A 17-year-old girl forced the Edexcel exam board to change its syllabus to include women composers. Good for her, you might think. But is it good for A-level students?

2015-11-19T02:29:13+00:00

I suppose the stock explanation for any such difference is that women were not encouraged, or were not appreciated, or were discouraged from being creative. That’s certainly what the Imaginary Feminist will tell us. As usual, when one rejects the idea that men have ability than women, one is left with the explanation that men must have oppressed women.

But I don’t think this stock explanation fits the facts very well. In the 19th century in America, middle-class girls and women played piano far more than men. Yet all that piano playing failed to result in much creative output. There were no great women composers, no new directions in style of music or how to play, or anything like that. All those female pianists entertained their families and their dinner guests but did not seem motivated to create anything new.

Meanwhile, around the same time in history, black men in America created blues and then jazz, both of which changed the way the world experiences music. By any measure, those black men, mostly just emerging from slavery, were far more disadvantaged than the middle-class white women. Even getting their hands on a musical instrument must have been considerably harder. And remember, I’m saying that the creative abilities are probably about equal. But somehow the men were driven to create something new, more than the women.

Roy Baumeister - Is There Anything Good About Men?

JohnKimble111 · 2015-11-19T01:58:20+00:00

Posting this today as the BBC have honoured the destructive young feminist who's forced everyone to study sub-par music with a place on on their 100 most inspiring women list or whatever they call it: https://archive.is/7MAyM

Title	A 17-year-old girl forced the Edexcel exam board to change its syllabus to include women composers. Good for her, you might think. But is it good for A-level students?
Author	JohnKimble111
Upvotes	10
Comments	2
Date	November 19, 2015 1:56 AM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/3tdjqx/a_17yearold_girl_forced_the_edexcel_exam_board_to/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/a-17-year-old-girl-forced-the-edexcel-exam-board.966891 https://theredarchive.com/post/966891

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