Transgendered Professor Stirs Debate Over Women in Science

Anonymous [2006-07-15 05:45 PM]

By simply appending a piece of meat to her body, Dr. Barres, became a man?

Lucky for her, she had the brains for it. You go girl!

Search Engines WEB [2006-07-15 06:25 PM]

"Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but his work is much better than his sister?s work.?

If that is an accurate quote, it may NOT have been based on BIAS, but, just accessing the differences between what was perceived as two people. Pehaps, the "GREAT SEMINAR" observation was based on presentation style.

It would seen odd that someone would say
"Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, BUT his work is much better than his sister?s...would'nt the opposite appear likely.

Of course, there is rampant discrimination in his field....However, a reading of his official BIO would indicate that even BEFORE 1997 when he began living as a Man, he had already accumulated very impressive amounts of professional achievements living as a woman...

ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/FtM/BenBarress.html

.

Anonymous [2006-07-15 06:32 PM]

As a woman, Barbara Barres earned an S.B. from MIT, M.D. from Dartmouth, Ph.D. from Harvard, and tenure at Stanford in four years (plus numerous awards). After all that, she was transgendered to a male.

Besides suffering a bruised ego from a few nasty remarks, how exactly was Prof. Barres hurt by gender prejudice? It certainly didn't ruin her academic career.

adamsj [2006-07-17 07:57 AM]

Anonymous asks:

Besides suffering a bruised ego from a few nasty remarks, how exactly was Prof. Barres hurt by gender prejudice? It certainly didn't ruin her academic career.

That's a bit like reviewing Henry Clay's career--a long and honorable one, full of notable public service--and then asking how he was hurt by the conditions that caused him to fail of election to the Presidency.

Anonymous [2006-07-17 08:43 AM]

To address Search Engines WEB's post:


If that is an accurate quote, it may NOT have been based on BIAS, but, just accessing the differences between what was perceived as two people.



Right, but they _were_ the same person, doing the same work. So if he perceived Ben Barres as being better then Barbara Berres then that's pretty damning evidence of bias. Now it is possible, of course, that Ben Barres has simply done better work since transitioning to male, but that seems like a rather odd stretch to make-- people's quality of work doesn't usually radically change over time.



Pehaps, the "GREAT SEMINAR" observation was based on presentation style.



This is relevant how?



It would seen odd that someone would say
"Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, BUT his work is much better than his sister?s...would'nt the opposite appear likely.



It's not odd at all, you just have the stress wrong. The correct stress is: "Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but his work IS much better then his sister's"

Anonymous [2006-07-19 07:53 AM]

"hurt by gender prejudice? It certainly didn't ruin her academic career."

You meant of course... It certainly didn't ruin HIS academic career. I'm sure your decision making is totally non-biased.

David [2006-07-21 07:39 AM]

What makes me angry about this entire thing is that people that should understand science seem to be totally abusing science.
It might be that men are better at math and science than women.
What everybody needs to get through there skulls is even if men on average are better than women at science and math that doesn't mean that a woman can not be great at science and math.
People are individuals. What we find out about groups of people may not apply to an individual.
Every individual should have the same opportunity to find out what they are good at.
If your little girl is good at science then you should encourage them. If your son is good at cooking or sewing you should encourage that.
Women and men are different. Maybe it is hardwired maybe it is environmental. There is nothing wrong with that idea.
It only becomes a problem when we let knowledge prevent the individual from being an individual.