not so progressive
This puzzle referenced in Blink stumped 9 out of the 10 people I offered it to last week:
A man and his son are in a serious car accident. The father is killed, and the son is rushed to the emergency room. Upon arrival, the attending doctor looks at the child and gasps, “This child is my son!” Who is the doctor?
posted by Goldie @ 7:31 PM
11 Comments:
hmm, I guess the doctor is his mom...Most people, even if they claim to be enlightened and un-chauvenistic, still think of doctors as men...
Intersting blog btw, a chabad crown heights girl studying mechanical engineering in cambridge...now thats an intersting mix.
MK
I don't think it's so much how enlightened individuals are (or think they are), but more how society at large influences the thoughts of individuals. For instance, how often are female doctors portrayed in children's books?
Yeah, every now and then, I find myself pretty shocked by my "interesting life." I'm not entirely sure how I arrived at this point, and I'm even less sure where I'm going, but hey, makes life all the more interesting.
Wow, I'm surprised--not so much at the chauvinism (though I suppose that too) but just that they'd never heard that story before. I've heard/read it, in various incarnations, billions of times since I was about 8.
But maybe being in the sort of environment where you don't hear that sort of puzzle is also the sort of environment that encourages chauvinism (or at least doesn't beat down chauvinistic thinkging).
I think I heard before myself, but a while ago, and I still didn't get it (but I only gave it like 2 seconds thought before reading the answer...). But regardless, the point the author of Blink was trying to make was that most people's first impulse is to think of doctors as male (never mind that the majority of people, even after giving the puzzle serious thought, still didn't figure out that the doctor could be female and the boy's mother...).
An interesting concept: historically women were often the healers, and only with the debut modern medicine have men taken over the field.
That is interesting. Seems like it would have happened with a few things: Women used to be the ones who cooked and then men got into it and became chefs and made it a power-trip thing with formal training...
Haha, no kidding. There are even men as top designers for women's clothing...Come to think of it, women you used to be the primary educators too. What next? Pregnant men?
The reason women were educators was because that was the only respectable job they were allowed to do. By all means, take it back.
Appreciate the offer. We're trying, but men like President Lawrence Summers tend to get in the way...
:-)
It would mean leaving the industry, and that, I think, would be just President Lawrence Summers would advocate.
"What next? Pregnant men?"
It's our right as men to have babies...(Life of Brian...)
Whilst it's true that the issue is how society influences the thoughts of individuals, the reason why society thinks that way is somewhat chauvenistic. Society itself reckons it is changing, but even so, certain things stick. When one mentions a mechanical engineer, one thinks of a man as well...
Yeah, it's an old riddle discussed in lot's of books about perseption etc. Saw it years ago...
MK
Well thinking of mechanical engineers as men is logical since there are in fact very few women in the field. However, the number of women entering the medical field has skyrocketed in recent years, which makes it slightly shocking that the puzzle still stumps people even after they've given it considerable contemplation...
"It's our right as men to have babies...(Life of Brian...)"
I'm confident that science will eventually find a way to allow for pregnant men...And by all means, I challenge the men to give it a try (although it's doubtful that they would replicate the pains of childbirth).
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