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It took me a minute to get the riddle (if you haven't tried, go read it now), but I don't believe that means I am biased. My first thought was that the "surgeon

It took me a minute to get the riddle (if you haven't tried, go read it now), but I don't believe that means I am biased. My first thought was that the "surgeon" was the son's father, and the "father" was just someone who had children. In a literal sense, that could be a valid answer, but the focus of the riddle is whether I considered the surgeon to be the son's mother. Does the fact that I consider a surgeon to be male when there is no gender specified mean that I am biased? Of course not! I would not bat an eye to learn that there are female surgeons. That is not where the ambiguity comes from. My assumption that a character is male derives from both the fact that I am male, and the fact that the majority of English writing, and indeed, English grammar assume male gender. When I read "To Kill a Mockingbird", I assumed the main character to be a boy until several pages in, where, to my surprise, the gender was specified to be a girl. Of course it was easier to read a first-person story from the standpoint of my own gender. Did I have a problem that the main character was female? No. That did not matter to me. Did I wish that gender was specified as soon as the character was introduced? Yes. That would have made the writing much easier to comprehend. TL;DR The fact that gender bias exists in language does not mean it exists in the mind of the reader. EDIT: To those that are downvoting, would you care to explain your complaint? Just because I disagree with OP's argument does not mean I am not open to discussion.

lgas 10y ago
I didn't downvote but two possible reasons would be: - IIRC the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird was Atticus Finch, who is male. - You make a lot of assertions ("Does [that] mean that I am biased? Of course not!") but don't actually provide any evidence of that, and in fact your post seems to contain some counter evidence. For example, asserting that you would "not bat an eye to learn that there are female surgeons" suggests that you currently believe there are no female surgeons so hearing otherwise would be news to you, which of course would be hugely biased.
- thomastjeffery 10y ago
  > IIRC the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird was Atticus Finch, who is male. The story is told from the perspective of his daughter Jean Louise Finch, who ambiguously introduced herself by her nickname "scout". > would "not bat an eye to learn that there are female surgeons" I can see where I miswrote "learned". I meant that in the context of reading a story, as in reading that in some particular context (like this riddle) that a surgeon is female. > hearing otherwise would be news to you, which of course would be hugely biased. Of course that is not the case. I am well aware that there are totally competent female surgeons. That is what I mean by saying "I would not bat an eye". The context in which I would be surprised is the context of this riddle: Since I am male, and since English grammar has historically assumed a male descriptor, my first assumption in this riddle is that the surgeon is male. My point is that that assertion does not stem from the word surgeon, and the historically significant gender gap with surgeons. The assertion that the surgeon is male stems from the ambiguity of "surgeon". The riddle does not state, or even directly call into question the gender of the surgeon. In order to answer the riddle, the gender must be assumed to be either male or female. The answer to the riddle is the most likely conclusion, but because of the grammar used, it is not my first conclusion. My first conclusion (that "father" meant someone with children other than the "son"), was in fact not incorrect, but was indeed less likely.
dvtv75 10y ago
I didn't downvote, but I wanted to add this: Many years ago, I was staying with my then-girlfriend and her parents. Her mother, deciding to prove to me that I was sexist and prejudiced because I'm a male, started by talking about a TV show (Scrapheap Challenge) where teams built machinery out of pre-selected scrap. The show starred a male comedian as one presenter, and a female as the other. To underscore that I was sexist, she told me that one of the presenters was a qualified engineer - and took my surprise to mean that I assumed it was Robert Llewellyn, smugly announcing that it was the woman. What she mistook was my surprise that either of the presenters was a qualified engineer. I expected the engineers to be off-camera, advising the teams. Ultimately, I would have been far more surprised to learn that Robert Llewellyn, an accomplished comedian as well as a television actor, is an engineer than any given woman. It seems to me that those who present evidence of gender bias can be quite selective in the constructs used to demonstrate this bias.
thescribe 10y ago
The son was driving with a catholic priest hence "Father"?

lgas 10y ago

I didn't downvote but two possible reasons would be: - IIRC the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird was Atticus Finch, who is male. - You make a lot of assertions ("Does [that] mean that I am biased? Of course not!") but don't actually provide any evidence of that, and in fact your post seems to contain some counter evidence. For example, asserting that you would "not bat an eye to learn that there are female surgeons" suggests that you currently believe there are no female surgeons so hearing otherwise would be news to you, which of course would be hugely biased.

thomastjeffery 10y ago
> IIRC the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird was Atticus Finch, who is male. The story is told from the perspective of his daughter Jean Louise Finch, who ambiguously introduced herself by her nickname "scout". > would "not bat an eye to learn that there are female surgeons" I can see where I miswrote "learned". I meant that in the context of reading a story, as in reading that in some particular context (like this riddle) that a surgeon is female. > hearing otherwise would be news to you, which of course would be hugely biased. Of course that is not the case. I am well aware that there are totally competent female surgeons. That is what I mean by saying "I would not bat an eye". The context in which I would be surprised is the context of this riddle: Since I am male, and since English grammar has historically assumed a male descriptor, my first assumption in this riddle is that the surgeon is male. My point is that that assertion does not stem from the word surgeon, and the historically significant gender gap with surgeons. The assertion that the surgeon is male stems from the ambiguity of "surgeon". The riddle does not state, or even directly call into question the gender of the surgeon. In order to answer the riddle, the gender must be assumed to be either male or female. The answer to the riddle is the most likely conclusion, but because of the grammar used, it is not my first conclusion. My first conclusion (that "father" meant someone with children other than the "son"), was in fact not incorrect, but was indeed less likely.

dvtv75 10y ago

I didn't downvote, but I wanted to add this: Many years ago, I was staying with my then-girlfriend and her parents. Her mother, deciding to prove to me that I was sexist and prejudiced because I'm a male, started by talking about a TV show (Scrapheap Challenge) where teams built machinery out of pre-selected scrap. The show starred a male comedian as one presenter, and a female as the other. To underscore that I was sexist, she told me that one of the presenters was a qualified engineer - and took my surprise to mean that I assumed it was Robert Llewellyn, smugly announcing that it was the woman. What she mistook was my surprise that either of the presenters was a qualified engineer. I expected the engineers to be off-camera, advising the teams. Ultimately, I would have been far more surprised to learn that Robert Llewellyn, an accomplished comedian as well as a television actor, is an engineer than any given woman. It seems to me that those who present evidence of gender bias can be quite selective in the constructs used to demonstrate this bias.

thescribe 10y ago

The son was driving with a catholic priest hence "Father"?