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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU - sexist science homework

519 replies

Litchick · 17/09/2009 09:06

Lst night's science homework was to write a short passage about a famous scientist, what they discovered and its applications today.

Fine except that each question said 'he'.

Eg what was his name? What did he discover?

DD and I chose Marie Curie and changed everything to she.

AIBU to make the point on the prep sheet or just touchy?
Does it matter? It felt to me like it does. Grrrr

OP posts:
seeker · 22/09/2009 12:25

So are your reasons for wanting 'he" to remain the norm purely grammatical, UQD?

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 12:26

I don't say I want "he" to remain "the norm". I have said myself I use "he or she" where it's practical. I just don't think it is automatically sexist not to do so.

ZephirineDrouhin · 22/09/2009 12:39

Unquietdad, perhaps you could answer stillstanding's question of 11:00? We might find that we all agree after all.

seeker · 22/09/2009 12:43

Whether it's sexist or not isn't really relevant to this discussion. The point is whether it's a good idea to send subliminal messages to children that all scientists are men. Or that all doctors are men, and all nurses are women. Or that all nannies are women.

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 13:17

I think the multifarious posts I have made on here have already addressed the question.

ZephirineDrouhin · 22/09/2009 13:29

Really? So what is the answer?

dailymailrus · 22/09/2009 13:31

"Or that all nannies are women."
I'd suggest we stop employing women nannies and cleaners then.

LovelyTinOfSpam · 22/09/2009 13:45

Larry I don't think I have been saying I hate men anywhere? And my physics degree was ages sgo, yes, I'm not a chemist, I said when I posted I might be remembering wrong and the person I was talking to was very good humoured about everything.

You say that I am obviously shit at science and so am doing women a disservice because I guessed at something on a talk board?

You were extremely unpleasant to me on another thread as well, I'm not sure why you have such a problem but you have just weighed into this thread and started shouting at me, picking me out from amongst god knows how many other posters and saying that my physics qulaifications are a sham/made up/I don't know what.

I'm not the only person on this thread who feels that this is an important point and to come on today and find that I have been singled out like this is pretty upsetting.

LadyMidnightMT · 22/09/2009 14:01

Stop employing women as nannies and cleaners?

If we did that half our kids would never reach maturity and our bogs would never be clean!

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 14:23

(Sigh) For those who can't be bothered reading back through my previous posts, this is basically where I'm coming from.

There is a generic "he", which may be archaic depending on how you look at it. The debate is over whether it is ambiguious to use it.

I've already said that the homework could have had "he/she", but this is why I keep on about wanting to know if the prep sheet came from the teacher or not - if it was a photocopied resource or in a book it would have been more difficult to change it. But I also think the fact that it didn't say "he/she" is not the end of the world. It's not "sexist" (whether people think that's the point or not, that is the initial question in the OP's title) and it doesn't automatically imply all scientists are male.

Let's face it, anybody who has bristled at this will probably have been more likely than ever to make their child go away and look up a female scientist - so maybe it has done them a favour?

I don't think we need to get very hot under the collar about this clear piece of msunderstanding.

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 14:24

And I can spell "ambiguous", honest. I just can't type it...

LovelyTinOfSpam · 22/09/2009 14:44

Yes that's right Larry you asked me if I was bullied at school for being a "geeky scientific girl" on this thread where a lot of people were upset with your OP.

You obviously have an axe to grind on this subject and now with me. Because I stood up to you on the other thread? I would have liked to be able to post freely on MN but based on this and the other thread I can see that is unlikely. So you win, I will leave. Well done, congrats and have fun.

seeker · 22/09/2009 15:03

No, not hot under the collar. Just a good idea to remind the teacher not to do it again. Doesn't matter where the sheet came from - it shouldn't use 'he" like this. The teacher should either be more careful in his/her use of language if it was generated in the school, or proof read more carefully if it was sourced somewhere else. End of story as far as I am concerned!

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 15:41

But if it was sourced from somewhere else the teacher might not have been able to change it. And as I said it may have generated a discussion people might possibly otherwise not have had...

Middle of story!

LadyMidnightMT · 22/09/2009 15:54

I cannot spell and my grammar is shite. I never went to school for the last two years. Leaves a big hole.

stillstanding · 22/09/2009 16:03

It may have generated a discussion, UQD, but I bet (sadly) that the majority of the children in that class did not have that discussion and went off looking for male scientists.

ZephirineDrouhin · 22/09/2009 16:19

Agree with seeker and stillstanding.

Unquietdad that does clarify your position, thank you. I had read the rest of the thread, but your remark that '"he" is the correct generic' rather suggested that you felt that this worksheet was worded in an entirely satisfactory way. I see now that you agree that it could have been worded better using he/she, but that you don't feel it would matter enough to warrant a teacher amending it.

So really you could have just said "I'm not really bothered" and saved us all a lot of time

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 19:55

Ah, well, I like an argument

seeker · 22/09/2009 20:03

As I said earlier, UQD - I bet you've got a deadline looming!

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 20:09

Well, I generally always have these days...

seeker · 22/09/2009 20:10

I knew I could still recognize displacement activity when I see it!

Jux · 22/09/2009 20:52

That page left out SUSAN GREENFIELD, my personal hero, and I am ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

edam · 22/09/2009 20:58

UQD, why do you prefer 'he/she' to the 's/he' that is more commonly used?

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 21:52

Just a pedantry point really - a slash for me indicates the choice between two things so it looks a bit clumsy, as if the choice is between an "s" and a "he".

UnquietDad · 22/09/2009 21:56

I can't really think of a very good comparable example, but this one will have to do - supposing you wanted to say someone was "sensitive" and also wanted to give the option of "oversensitive" - you wouldn't write:

over/sensitive

you'd write:

(over)sensitive

Wouldn't you?...