Edward, and for every banshee a bigfoot. If we want to stereotype, there seem to be more male than female Evangelists, gurus, evil doctors, vampires, zombies, werewolves, devils, demons, elves, and aliens; Elvis and Jim Morrison are still alive, it’s the Messian, not the Missus, they’re Men, not Women in Black, and more people know of Nostradamus than Mother Shipton.
A belief in the paranormal and pseudoscientific isn’t gender exclusive, or necessarily gender preferential.
As human beings, we are prone to belief in the paranormal and pseudoscientific.
There’s a certain equality to bad thinking.
But…generalizing again, there do seem to be more male skeptics than female skeptics, or at least at the conferences, meetings, seminars and other gatherings that I’ve attended.
There are more of us than you think!
I’m particularly interested in promoting women in science, women in academia, women in skepticism and women in the arts. If you have a website or blog that treats these areas, let me add you to my blogroll!
[...] Jillian Callahan Categories: Atheism and Feminism In her recent post “Women, Science, Skepticism and the Paranormal“, the Skepbitch notes that while woo seems to infect women and men roughly equally, there is [...]
[...] ‘The Skepbitch‘ - Women, Science, Skepticism and the Paranormal - ‘Are women more prone to paranormal and pseudoscientific belief than men?’ A belief in the paranormal and pseudoscientific isn’t gender exclusive, or necessarily gender preferential. As human beings, we are prone to belief in the paranormal and pseudoscientific. There’s a certain equality to bad thinking. [...]
Well, my blog “The Thinker” is gender neutral, rather than promoting women in science etc., but it *is* about critical thinking. http://jeffreyellis.org/blog.
Hi Jeffrey. The Skepbitch doesn’t aim to only “promote women in science”, etc. I’m offering a leg up, that’s all.
As podblack once put it so eloquently, the aim is equality for all people, not specifically women.
For anybody interested in hearing more on this topic who also happens to be in the NY area next weekend please consider stopping in for the next New York City Skeptics Public Lecture featuring Rebecca Watson entitled “Women and Skepticism”. More information can be found here: http://www.nycskeptics.org/lectures/watson
Hope to see you all there!
Some archetypes of esoteric history, like the medium, seem to be particularly gender imbalanced. This may be traditional (Oracle of Delphi, anyone?). But differences in a tendency to skepticism or belief? For one, that’s more a question of cultural differences than gender, surely.
Just came upon your blog today, and am always buoyed by the continued interest in “asking tough questions” but never closing one’s mind to the strange and wonderful answers…
Hi Necromancer (love the name!),
I totally agree that this is more often a matter of culture, than gender. We often tend to be myopic in our views, though.
As my father once commented: “Men and women are equally stupid. Men just tend to be more aggressive about it.”
While we’re generalizing, I’ve lived in eight different countries on four continents so far and the interest in superstition and fortune-telling etc. varies quite dramatically from region to region. Education seems to have very little influence too, though I suppose one could argue that the education available doesn’t directly address, let alone refute local superstitions in the first place.
I research multilingual writing, but the content of my blog isn’t always academic…
Re: I’m particularly interested in promoting women in science, women in academia, women in skepticism and women in the arts. If you have a website or blog that treats these areas, let me add you to my blogroll!
Good science requires clear, level headed, reasonable thinking and desire to know the truth which is something that the vast majority of women aren’t exactly known for engaging in…I’ve been studying gender issues for over twenty years now am fully aware of how the feminists have twisted, manipulated, out right falsified data and intentionally created studies in order to get the results they wanted…
So IMHO the more women that go into science and the other areas you mention the more bad science we will get…
If it is of interest to people, both Karen and I are planning on launching a series of blogposts on this topic over the next few days - my own research looks at gender differences in the younger years and prevailing / new superstitions:
http://www.podblack.com.
In the meantime - I strongly suggest people check out our online Vodcast work on The TANK Vodcast! That’s on http://www.tankvodcast.wordpress.com. Gender and skepticism will probably be a story we’ll do over the coming year. Stay tuned!
Podblack.
“Good science requires clear, level headed, reasonable thinking and desire to know the truth which is something that the vast majority of women aren’t exactly known for engaging in”
So, how long have you been a misognynist, Dabir????
Hi Mr Summers…Dabir, rather,
You don’t sound like an academic in the area of gender studies to me. No theoretician in the areas of the humanities or social sciences would make such an unsupported, vague, sexist remark. Your comments smack of personal bias and bitterness. 20 years? Write a paper on it and get it critiqued by your peers…then we’ll talk…
Dare to disagree with a feminist and you’ll automatically be accused of being a misogynist…I’m used to being called that rather non Imaginative and oh so boring term…
Oh the other hand skepbitch it doesn’t matter if I’m an academic or not since I’ve taken the time to educate myself on the issues that men like myself are facing today…And as an academic you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the time…
Re:You don’t sound like an academic in the area of gender studies to me. No theoretician in the areas of the humanities or social sciences would make such an unsupported, vague, sexist remark. Your comments smack of personal bias and bitterness. 20 years? Write a paper on it and get it critiqued by your peers…then we’ll talk…
That’s because if he did dare to tell the truth he’d be run off just like Larry Summers…So Like I said women just aren’t interested in the truth these days and your have proved my point rather nicely…Thank-you…
A person can educate themselves for 20 years and still read the wrong books, visit the wrong sites and talk to the wrong people. The fact that you haven’t taken the time to formalize your interest, over 20 years, is an indication of your sources.
Now your reply smacks of conspiracy theory.
Dabir - set up your own blog and reveal your own findings. Stop making generalizations and reveal your evidence. Thanks.
You’d be surprised at just how many so call educated fembots who left their fabled woman’s studies class with less air in their pretty little heads than when they entered college…Have fallen by the wayside after I’ve ripped their arguments to shreds and exposed the out right falsehoods they were taught to believe by their feminists teachers…
The following is taken from the first essay that I wrote ten years ago entitled: “One Man’s Journey:
“I was already paying close attention to the
attacks women were making on men through the
media and eventually I began to read the books
that several feminists had written. I read Betty
Friedan’s book: The Feminine Mystique, Susan
Brownmiller’s books on Rape and Femininity,
Virginia Wolf’s book: Fire With Fire as well as
Susan Faludi’s book: The Back Lash and Suzanne
Gordon’s book: Prisoners Of Men’s Dreams.
“When I discovered Warren Farrell’s book: The Myth
Of Male Power my anger began to grow as I
learned how the feminists have sought to control
the debates on all of the issues concerning men
and women. How women complain bitterly of being
mistreated even when in many areas they have the
distinct advantage over men. When I read
Christina Hoff Sommer’s book: Who Stole
Feminism and learned how Feminist’s quote the
results of flawed studies and learned the truth on
domestic violence during my research on the
Internet. How Feminist’s only quote the statistics
that seem to support their claims while ignoring
the statistics from the same study that showed as
early as 1978 that women abuse their husbands
as often as men abuse their wives.
“I was able to draw a parallel between the abuse
that I had suffered at the hands of my
Stepmother’s because of the way they were able to
lie and manipulate my father into believing that
I wasn’t telling the truth whenever I complained to
him. With how the Feminist’s were manipulating
public opinion and convincing Congress and State
Legislatures all over America to pass laws
concerning domestic violence and child support
with misleading statistics and out right lies.”
My own personal experience has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that no matter how educated a feminists claims to be she is still a liar…
[...] why aren’t there more women in the skeptical movement? This is the question implicitly posed recently by The Skepbitch. She points out that belief in the supernatural is not gender-specific. I suspect the paucity of [...]
Oh dear, Dabir, you’ve fallen for the Farrell spin of the Strauss, Geller et al study which used the Conflict Tactic Scale (CTS).
Geller and Strauss reject the simplistic interpretation of their data that women abuse their husbands as often as men abuse their wives (the original CTS study did not address intensity of blows or sexual violence, for starters). I go into detail about it at Feminism 101, where you will only be the latest in a long line of anti-feminists who can’t actually support their arguments using proper scientific analysis.
FAQ: But doesn’t evidence show that women are just as likely to batter their partners as men?
Increasingly Out of Control
Ever since Feminists began promoting through the media (The Burning Bed) that it was ok for a women to attack and kill her husband while he was sleeping and get away with murder by claiming (more often a false accusation then not)abuse…Women have become increasingly out of control…
Don’t want to keep your baby after it is born: Then throw it away in a trash can…
Want out of your marriage: Then shoot your husband in the back while he is sleeping as Mary Wrinkler did…
Mad at another girl: Get your girlfriends together amd beat her up and while their at it record it with a cell phone and post it on You Tube…
38% of these who commit violence against children are the natural mother while only 1% of natural fathers are violent towards their children…Yet the media protrays fathers as a horse’s ass, a bumbling buffoon and a monster…
Now ask me again why it is that I hate feminism and those who promote it…
*sigh*
I don’t comment much but I came to this section expecting a nice discussion on the historical/cultural reasons why females are considered more ‘fruity mystical/stupid(?)’ than men.
I didn’t expect some rant against feminism. Thas just bizarre.
From a right-winger male here is perspective regarding Dabir’s comments;
Dabir, you are a moron who hates women. Get over it. It’s the 21st century. Their period won’t steal your manhood. Ohh yea, and teh gays aren’t going to rape you in the bathroom prior to taking over the world either. Just so you know.
2nd. I am NOT defending Dabir in any way and do NOT agree with him at all.
However, I understand the emotionally twisted logic he’s trying to use. And if he actually used proper studies, analyses, and data he might actually have the tiny glimmer of having a valid point. Just not the one he’s making.
It’s all about extremism.
Feminism started quite proper as establishing equal rights for women. All well and good. It was a long hard battle most of which I either too young to notice or not noticing because I hadn’t been born yet. And the battle continues quite properly around the world today.
Then, the weirdo’s took over(Mostly in the media, I hope). I remember the stories from the late 20th. This is where the word ‘Feminazi’ came from I guess. Women who considered it insulting/demeaning for a man to open a door for them, pick up the tab for dinner..stuff like that. An assault on chivalry so to speak.
Of course there was a backlash. Both ways. Previously(and still today in the US, I know) it was ‘You gotta act like a Man to live in a man’s world’. Now equal rights, and some went overboard into ‘Men need to be more like women(Get in touch with their feminine side)’. Crazy times. We are humans, it’s to be expected.
And unfortunately there are still people, of both genders, who still live in that world-view.
So, to finally get to the point. If Dabir made any valid arguments about how feminism(I’m surprised he didn’t call it neo-feminism) is evil and making girlymen outta our boys then I might kinda agree(with the 2nd bit). There are articles and studies that show certain school systems are not male-friendly because of…extremism.
Not normal free liberated women, but the psycho kind who think they know everything and everyone should be just like them.
Unfortunately poor Dabir fell into a trap of his own making. He’s complaining that feminists think women are better than men and shoving it down yer throat, while arguing the same thing himself just putting ‘men’ instead of ‘women’ into the argument.
I’m curious on how he labels himself. If the female equal rights movements are Feminists should the male equal rights movement be called Malinists?
I wonder if he knows enough Latin to catch that one.
Sorry again, I know this is a dead thread by now, but sometimes I get the fire in me and can’t let raw stupidity slide.
Love the blog, will send URL to my sister. She’s got a PhD in Biology and would find you and your fellow femscibloggers(I think I invented a word?) a hoot.
MY NAME IS BRIGHT AM FORM NIGERIA.
I am a female skeptic, and I run the local skeptics group in Overland Park, Kansas (Kansas City Suburb for those vaguely familiar with the states). I also travel alot, and try to meet skeptical groups and people while I’m out on the road. You can add http://www.mwskeptic.org to your list. Thanks for all that you do!