You have probably read about the study published by the British Journal of Medicine (BJM) titled ?The Darwin Awards: sex differences in idiotic behaviour? which has been reduced by various press outlets to the rather crude moniker of ?Male Idiot Theory?.?In short, the study looked at all Darwin Award winners for the past 20 years, eliminated those who did not fit certain criteria, and then calculated the ratio of male to female recipients.
For those unfamiliar, a Darwin Award is the dubious distinction given to people who have removed themselves from the gene pool in a manner that exhibits a certain degree of ignorance, poor planning, or other ?idiotic? behavior.
The publishing of the BJM?study is not intended to be serious. The BJM issues a special edition every Christmas as a humor piece. However, the response to the 1550 odd words has been anything but funny and uplifting if your convictions include a desire for true equality.
The headlines run the gambit from the not quite as offensive Science Daily?s, ?Study supports the theory that men are idiots? to the blatantly offensive L.A. Times title ?Proved at last: Men really are idiots?. Ignore the obvious ignorance here that science never ?proves? anything. The underlying notion through all of this is sometimes inferred and other time blatantly stated – women are smarter than men. I can’t fault the writers of the study for this. Even though the intent of the writing is very tongue-in-cheek, they still go so far as to point out the flaws in their own study:
?However, this study has limitations. One of the weaknesses is the retrospective nature of the data collection. One alternative explanation for the marked sex difference in Darwin Award winners is that there is some kind of selection bias. Women may be more likely to nominate men for a Darwin Award, or there may be some selection bias within the Darwin Awards Committee. In addition, there may be some kind of reporting bias. Idiotic male candidates may be more newsworthy than idiotic female Darwin Award candidates.?
Given the now tried and true tropes of Bumbling Dad, Women Are Wiser, and Parenting The Husband, it can be easy to see where some of the selection bias originates.
Beyond the obvious flaws, there is the additional factor of amount of exposure to risk taken by each gender. The study makes no effort to separate occupational fatalities from those occurring off the job. According to several more serious sources, like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men account for 92-93 percent of all occupational fatalities with a death rate of 11 to 1 when compared with women. I wonder how close the numbers get when adjustments are made for this disparity.
Another issue with the study is evident in a direct example given by the authors:
??the office workers watching a construction worker demolishing a car park in the adjacent lot must have wondered about the man’s intelligence. After two days of office speculation?how does he plan to remove the final support to crash the car park down safely??they discovered, on the third day, that he didn’t have a plan. The concrete platform collapsed, crushing him to death and flattening his mini-excavator.?
Forget for a moment that not a single one of those office workers tried to prevent this tragedy. The example given here breaks one of the rules for inclusion in the study, namely, ?The candidate must be the cause of his or her own demise.?
The following was shared on the Darwin Awards website about this tragic accident,
“The operator would not have known the danger he was in; he was just following the orders of the foremen. The next thing, he was under a pile of rubble.”
While the individual driving the excavator may have performed the physical actions, his demise was truly the result of poor planning by the individual who was supervising him.
I can hear some of you telling me to lighten up, it was a joke and not to be taken seriously. No. Stereotypes like this are no joking matter. They may be started as nothing but having a little fun, but the original intent can be lost quickly. Just ask blondes, attractive gals, large breasted women, female drivers, ?blue hairs? ? yeah, come on ladies, we know about this all too well.
There is no reason to also idly sit by while the same?is done to our husbands, fathers of our children, or sons.
Let us know your thoughts at the?Liberal America?Facebook page. Sign up for our?free daily newsletter?to receive more great stories like this one.
Elizabeth Preston is a thirty-something wife and mother of three living in Florida. She is a fierce liberal with a passion?for equality and justice. She is a skeptic by nature and often the Facebook friend that rains on the urban legend parade with fact checking. Give her?Facebook page?a?like, follow her on?Twitter?and check out her personal blog,?My Four Ha? Pennies.
