Happy International Women's Day (March 8) to Louann Brizendine, author of best-selling book The Female Brain, which Nature described as "riddled with scientific errors". In an NPR Fresh Air radio broadcast, linguist Geoff Nunberg announced that Brizendine was the unanimous winner of the first annual Becky Award for "the single most ridiculous or misleading bit of linguistic nonsense that somebody manages to put over in the media."
Mark Liberman of Language Log disproved her claim that women use 20,000 words per day, and speak faster, compared to men averaging 7,000. (Turns out she referenced a 1970s self-help guru who simply made it up.) But despite his efforts and the bestowing of the 2006 Becky Award, the stereotyped fictitious claims are still being propagated: Elle Magazine wrote about it in their February issue.
There's plenty more to criticize in that book (like the idea oxytocin is released via text messaging), but today is IWD so I'll be nice.
Cheers instead to the vast majority of female scientists who don't write books like that, and contribute innumerable works of vital, valuable knowledge to the world. Like Linda Buck 2004 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system." Why isn't she in Elle, or doing talk shows?
Visit 4000 Years of Women in Science for some history, or the Women in Science site which includes networking and mentoring, and a registry for contemporaries.
And! Bonus song below!
Click to download mp3 of the Freezepop song Science Genius Girl (robotkid's lameboy mix) [scroll down]. Singer Liz Enthusiasm didn't win a Nobel, but was tops in her 7th grade science fair. Cheers for her, too.
Comments
Wow, Freezepop! I forgot all about them!
Happy IWD.
Posted by: Brian | March 8, 2007 10:29 PM
Thanks!
Freezepop rokk! What's your fave song? They've got a new EP out, too.
Posted by: Sandra | March 8, 2007 10:46 PM
The link to language log does not work!
Posted by: Ced | March 9, 2007 3:17 AM
Well 'Freezepop forever' was I heard from them, but I think my favorite song is stakeout, if only for its general insanity ;) I haven't looked at their site in a while, so I'll re-check them out.
Posted by: Brian | March 9, 2007 10:22 AM
Link is fixed. Thanks for catching that, Ced.
A song about stalking...yeah, Stakeout is catchy, and there's a cute video for it too.
Posted by: Sandra | March 9, 2007 4:58 PM
Egads! Has no one told Women in Science that music on webpages = BAD? If I can't find a button to turn off the sound within 5 seconds of loading the page, I won't be hanging around.
Great links though... but the real question is, why haven't I bought myself a science genius girl pin? That song's been my theme song for... at least 3 years now.
Posted by: kat | March 11, 2007 2:34 PM
We were close to inviting her to an event recently, but happily decided not to. Maybe male insensitivity.
Posted by: Alvaro | March 14, 2007 2:41 AM