Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Intellectual Honesty

I'm flattered that people are taking this up and running with it. I saw the story on Dust My Broom and decided to investigate. Special thanks to Toronto Tories, Halls of Macadamia, and anyone else I might have forgotten who has taken a look at this.

While I do moderate the comments on my blog, I try to publish everything - whether it agrees with me or not. I will not publish a comment if it contains profanity, is intentionally disrespectful of myself or other commentators, or I feel that it does not contribute meaningfully to the subject at hand. I believe in the exchange of ideas, not insults or ad-homenim attacks.

To that end, I have received comments on the last post, and in the spirit of open discourse, I am commenting in return.

To those of you who wrote in with the hat tips, I appreciate the kudos.

To those of you who ask why this information is relevant, I'll explain.

1. These are women who have a vested self interest in this but have been not been forthcoming about it.

2. They are claiming to speak for 'All Women', which is patently absurd.

3. They are using discredited statistics and selective information. This is intellectual dishonesty. For researchers and academics, I expect a certain degree of intellectual rigour and professionalism.

4. I don't feel that they and their motives should be exempt from scrutiny just because
a) They are Women
b) They are espousing a 'social justice' cause

I am heartily sick of the cult of victim-hood which the Women's rights movement has devolved into. Those women who actually blazed the trails for later generations didn't do it by setting up incestuous committees and working groups - they did it by hard work and by demonstrating their competencies by accomplishment. I honestly believe that the Famous 5 would be the first to tell these women to give their collective heads a shake, get their heads out of their self reinforcing gender-based analyses, and do something that really makes a difference.

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