Clare gets snarky and rails against the machine (this started out as a comment on cookery)

[cfw]

 I have bought myself a cookery book & am going to try to cook some stuff today. I figure it really is a bit pathetic to leave all the cooking to Steve. It's not that I can't cook but I've always shied away from it. I don't generally like doing traditionally girl oriented stuff - partly because I grew up in a pretty sexist environment, but partly

Comments

[kissmeforlonger]

I was always genuinely awful at maths and sciences. Although some of that was definitely down to teaching (my grades improved massively when we got a really good Maths teacher) some of it is just that I am better at some things than others. I think that is fairly normal. By inclination as well as aptitude I'm an arts/languages person. However I've never thought that is down to something inherently feminine - that seems to me to be clearly rubbish.

[ext_59464]

I'm with you about the learned helplessness. The problem is when people use it as a badge of normalcy. The thinking goes something like 'i am bad at physics; physics is geeky; therefore, I am not a geek; therefore, I am socially competent.'

I am also totally with you on you cooking me dinner. ;)

[rhube]

Badge of normalcy - I think you're totally rigth on that one.

[cfw]

Yes. That's the thing about people saying things like "I was always really crap at sciences. You must be smart". It can often be a put down cleverly disguised as a compliment as they label you as a geek and decide never to talk to you again.

[rhube]

*applauds

[kissmeforlonger]

One of the things that made me a feminist is that feeling that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

It's also left me with a lingering feeling of guilt that the subjects I was genuinely good at are arts and humanities rather than sciences.

[rhube]

I know what you mean. I started to write a whole bunch of sentences, here, but I couldn't complete any of them. I think what I mean is pretty much: yeah, I feel that way too, sometimes.

[vin_petrol]

Something that really annoys me more than it should is when you meet someone and they say incredulously "Oh, I was always really rubbish at physics". I always have to fight a strong urge to say "Well, you must be thick then!".

I think it's fair to say that people can have different strengths and weaknesses in the way their mind processes information. I'm fine at maths and physics [and programming], but I've always found natural languages a real arse to learn. I suspect it's that my mind finds things like "irregular verbs" or "nominative/accusative/dative" inherently fscking bonkers, and has been rejecting them as completely silly for decades. Whereas the rigid logic and certainty of maths and code works fine for me. So I've never felt particularly thick due to my Grade 'X' CSE in German :-)

[hungry_pixel]

But swimming in shark-infested waters is more awesome than just about anythingI was taught Maths and Physics in a way that made me think I was just rubbish at them / thick. Only when I did Advanced Statistics at uni as part of my Psych undergrad course did I realise that I'd been taught in a way I found completely incomprehensible (which may also mean I'm thick *grin*). I did however get an A+ in my Advanced Stats course because the lecturer used real-world examples to illustrate the points he was making, which suddenly contextualised all the X's and Y's into something I could relate to and get a handle on, at which point it became easy

[hungry_pixel]

PS, I also love cooking, but not because of anything to do with male/female stuff...so in my eyes, I love it for the right reasons. I also enjoy jam-making and preserving fruit in booze - very traditional home-maker stuff I know, but I just like it. I balance it all by enjoying creature features, kicking Garry's ass on the X Box and roleplaying - all more traditionally "male" pursuits, but again, ones I do with no thought of male/female norms.

[cfw]

I thought you'd go for the shark-infested water :) I don't really mind doing the occasional bit of cooking if there are enthusiastic people ready to scoff it. I also like eating other people's cooking.

[ext_59464]

"I don't dislike cooking. Some of my best friends are pies." ;)