> It doesn’t surprise me at all that women have a hard time in technology or any of the STEM fields. I haven’t even given my own flesh-and-blood a fighting chance to succeed. I need to rethink everything: how my daughter plays, with whom she interacts, how I interact with women, and how I talk about women.

So he's a dimwitted turkey who never thought to buy his daughter various beginner STEM toys, take her to the Exploratorium, teach her how to hack, play video games with her, etc.

Now surely that's what all men and other parents not as "enlightened" as he are doing. So it's my fault, and society's fault, and not his own fault.

IE, another dude on the Hugo Schwyzer spectrum of feminist projecting their own idiocy onto all men so as to rationalize their personal failings.

(Congrats on your new refocus Amy!)

Honestly, I have mixed feeling about this. I didn't like to play with dolls or play house. When I did play with Barbie, I built a home for her out of books. I would have enjoyed engineering toys.

I was smart and athletic. I remember a friend telling to hold it back - way back. Boys didn't like girls that were too smart or too athletic - and I adored boys.

Is there room for all of us? I would hope so. I would hope for a world where everyone gets their toy preference. Perhaps there is something biological in the need for a man to feel smarter and stronger than his female mate. I guess that just means that I should have just focused on that 1% rather than trying to make myself more appealing to the masses.

I was tickled to learn, a few months ago, that you can buy a pink BB gun. (The very same Daisy "Red Ryder" model made famous in the movie "A Christmas Story", just pink instead of brown.) Perhaps in a few years he can buy his daughter one of those.

I've also seen a pink .22 caliber rifle on display in our local Canadian Tire store. I'm sure they're available down there. That'll challenge a few stereotypes. :-)

Seriously, I'll second what Jerry said: buy her some building toys. I still remember my first set of Lego blocks -- and that was a *long* time ago. Take her to the science museum.

"... that I've already forced on my daughter."

Notice how all SJWs and their worshipers do not allow individuality. Kinda reminds of the patriarchal control that exists in many places.

Jerry, thank you.

And Jen, my sisters and I had Barbies (to share...not sure how we got them because I can't imagine my mother buying them). However, I was never really into playing with dolls or playing house.

I have never really looked closely at the digit ratio studies to see whether they seem to hold up. These are the studies that suggest a connection between how the way your finger lengths compare (index to fourth) and prenatal testosterone exposure.

However, while having a body that reflects having high estrogen levels (hourglass figure, flat stomach), my digit ratio suggests high prenatal T. This seems aligned with my not wanting kids, way my career is of primary importance...to the degree where if Gregg wasn't so kind and wonderful about bringing me food and cooking for me, I would probably have survived while writing this book (and now) on a freezer full of frozen hot dogs.

I've also seen a pink .22 caliber rifle on display in our local Canadian Tire store. I'm sure they're available down there. That'll challenge a few stereotypes. :-)

Dude, there are pink Hello, Kitty firearms down here. I assume they're accessory kits to modify the standard firearm of choice, but still they're popular with the ladies who enjoy sporting arms.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pink+hello+kitty+AR-15&t=ffab&iax=1&ia=images

That search is for AR-15s, but there are some pistols, some Glocks and Sig-Sauer at the link.

Thug 1: how'd the home invasion go?
Thug 2: not so good. Bitch had a Hello, Kitty AR-15 and she shot me!
Thug 1: you got shot by a pink gun? hahahahahahahah
Thug 2: mumbling to himself never live this down

One assumes he'd be fine with a son playing with pink cooking gear and dolls, because, obviously, boys are naturally smart and don't have to be coddled into learning like girls do.

How do they not see how condescending and sexist they are??

Dude, there are pink Hello, Kitty firearms down here.

Thanks, that made my morning! I guess it shows how out of touch I am. :-)

So he's a dimwitted turkey who never thought to buy his daughter various beginner STEM toys, take her to the Exploratorium, teach her how to hack, play video games with her, etc.

This.

My friends who are becoming parents all seem to have a "parents provide, children choose" philosophy. Provide a variety of activities/toys and let the kid choose. This will change day to day. One day they'll pick the doll (even the boys do, especially if they have older sisters) and some days they'll pick the legos or the science kit.

My parents did this with us, even before it was trendy. I played Doom regularly and also with Barbies.

To riff on what Jen said, let's examine this:

"Where are the toys my brother and I played with that inspired us to hypothesize, experiment, create, improve, and destroy? "

Does he realize what he is saying? Whether he wants to admit it or not, he is saying that his daughter's mental processes and development, because they are more feminine, are inferior to his own. This is actually of a strain that you find a lot in feminism, going back to Second Wave: femininity is inherently inferior to masculinity. If you tell a feminist this, they will scream to high heaven. But look at the positions they advocate, and the reasoning they use, and try to tell me it's not true. Feminism spends a lot of time shaming the feminine. The canonical example is feminism's negative attitude towards women who choose to focus on raising children rather than pursuing a career, but there are lots of other examples. A more libertarian, less prescriptive feminism would allow for a woman to have a range of choices, from dedicated career woman to housewife. (While noting that this same range of choices is, realistically, not available to men... that's another issue.)

I've said before that the existence of outliers does not invalidate the concept of a mean, but conversely, the mean often does not do a very good job of predicting the behavior of one individual. My wife is similar in temperament to the way that Amy describes herself above (although she did have a child, well before I appeared on the scene). Some men may prefer a woman who is more girly-girl, and that's their preference. Me, I wouldn't trade my wife in for anything. She was the woman I wanted 22 years ago, and she still is today.

When my girls were little we didn't even have TV, yet they had to have dolls. One of the dolls was a simple soft doll that my daughter carried everywhere. When it got left behind at the grocery store I had to go back and search for it. It had nothing to do with me.
My nephew is obsessed with large predators like tigers and bears. His parents never said he should be. This "culture rules" stuff is so idiotic.
On the other hand, I took my girls to a class where they learned to build and program small robots. I constantly took them outdoors and told them about nature. They had fun but no life-long STEM urge overcame them.

Also, this girl is two, for the love of Pete. Give her some legos, or tinkertoys (or both) and see what happens.

When she's older more advanced concepts can be introduced, such as programming, or even "just" star gazing. And then she can exercise a little free will and curiosity and start making her own choices.

Got news for you Jen, aside from a small minority of boys we don't really care if a girl is better at something so long as she isn't an insufferable bitch about it.

Odds are your 'friend' wanted to reduce your apparent value to the boys to increase her apparent value in comparison

It doesn’t surprise me at all that women have a hard time in technology or any of the STEM fields.

All the time with the STEM and the wymyns.

Women are even more under-represented among mechanics of all kinds, electricians, plumbers ...

Not a peep about them.

(I know this is anecdotal evidence, but nearly every woman I've ever known would have been perfectly miserable in any STEM field.)

"Also, this girl is two, for the love of Pete. Give her some legos, or tinkertoys (or both) and see what happens."

No, no. It's too late. It's all over for her life. It's all downhill from here. We may as well abort. And her father too. ;)