RWP

[brdgt]

Reading: Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Leondard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. for book club on Tuesday. This is going to be a doozy of a book club. Besides the fact that Sax conflates sex and gender, uses straw men arguments, has a financial stake in the project, and switches between peer reviewed studies and anecdotal data without flagging it, I can just tell this book club discussion is going to break down between parents and non-parents and us non-parents opinions won't be valid because of our dusty barren wombs.



Wearing:This is actually yesterday's outfit, but we are still celebrating Wisconsin making it to the Elite 8 last night!



Planning: Work, work, work. I have a deadline coming up and Nick has a conference he is preparing for and leaves on Sunday to present at. The weather has been gorgeous here, but we've been too busy to enjoy it, so hopefully when he gets back we can find some time for a hike - something with a waterfall should be nice this time of year or something in the desert that would be too hot in a few months...

Comments

[delqc.livejournal.com]

clearly dusty barren wombs have NOTHING relevant to say on anything.

(clearly having had a child gives you that experience to comment on and I would be the last person to say lived experience has no value to bring to a discussion... but it has nothing to do with theory, peer-reviewed scientific work, anecdata, logical reasoning and the scientific method. In other words, I feel for you.)

Totally selfish thing I want to ask for your help with: a while ago you posted ab workouts you were doing at home, probably butt and other stuff too. Do you remember the source? Looking to round out my at-home-on-the treadmill stuff with some reputable ab/glut/basic body work which I desperately need and I just want a list of exercises that I can do at home with relatively little equipment and start from beginner to more advanced. I have done circuit training at a gym but joining a gym / meeting an actual trainer is just not going to be in the cards for me right now. Do you remember what I am talking about at all? HELP!

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Of course I remember - I still use them all the time.

This is a good workout for legs:



And this is good for abs:



And it's always fun to throw in a push up challenge:



I keep them all on one of my Pinterest Boards: http://www.pinterest.com/brdgtc/gym-rat/

A good strategy is to start by doing the leg workout one time and the ab time one time, three times a week - then start to increase until you are doing each 5 times three times a week - I really saw results. If you do them at a brisk pace the final workout takes about an hour and you are really working up a sweat.

[delqc.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[moon-lemming.livejournal.com]

I totally stole these and used the leg one today -- although I had to halve most of the leg exercises, hahaha, repeat 5 times.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

I know right? To me the jumping jacks are the hardest part. You definitely build up endurance if you go slow though.

[notmarcie.livejournal.com]

Have you read delusions of gender by cordelia fine? It's very good and points out the flaws in much of the research that 'proves' things.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.

I'm trying to come up with criticisms for book club that take his argument at face value rather than debunk it - he has enough flaws on his own that I think one should reject the argument outright. Many in the group are going to come back with "but I see this in my kids!" kinds of arguments so I think just presenting counter evidence won't work.

[notmarcie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even suggesting that parents have their own gender bias doesn't work in those situations. Sounds frustrating to even try to tackle this, especially when you know the parent trump card will be whipped out!

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

I checked that book out of the library and will skim it before book club - it looks like she addresses Sax specifically.