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Post by Thingy on Aug 9, 2013 13:43:52 GMT
Should we care that smart women aren't having kids?Hmmm, speaking as a dumb, selfish loser who made the choice not to have children I'm offended, but not surprised, by Kanazawa's attitude. I know my views don't sit well with the majority, but, personally speaking, I never wanted kids simply because I had too many other things to do and because I simply couldn't see the point. Selfish? Dumb? I don't see how. We are vastly overpopulated as it is. What good would I have done by bringing yet another mouth to feed into the mix. I have no relatives left on my dad's side and I have 3 unmarried (male) cousins on my mum's side. Both families seem to have been in self-extinction mode over the last 100 years with members either not marrying or not having families. We must all be super-intelligent Seriously though, I've often wondered why that is, and if other families suddenly die out in similar fashion.
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Post by tangent on Aug 9, 2013 14:19:05 GMT
Not having children is a choice you have made and no one can say it is wrong.
I can see why you might be offended, not by the results of Kanazawa's research, but by his decision to conduct the research in the first place... and perhaps his desire to publish the results. He seems to want to conduct research into offensive subject areas that he knows will cause offence.
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Post by Mari on Aug 9, 2013 14:22:18 GMT
I think it's a silly article. I'm very smart and I would love to have 5 kids. In this society it's not possible for me though. Not on my own and whilst still having time between jobs to actually see these kids for more than 10 seconds a day. Adopting is something I wouldn't mind doing, but it is very expensive and difficult. At least I'm Christian and female, but I'm also single and not willing to live 2 years in Kenya before being allowed to adopt from there.
But that aside: if people don't want to have children, what's the problem? There are, as you say Thingy, lots of people on this world. It's not going to mean it's the end of the world if they don't have kids. *shrugs* Live and let live and don't judge by your own standards (Or uptight so-called Christian values)
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Post by tangent on Aug 9, 2013 14:33:20 GMT
There are a number of articles, presumably mostly alike. Which one in particular are you referring to?
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Post by JoeP on Aug 9, 2013 15:01:49 GMT
Based on a completely scientific analysis of a handful of friends and relatives that I thought of, there's no correlation. Except perhaps that some women only realise that they didn't want children that much after they find out what brats they can be The article doesn't say anything about income or poverty. It's well reported that average fertility falls as average wealth of a country increases. If they had corrected for this, would there still be any correlation left between intelligence and having kids?
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Post by Thingy on Aug 9, 2013 15:20:09 GMT
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Post by Miisa on Aug 9, 2013 15:23:21 GMT
It's not that smart people aren't having kids, it's that pregnancy kills brain cells, resulting in lower intelligence. At least that is my finding based on an exhaustive sample size of one.
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Post by Thingy on Aug 9, 2013 15:29:44 GMT
Being kicked in the head by a horse has killed a fair few of my brain cells. But I still don't want kids ... I'm not sure where that leaves the arguement
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Post by Kye on Aug 9, 2013 15:31:58 GMT
We're lucky that we have a choice. In other times, if you were a woman, it was either kids or celibate.
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Post by tangent on Aug 9, 2013 16:31:02 GMT
Oh the link doesn't show up as a link in my browser, not even when I hover over it. I thought the first sentence of your OP was your own statement. That's sad, I wonder how many more links I've missed.
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Post by Miisa on Aug 9, 2013 16:35:11 GMT
My links are a little hard to see with this skin but do turn into a link cursor thing upon hover at least.
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Post by tangent on Aug 9, 2013 16:42:55 GMT
There is a difference in the link colour on this skin but it is so slight, you can only see it if the text is very large.
Link Text
Link Text
I get a link cursor but I didn't notice it.
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Post by Mari on Aug 9, 2013 18:24:12 GMT
In this skin the link is a bit blueish which stands out against the black of the lettering and the pinkish background. I hate pink, but it's a legible skin.
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Post by Moose on Aug 9, 2013 20:48:46 GMT
AT nearly 38 I have no children and do not know if I will ever do so - I have pretty much accepted that it's unlikely because, even though physically still possible, my mental health problems suggest to me that it would not be fair to the child in question
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Post by Alvamiga on Aug 9, 2013 21:40:25 GMT
Celibacy it is then! Links are perfectly visible with my Pengreen skin!
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Post by tangent on Aug 9, 2013 22:44:17 GMT
I've switched from Pengreen because I don't particularly like it.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Aug 10, 2013 9:28:12 GMT
I can see the links, I have something green. Probably pengreen. I haven't even noticed actually where you can change skins.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Aug 10, 2013 9:36:09 GMT
I've just been glancing at the article, what a load of bullocks. First of all they are judging intelligence by IQ which is ridiculous. And there are plenty of people and babies on the planet so somebody choosing not to breed is not going to suddenly cause human extinction. What sort of phrasing is that "biological destiny". There are plenty of reasons for a woman not to have kids. I could see a link between more educated woman understanding the choices they have and that they are entitled to make them - therefore making a choice to have or not have children. As soon as education about sexual health, reproduction etc drops - pregnancies go up. And that's not about intelligence but about education.
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Post by Alvamiga on Aug 10, 2013 10:08:21 GMT
I have not had children because women always found me repulsive!
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Post by Moose on Aug 10, 2013 13:34:38 GMT
Well gee that makes me feel just great!
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Post by Thingy on Aug 10, 2013 13:50:32 GMT
Wow Jo, he's a sweet talker, that man of yours!!
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Post by Mari on Aug 10, 2013 17:02:54 GMT
I've just been glancing at the article, what a load of bullocks. First of all they are judging intelligence by IQ which is ridiculous. And there are plenty of people and babies on the planet so somebody choosing not to breed is not going to suddenly cause human extinction. What sort of phrasing is that "biological destiny". There are plenty of reasons for a woman not to have kids. I could see a link between more educated woman understanding the choices they have and that they are entitled to make them - therefore making a choice to have or not have children. As soon as education about sexual health, reproduction etc drops - pregnancies go up. And that's not about intelligence but about education. Well, Huckabee is one of the people quoted as reliable. That really tells you all you need to know.
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Post by Moose on Aug 10, 2013 17:05:14 GMT
It's true, however, that if you take people like Catholics out of the equation, the people with the highest number of kids tend to be from the lowest strata of society. I think that perhaps young girls without education or prospects simply don't know what else to do with their lives.
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bill
Senior members
Posts: 891
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Post by bill on Aug 10, 2013 18:33:35 GMT
I've just been glancing at the article, what a load of bullocks. First of all they are judging intelligence by IQ which is ridiculous. And there are plenty of people and babies on the planet so somebody choosing not to breed is not going to suddenly cause human extinction. What sort of phrasing is that "biological destiny". There are plenty of reasons for a woman not to have kids. I could see a link between more educated woman understanding the choices they have and that they are entitled to make them - therefore making a choice to have or not have children. As soon as education about sexual health, reproduction etc drops - pregnancies go up. And that's not about intelligence but about education. Well, Huckabee is one of the people quoted as reliable. That really tells you all you need to know. IQ means intelligence quotient therefore unless I'm missing something IQ must signify intelligence. I would however agree with you that intelligence does not always equate with sagacity.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Aug 10, 2013 18:41:56 GMT
But IQ tests are set up a certain way. If you are good at them you can score highly without necessarily being particularly intelligent. Then there is also your cultural frame of reference. I remember DG mentioning a guy had to do his IELTS test (English proficiency test for those who don't know) and there was a question about the Beatles (the band). He'd never heard of them, had no idea what they were talking about and thus found it very difficult to do well on that part of the test even though his English was perfectly sound. IQ tests have that sort of proble too.
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Post by Mari on Aug 10, 2013 19:14:25 GMT
Very true. Gardner posed a theory on multiple intelligence which we tend to work with in Education. There was a very interesting BBC documentary on it which had people 'battle' each other through several problems. One person had an incredibly high IQ, another was an artist, there was a chess player and more. Very interesting. Let me see if I can find it for you. Ah here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuaTP1ZRL40
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Post by raspberrybullets on Aug 10, 2013 20:36:05 GMT
That was quite interesting.
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Post by Mari on Aug 10, 2013 21:16:59 GMT
We watched it in Psychology class and I've referred teachers and fellow students to it from different studies more than once.
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Post by tangent on Aug 10, 2013 23:06:46 GMT
I have my own definition of intelligence: the ability to make connections. It will do for me.
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Post by Mari on Aug 11, 2013 8:42:39 GMT
Not for me. What kind of connections? How many connections should you be able to make in order to qualify as intelligent? I'm sure I could come up with more questions, but then I'd have to know what kind of connections you're talking about first.
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